I had the pleasure of meeting the owner of Choolips, Annegret Affolderbach last month at the Africa Fashion Guide book and website launch. She was one of my favourite panelists and I felt that Choolips was a great example and inspiration towards a change in the way we consume fashion, and the ethical considerations that should go behind many brands.

Some background:

CHOOLIPS’ Designer Annegret Affolderbach is a fashion entrepreneur with wide-reaching vision. Growing up in East Germany, Annegret moved to London in the mid 90’s. Annegret’s passion for textiles brought to mind the idea to revamp ancient techniques such as Batik. The aim was to create on trend textiles to be made into what women desire: dresses. These were to be produced by a local skilled workforce, following Fairtrade principles, in the home country of those techniques.

Here is a preview into their Spring/Summer 2012 collection. I adore it.

“Our new line ‘Planet India’ is made entirely by hands. Handspun on a spinning wheel & handwoven khadi fabrics are embellished with handstitched applique details. Khadi is more than an exquisitely soft material. Khadi has enormous sustainable credentials. It ONLY consumes 3ltrs of water for 1metre of cloth in its entire production compared to mill cloth which consumes 55ltrs for 1metre. Besides this it was Ghandi’s cloth who promoted its production for rural self-employment and self-reliance. The range is produced in Ahmedabad/India bywww.rajka.com“