One Thread Fair Trade | Mayura Kona

July 2009

An Interview with Mayura Kona,
Designer & Founder of One Thread Fair Trade

AOD:
What was the spark that ignited One Thread Fair Trade?

MAYURA KONA:
The plight of battered and disadvantaged women is an issue that has deeply concerned me since adolescence. During my visits to India over the course of my childhood, I have witnessed the horrors that women in my native country face, from being beaten by their husbands to being sold off as sex workers. I saw many women who worked in my relatives’ houses, women I knew personally, go through experiences such as these. To read about these stories in the paper is one thing. To see it happen to women you care about is a staggering, painful experience that changes you forever.

Three years ago, I was inspired to take action against this reality when I met Sandhya. She ran an non-profit, Vijay Foundation Trust (VFT), and an orphanage in my mother’s hometown, a small town called Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, India. Upon finding a severely beaten woman left for the dead in a field near her home, Sandhya began to take in destitute women and training them in textile arts. I saw the immense potential in combining my design skills with the women’s tailoring skills to both improve their lives and create a successful business. I had been working as an Art Director at a major apparel licensing company and although I loved my job, I did not feel fulfilled. I simply didn’t feel that I was using my education, privilege, and design skills to do something good for humanity, to improve the world in which we all live in. It was from my encounter with Sandhya that the idea was born. I have spent the last two years developing the fair trade unit in Kadapa and now, the organization has finally reached the launch stage.

Pieces from the Rama Collection in Royal, Silver and Chile

AOD:
How does One Thread recruit their artisans?

MAYURA KONA:
Currently, we are working specifically with the women in the Kadapa District in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. This was chosen as our flagship community simply because of the extreme atrocities these women face in their daily lives. According to the World Bank, rural women in Andhra Pradesh live in a state of extreme destitution, with 6.2 million women living below $1.25/day. Moreover, it is estimated that 70% of married rural women in A.P. are victims of battery, rape, or coerced sex. These statistics are simply jarring and unacceptable. Beyond domestic violence and extreme poverty, young rural women in India (estimated 20 million) are being forced to enter the flesh trade, which in many cases leads to the contraction of AIDS and early deaths. For all of the above reasons and more, we have chosen this community to empower. In the future, we would like to extend our reach to communities who are need all over the world. We focus on females as they are the center of the family unit and therefore, have the most influence over the next generation. If the mother is empowered, her children also tend to adopt the same level of self-confidence and will. Tending to the next generation is one of the most important parts of breaking through poverty.

Pieces from the Rama Collection in Silver, Jungle, Gold, and Royal

AOD:
Describe the process of producing the hand-crafted accents, from design to finished article?

MAYURA KONA:
Every one of my designs starts with paper and a black ink pen. There is an intangible quality that you achieve when you begin the design process with your own hand drawings, without any use of technology. I find that initial stage of creation imperative to achieve authentic design. Once my drawings are completed, I scan them into my computer and vectorize them for screenprinting. This process is quite time intensive as every line and detail is traced out by hand. While I’m designing, I also have to decide on the color scheme for the collection. This has to be done early as we work in only hand loom silks, that are hand-dyed and hand-woven. Therefore, our silks have to be ordered far in advance in order to be ready in time for collection. We choose to work only with hand loom silk as they are far better for the environment and support villages of weavers. Handloom fabrics produce ZERO carbon emissions versus power loom fabrics that contribute large amounts of emissions into our environment. One job on a power loom sucks up as much energy as 20 vacuum cleaners running all day. Also, hand loom weaving supports up to 9 times more families as all of the work is done by hand. In India, there are hundreds of villages that survive on the art of hand loom weaving alone and many of these villages are facing dire poverty as the demand for hand loom fabrics has dropped significantly in the shadow of the quicker, cheaper power loom option. We are trying to support these hand loom weaving villages and their dying art, as well as have a better effect on our environment.

I usually travel to India after the initial design process. While I’m there, I make sure that all of our raw materials are ordered and shipped to our textile workshop in Kadapa. Kadapa does not have many materials of its own, therefore everything has to be sent from neighboring cities, even the embroidery needles. The Rama collection cushions are created using a technique called shadow-work. In essence, it is the opposite process of appliqué. We lay down two layers of silk and cut shapes out of the top layer, in order to reveal the layer underneath. The edges are then embroidered in order to fasten the fabrics together. Our artisans are highly skilled tailors and have become quite adept at the shadow-work process. Needless to say, there are many elements that go into producing one single cushion and they are truly a reflection of the spirit of the women we work with.

Our hand-singed artisan label

AOD:
How do you remunerate your artisans?

MAYURA KONA:
At One Thread Fair Trade, we believe in transparency. For every community we work with, we start at the grass roots level to determine the appropriate fair wage rate for the specific community. The first stage in the process is to determine the artisans’ true cost of living. The cost of living covers all living expenses for the artisan and her children, including but not limited to: Food, Education Fees, Loan Repayment, Rent, Health Care, Electricity, Transportation, Water, and Spending Allowance.

Once the living wage is determined, our fair wage is placed at 10% above the living wage. This extra 10% gives our artisans the extra income they need to contribute to their own long-term savings. Creating a savings account allows the artisans to truly stop living from day to day and break out of the cycle of poverty.

The skill level of the artisan is also an important factor that must be taken into account when distributing wages. In our Kadapa unit, we have three different skills levels with different wage rates:

Skill Level Wage Rate

Semi-skilled Fair Wage
Skilled 5% above Fair Wage
Highly-skilled 10% above Fair Wage

Separate from the wage, One Thread Fair Trade also covers all raw material costs, unit maintenance, and rent fees during production time. Every year, we examine any changes in artisans’ cost of living and update the fair wage rate accordingly.
Additionally, we contribute 10% of the company’s profits back to the artisan community to fund the education of the artisans’ children and to fund business/leadership workshops. Also, our textile workshop is a safe and healthy working area which is actually guarded by watchmen, in order to ensure the safety of the women inside. We are constantly looking for more ways to help our artisans and truly improve their lives.

Portraits of a few of the inspiring women we work with

AOD:
How can designers support One Thread and purchase these fantastic accents?

MAYURA KONA:
Designers can support One Thread by visiting our website! Our products can be directly purchased right off of our website. All of our products come with wonderful labels that contain the name of one of the artisans that crafted the product, a statement of what she believes in, and an artisan number that you can use to find her profile/story on our website. We truly strive to create a real connection between our conscious customers here and the artisans themselves.

Mayura with the artisans

AOD:
What plans do you have for expanding One Thread?

MAYURA KONA:
We will be coming out with our second cushion collection for the upcoming winter season. We are also looking into expanding our product line, perhaps to more home décor items and maybe even evening clutches. We would also like to start work with more artisan communities and are discussing these options with groups in Africa and Mexico.