Last month, NYC Fair Trade Coalition presented Fair Trade Fashion’s Night Out Preview Show at Arcadia NYC featuring fair trade brands for September’s Fashion Week in NYC. The idea came from Of Rags managing partner, James Branson Skinner. “We want to show New York City and the world that fair trade is fashionable,” he said. Of Rags will be in Accra, Ghana to prepare for Fashion Week and will hopefully put together some footage to highlight the connection between fair trade products and the artisan community.

The preview show received a tremendous amount of positive feedback. Ethicalistic mentioned the size of the event: “You know an event was a complete success when the biggest problem was that there were TOO many people that showed up.” Good & Fair Clothing wrote in their blog, “The Fair Trade and Sustainable Fashion show and expo at Arcadia was a hit! To have fair trade and sustainable fashion land on that big stage would be a tangible step forward for an industry looking to change the world.” The Green wrote, “It was a great event that united fair trade companies with consumers.” Lotus Jayne noticed that fair trade will now be associated with trendy fashion: “The future of fair trade is looking better and better as products become more in tune with contemporary fashion and less, um...shall we say, crunchy granola?”

This is just a glimpse of some of the brands that were at Fair Trade Fashion Night’s Out Preview Show. The list of brands to be showcased at the September fashion show is still growing.

Ahkun