Green all the Way
BY MICAH CHUA
Enterprise Hub alumni Faye Maramara has been busy lately with a number of projects and shows including Fair@Square, the Raffle’s Graduation Show and running workshops for the TCF (Textiles Clothing and Footwear) Association, but all of these can be identified with one particular agenda: going green, and It’s an objective that Faye diligently aims to achieve for her fashion design business Paro Paro.
Having been invited to speak at the ‘Ask an Expert’ forum for the TCF Association last November, Faye was fortunate for the opportunity to absorb some wisdom from fellow business owner Susan Langdon from Toronto Fashion Incubator (TFI) Canada.
‘She said that to go green, you can’t go halfway, you have to take it all the way. So I’m looking into everything about Paro Paro, trying to turn the whole thing green and not be half-hearted about it’, Faye told Vibewire. To her, going green all the way should spread to every facet of her fashion business from her organic design materials through to awareness of gas emissions and air freighting issues. ‘Everything factors into going green, not just your products, but also how you run your company’ said Faye.
An environmental and social conscience also brings Paro Paro other opportunities to be involved in events such as Fair@Square which happened on the 11th and 12th last December. Fair@Square is an annual event that turns Federation Square in Melbourne into a fair trade festival that openly displays and encourages ethical trade across a number of industries including food, coffee, homewares and of course, fashion.
Paro Paro accessories made two appearances at Fair@Square both on a catwalk on the main stage as part of a professional fashion show as well as before a live, public fashion shoot, which isn’t something you would typically see on the streets of Melbourne.
‘It was exciting that the public could actually see a live photo shoot happen before their eyes’ Faye told Vibewire, ‘but it was completely professional and fun’.
‘It just goes to show’, she continued, ‘that ethical and fair trade clothing is not only good for the environment, but is also very fashionable and very cool.’
