LESSONS WE'VE LEARNT IN ETHICAL FASHION

This week we had the honour of sharing the love story and lessons of Monsoon Blooms with Collective Hub, an Australian print magazine with a vision to vision to uplift and empower people to live their lives to the fullest....

FOUR LESSONS I’VE LEARNT SINCE STARTING MY ETHICAL FASHION LABEL
The co-founder of Monsoon Blooms bares all.

Being pregnant is a complex labyrinth of decision making and maturing. What pram will I buy? What parenting techniques will I adapt? What position will I push in?

In December of 2015 I found out I was pregnant whilst lying in a hospital bed in India, thinking I was suffering an acute bout of alcohol poisoning. Propelled into a series of heartbreaking visa enquiries with my Indian husband, I soon realised we wouldn’t have the luxury of oohing and ahhing over baby room décor; our 9-months would be spent battling the all-consuming questions of, “Where should we live?” and “How can we live where we want to live?”

Determined to keep this tiny human connected to both his Australian and Indian heritage no matter where bureaucracy threw us, we found ourselves in the forests of Kerala watching vats of medicinal plants colouring piles of Fairtrade organic cotton – an ancient Ayurvedic technique known as Ayurvastra.

About six months after our son was born, we brought Monsoon Blooms into the world – both welcomings taking longer than expected, and both knotting me into uncensored disarray. Ask me how to raise a baby and I’ll throw my hands in the air: every decision still feels fraught with uncertainty. But on the ethics of the fashion game and the complexities of doing business in a foreign country, I’m beginning to speak with increasing certainty.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON COLLECTIVE HUB