Gossip Teen

Celebrity driven fashion collections come and go but Emma Watson is trying to make a lasting difference by lending her name to her collaboration line produced by People Tree. The Harry Potter actress is committed to spreading the word about how fashion is made and how we can have a positive impact on people’s lives when choosing our clothing purchases. Emma recently visited Swallows – the Fair-Trade garment community that People Tree works with in Bangladesh and was amazed by what she saw. Watson said:

“I cannot imagine how I would have the mental ability and strength to go into the garment factory slums everyday and have my children living six hundred miles away. We interviewed a woman in the slum in Dhaka. She was very candid about the fact that there just wasn’t any hope for her. There is no hope for anyone living in those conditions and being paid that kind of wage. Coming to Swallows, I see there is an alternative. The living conditions are modest but it’s clean and there is a real sense of community, there families are together and they seem to love and be proud of what they are doing – many things that we in the West take for granted. Swallows is special and I need to believe for my own piece of mind that there will be more places like this in the developing countries in the world.”

The fashion industry has long used terrible working conditions as a means to produce cheap fashion for us in the West. People Tree is working to make a difference and I applaud Watson for choosing so carefully in partnering with People Tree.

Read more of her trip to Bangladesh and see new photos of Emma’s clothing line here.

[image: People Tree]

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