Friday, June 25, 2010

IndieShop In The News

Wall Street Journal article June 17, 2010 

The Wall Street Journal noticed the splash that IndieShop has made in the indie fashion world. Their Thursday, June 17th article entitled, Crafts, Clothes and Clout discusses the growing popularity and influence of the smaller, independent designers.  “What Sundance did for indie film – showcasing it for a bigger audience…Web sites are doing for the little guys of design. And starting this week, you can turn on your television and tune into IndieShop, which aims to take independent designs into living rooms all across America.”  Technology, the Internet, and the Big Fashion labels themselves are to blame for the handcrafted, hand-made, “Indie” trend. Selling the same products the world over, the Big Boys just don’t have the same cache as the independents artisans. “These days, the ‘buy local’ movement has whetted shoppers’ appetite for a greater sense of connection with their goods’ creators.” Although using TV to drive hipsters to the web is untested, CEO of IndieShop’s parent company Marc Krigsman quotes, “We fully believe that television is the major driver of traffic to (IndieShop.com).”  IndieShop brainchild Melissa Perrucci quit her job, and while travelling the world realized there was an under-served consumer…”who’d rather have their money go to a person, a face, rather than a big company.” For the full article, go to .


Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Artisan Emporia


A few years ago, while finishing my graduate degree by participating in a collaboration between design students, development experts and Mayan women in Guatemala, I set out with a few partners to create a new kind of Fair Trade business. We wanted to create a manufacturing, distribution and marketing platform emphasizing collaboration between fashion, fair labor standards, designers, artisans, and consumers. After years of research, buying, marketing and work on product development, we launched our company Artisan Emporia in 2009.

Artisan Emporia provides a marketplace for artisans to showcase their crafts. Emporia, being the Latin plural of emporium, denotes our desire to bring the crafts, designs and ideas of many markets to one place.

Our mission is to bring unique and beautiful products from artisans all over the world to North America, as well as build sustainable trading relationships based on mutual respect, cultural curiosity and shared aspirations. We work with innovative artists and cooperatives from many different countries to bring you one of-a-kind creations that are exquisitely designed and handcrafted. We work closely with our artisans to ensure that the products are of the highest quality using environmentally sustainable practices.

We employ the standards of Fair Trade as articulated by the Fair Trade Federation to ensure that the artisans we work with receive an honest and fair price for their products while sustainably preserving their cultural traditions. Artisan Emporia also seeks to provide a market place for designers and skilled craftspeople to collaborate on new and innovative ideas. Utilizing our network of global cooperatives we seek to create lasting partnerships between our artisans and designers seeking sustainable business development for their craft. Artisan Emporia also strives to provide maximum transparency between our artisans, and you, the purchaser. To this end, we proudly document our work and travel across the world to share with you, in the hope that together, we can make a lasting difference in the lives of artisans through our purchases and cultural understanding.