Oxfam Veraluna

At Oxfam Inter­món’s Vera­lu­na, they beli­eve in a wor­ld whe­re all people can enjoy the­ir rig­h­ts and have oppor­tu­ni­ti­es.

They work with dif­fe­rent pro­du­cer gro­ups that remu­ne­ra­te the­ir arti­sans with dig­nity, so that they can cover the­ir basic needs (edu­ca­ti­on, housing, food and heal­th). The arti­sans work in an envi­ron­ment that ensu­res safe wor­king con­di­ti­ons.

The­se are some of the­ir main pro­du­cers with whom they work every day to redu­ce soci­al and eco­no­mic inequalities: 

• Raj­lak­sh­mi: A com­pany in Kol­ka­ta that has two fac­to­ri­es pro­du­cing orga­nic cot­ton and fair tra­de texti­le gar­ments. In addi­ti­on, one of Raj­lak­sh­mi’s sha­re­hol­ders and sup­pli­er is the Chet­na Orga­nic Far­mer Asso­ci­ati­on, an orga­ni­sa­ti­on who­se missi­on is to impro­ve the quality of life of small cot­ton farmers.

• EMA: A pro­duc­ti­on unit in Baru­ipur (near Kol­ka­ta), whe­re abo­ut 450 arti­sans learn a tra­de. They deal with all the dif­fe­rent pro­ce­sses of leat­her production. 

• CRC: A cer­ti­fi­ed fair tra­de orga­ni­sa­ti­on, ser­vi­ce pro­vi­der, which gene­ra­tes inco­me for the most vul­ne­ra­ble arti­san popu­la­ti­on, ensu­ring sus­ta­ina­ble deve­lop­ment and impro­ve­ment of the­ir quality of life.

• Bulus Çorap: A family busi­ness in Istan­bul (Tur­key). Focu­sed on cus­to­mer sati­sfac­ti­on with a strong com­po­nent of pro­duct quality, envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­ti­on and care for workers.

Most of the gar­ments are made with orga­nic cot­ton from the Indi­an coope­ra­ti­ve The Raj­lak­sh­mi Cot­ton Mil­ls. This cot­ton comes from the Chet­na Orga­nic Asso­ci­ati­on, whe­re more than 7000 far­mers grow cot­ton sus­ta­ina­bly, free of che­mi­cals and pes­ti­ci­des.

They also have GOTS (Glo­bal Orga­nic Texti­le Stan­dard) cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on, which cer­ti­fi­es all sta­ges of har­ves­ting, pro­duc­ti­on and dis­tri­bu­ti­on, guaran­te­eing that no dyes or hazar­do­us che­mi­cals have been used.

Want to know more abo­ut the advan­ta­ges of orga­nic cot­ton? Find out more in this arti­cle.

Vera­lu­na tri­es to make its cre­ati­ons as sus­ta­ina­ble as possi­ble by using 100% natu­ral raw mate­ri­als, a good prac­ti­ce to redu­ce the envi­ron­men­tal impact of fashi­on pro­duc­ti­on, as the­se mate­ri­als are biode­gra­da­ble and can be recy­cled more easily.

In addi­ti­on, they use paper pac­ka­ging or 100% recy­cla­ble pac­ka­ging. A posi­ti­ve prac­ti­ce, as it redu­ces the amo­unt of was­te gene­ra­ted and con­tri­bu­tes to a more sus­ta­ina­ble cycle.

All Oxfam Inter­món’s Vera­lu­na gar­ments are desig­ned in Spa­in. Then, each season, they send new desig­ns to the­ir pro­du­cers in India and Tur­key, who make all the­ir dif­fe­rent pro­duc­ts.

The­se orders, when they are fini­shed, are tran­s­por­ted to Spa­in by ship, which takes lon­ger, but means that the C02 emit­ted per piece is much lower.

Vera­lu­na is awa­re that the leat­her acce­sso­ri­es indus­try is a hig­hly pol­lu­ting indus­try.

For this reason, they offer leat­her wal­lets and pur­ses made by an orga­ni­sa­ti­on of arti­sans who are very vigi­lant abo­ut the quality of the­ir pro­duc­ts and make res­pon­si­ble use of all the raw mate­ri­als they use so that pro­duc­ti­on is as envi­ron­men­tal­ly fri­end­ly as possi­ble.

They con­trol all the dyes used and only use raw mate­ri­als that come from ani­mals that have died of natu­ral causes and are not sla­ug­h­te­red to make the­se unique pieces.

Vera­lu­na is com­mit­ted to the quality of the gar­ments, the natu­ral­ness of the fabrics, and the cre­ati­on of time­less styles that enco­ura­ge con­su­mers to make con­s­ci­ous, quality pur­c­ha­ses.

All col­lec­ti­ons are desig­ned and manu­fac­tu­red thro­ugh a care­ful pro­cess to offer gar­ments of the hig­hest quality and com­fort, to ensu­re gre­ater durability.

Tran­s­pa­ren­cy is a very impor­tant aspect of the sus­ta­ina­ble and ethi­cal fashi­on indus­try, and Vera­lu­na is com­mit­ted to it.

They have the tra­ce­abi­lity of the­ir pro­duc­ts well done, and dis­play the names and infor­ma­ti­on of the fair tra­de pro­du­cer gro­ups they work with.

This allows us to know the ori­gin and route of the pro­duc­ts and to be able to make infor­med cho­ices abo­ut what we buy!