I Know Who Made It
SKIRT FROM KNOWN SUPPLY | EARRINGS FROM GIFT OF HOPE HAITI
Her name is Luz Calero.
Her name is Ketia Francois.
These are the women whose skilled hands created my clothing and accessories. The women whose lives have been impacted by their job to produce beautiful things. The women who have impacted me, and fulfilled my desire to wear beautiful things. These are the women I prayed for as I got dressed this morning. The women I am now connected with because we have empowered each other. Our stories and our hands will forever be united.
My passion for people to be treated with justice and dignity extends deeply into my love for fashion and roots in Jesus. After spending the last 10 years living and serving in Haiti, I have come to know the profound impact that opportunity for work and a living wage can offer to a family in poverty. It can allow children orphaned by poverty to be called sons and daughters again. It can preserve a family that was on the verge of separating because rent or food was too expensive to live together as an independent family unit. I also see the reverse effect that the fast fashion industry has on factory level employment here. I see the riots, that often result in a death or two, when workers demand their pay be raised to the equivalent of about $6.00 per DAY. I see the women who have been demanded sexual favors by their superiors to keep their factory job making clothing for well known brands. I see the men who have the expense of traveling to work, eating lunch, and traveling home again, leaving nothing left but pennies to feed their families on each night. If you are buying into cheap prices and fast fashion, it is likely, these are the people who make your clothing.
In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus says, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." After moving to Haiti I struggled with this verse. The people I have come to do life with are definitely not the “least” of anything. They are valuable and loved, cherished and gifted. I wrestled in my spirit with this term until I grasped that “least” did not mean they are less in value, but that they are more vulnerable and at greater risk – perhaps of poverty, or abuse, or illness. We are all created equal in the eyes of the Father, but we are not all born into equal circumstances or given equal opportunities. Jesus’ heart and ministry was to protect the vulnerable, to be concerned for the needs of the poor, to offer love and attention to the outcast. And as his followers we are called to do the same.
We can both wear beautiful things, and empower the beautiful people who make them. And if I am truly chasing my Creator, even my fashion will reflect His love and justice.
His Kingdom come, His Will be done.
On earth as it is in Heaven.
