My two friends and I recently founded RISE (a fashion business that strives to empower marginalized, ethnic minority women by infusing their beautiful craft traditions with contemporary style). Read more about our adventure in my first blog post.
Trying to start RISE has been quite the wild ride. Currently, we are trying to get our first group of sample products made so that we can decide which products we want to reproduce and sell. Throughout this process, we’ve hit a million walls… communication problems, color or design mistakes, even finding young Karen weavers (it’s a dying art form), etc.. We want to make fabrics that blend the Karen traditional style with colors that will appeal to western women. This mission has been difficult this far, especially with language difficulties. My Thai is getting better these days, but the Karen weavers often times only speak their indigenous language. Despite all of the issues, the women artisans have taught us so much about the design process and we’re beginning to figure out how to best communicate our interests to them. It’s been a crazy learning curve.
RISE’s process to design and collaborate with Karen artisans to create the perfect textiles.
After a lot of effort and thought, we’ve finally nailed down a (hopefully!) fail-proof system for making our product line. As part of this system, we decided to start working with only one remote village instead of many different villages. This is partly for ease and consistency, but also because we want to provide jobs to women who lack access to other ways to make money for their families. We chose a village called Mor Wah Kee because it’s a village that Daughter’s Rising has worked with previously. (Daughters Rising has donated over $14,700 to Mor Wah Kee School!! More about Daughters Rising’s project at the Mor Wah Kee School here.)
So Alexa (co-founder of RISE and manager of Daughters Rising) reached out to our English speaking connection in the Mor Wah Kee village and told her about RISE. Her name is Tu An and she’s a total badass. She is Khmer, born in the south of Thailand. She’s university educated and speaks fluent Khmer, Lao, Thai AND English. And now she’s married to a Karen man and has become a facilitator and a driving force in her community. She’s always been really constructive, honest and friendly. Best part is that we can trust her and she’s reliable. Luckily, Tu An invited us up the following day to meet with weavers because it was a new moon, and Karen people don’t work in the rice fields when the moon is new.
Tu An in the center surrounded by myself, Hannah and two other lovely volunteers from the Chai Lai Orchid, Fran and Lydia
So yesterday Hannah and I hopped in the back of a seemingly ancient pick-up along with two other friends and set out to Mor Wah Kee to meet with some artisans. The village is normally about a two-hour drive up winding, steep mountain roads, but this time the ride took about 3 hours due to the fact that the pick-up truck couldn’t make it up any of the steep, muddy stretches of the road without the engine going out and us starting to roll backwards. It was hilarious/ totally dangerous. Next time, I’ll be going in a truck with 4-wheel drive.
When we finally arrived, there was a huge group of Karen women waiting for us at Tuan’s house. We previously thought that only a couple of women would show up to the meet us but actually around 20 weavers came! Tu An had previously told the women about RISE and that RISE was going to do something special with Karen fabric. After some quick food, we sat down and had a big meeting where Hannah and I introduced ourselves and told the weavers what we wanted to do while Tu An translated. The best part was showing them some RISE sample products that we already had manufactured. The women freaked when they saw their traditional weaving incorporated into high-end purses with leather. They loved it.
Karen women checking out RISE’s first sample products.
Next, we showed the women how to read and understand our supply kits, which contain diagrams of the patterns and colors we want so that the women could match them exactly. They were totally into it! They listened carefully when Tu An translated, asked questions, and wanted us to show how our templates worked again and again. In the end, I wish that I brought more supply kits.
There were so many women that wanted work but we weren’t prepared with enough kits. In a couple of days, we’ll go back to the village to check on the work to make sure it’s correct and drop off some more kits. We tried to make these kits beyond easy to follow. We’ll see what happens! I’m anxious already….
After tying up a couple other loose ends, we left feeling thrilled. It was awesome to see that the women wanted to get involved and that they liked what RISE is doing. I’m finding that the small things wear you down but sometimes it’s the small things that lift you up and make all the difference. Seeing the women’s faces light up when they held our products made my week. The women were so lovely and friendly. Great next step in the RISE adventure that makes us feel like our goals are not so far-fetched. Getting excited for what the future will bring!
With love from the mountains of Thailand,
Allie
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Today is #NationalHumanTraffickingAwarenessDay. There are nearly 30 million people enslaved worldwide- approximately 80% of that number involves sexual exploitation and 19% involves labor trafficking. Human trafficking is the second largest criminal enterprise in the world. The average age of a young woman being trafficked is 12-14 years old. Help end this terrible injustice by spreading awareness and praying for those with no voice. 🙏#stopslavery #dosomething #slavesnomore #forthosewhocantspeak #notforsale #enditmovement #daughtersrising #nfs #thetoteproject
