25% discount at Eternal Creation!!
Eternal Creation is offering a 25% discount on full price items to Ethical Junction readers!! Enter EJ25 at checkout, valid till June 30th, www.eternalcreation.com
Eternal Creation’s gorgeous range of babies¹, childrens¹ and womens¹ wear is lovingly crafted and ethically produced in Dharamsala, in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas.
Conceived in 1999 by Australian designer Frances Carrington, Eternal Creation is committed to improving the working conditions and prospects for Tibetan refugees and local Indians.
Eternal Creation runs its own design and production workshop, employing over 75 people spanning Tibetan, Nepalese and Indian cultures, and mixing Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim faiths.
Rather than outsource to meet growing demand, they have recently increased the capacity of their workshop, providing more jobs for the local communityand ensuring high quality standards and ethical principles are maintained. All fabric off-cuts are given to a local womens co-operative, who re-cycle them into rag rugs which are sold locally.
After graduating from the East Sydney institute of fashion design in 1994,
designer Frances Carrington registered with Australian Volunteers Abroad,
hoping to use her skills in a community in Africa. Instead she was sent to
India. She was put in charge of the fledgling tailoring department of the
Norbulingka Institute in Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan
Government in exile. Her job was to teach newly arrived Tibetan refugees the
finer points of tailoring and design. She oversaw the growth of the
department from 2 to 15 fulltime staff by the end of her stay.
Falling in love with Indian and Tibetan culture, not to mention the
fantastic landscape of the Himalayas, she determined that at the end of her
tenure she¹d find a way to use her skills to continue to benefit the local
community in some way.
In 1999, armed with a $5000 loan from her father she started Eternal
Creation, with the aim of producing quality womens¹ sleepwear and
accessories. The early days were difficult. Frances started with a handful
of tailors, some of whom were ex-political-prisoners who had suffered
torture and privation at the hands of the Chinese authorities in Tibet.
Together they battled fierce monsoons, water shortages and frequent
blackouts, often simultaneously! One of the biggest challenges was training
people who had previously led a pastoral or nomadic existence, to understand
the concept of delivery deadlines and international quality standards.
With the birth of her 2 children, Frances found herself naturally
gravitating towards designing children¹s clothes, and sales of her initial
childrens¹ collection quickly proved that there was a market for her
classical look, love of colour and immaculate tailoring.
As the sales of Eternal products grew in Australia, the company was faced
with a difficult decision – outsource or expand? Outsourcing would bring
with it the ethical dilemma faced by many designers: how do you know your
designs are being made under fair labour conditions and not subcontracted to
other factories that may not meet these standards?
Frances felt that outsourcing production would ultimately end up betraying
the original reasons she started the company. So she decided to increase the
capacity of the workshop, which would provide more jobs for the local
Tibetan and Indian community as well as ensuring that Eternal Creation¹s
trademark high quality standards were maintained.
In 2005, Eternal Creation opened the Himalaya Tailoring Centre in
Dharamsala. To ensure high morale and staff loyalty, tailors are paid a good
living wage, including sick leave, holiday pay and other benefits. To assist
working mothers, Frances established a free children¹s¹ crèche, as well as
providing maternity leave and maternity bonus for men and women.
Today the Himalaya Tailoring Centre is one of the largest private employers
in the area. Eternal Creation products are sold in over 200 stores in
Australia, Europe and Asia, as well as online.
To find out more, visit www.eternalcreation.com
Rory Cubby
Eternal Creation
www.eternalcreation.com
