If you're looking for a different way to shop this holiday season, two Fort Worth businesses offer a chance to shop local while having a global impact. They’re also helping Cowtown make its mark on the fashion world, with a purpose.
The first company is Tribe Alive, a jewelry and handbag business. Theirs is a story of imagination that started with a little girl.
"My husband and I adopted our daughter, Ellie, from Ethiopia," said Founder and CEO, Carly Burson. "I was really shocked to witness birth parents visiting their children in an orphanage and really struck by the idea that most of these people wanted their children but couldn't afford to keep them."
Burson was already working in fashion and saw a chance to use her powers for good.
"To give women a voice and give them an opportunity to care for their families," Burson said.
That's how Tribe Alive was born. The jewelry and bags are designed in Fort Worth, but they're made by local artisans in India, Haiti, Guatemala and Honduras.
"In Honduras, for example, the average wage is two dollars a day and their cost of living is in line with the cost of living in the US," said Burson.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Tribe Alive employees earn a fair wage, benefits, bonuses, extra help with things like medical bills, and respect.
"A lot of the women we work with have never been told that they're worth anything and they've never been given the opportunity to prove that they are," Burson said.
Burson has watched that change, through each woman's story.
She described one interaction with one of her artisans: “She said do you remember the last time I saw you and I told you I was going to buy a computer with the wages from that job, and I said, 'I do.' She goes, 'Well now, I’m going to buy a house.' So she worked for six months and she bought her and her daughter - she's a single mom - a house, and now they’re living in their own home. She had never owned a house before."
The business is now expanding, launching a clothing line using traditional foot-loom weaving in Guatemala, and beginning next year, they’re planning to donate ten percent of the company’s proceeds to the non-profit groups that help place their employees overseas.
They’re also starting a new collection made by refugees who’ve been resettled in Fort Worth.
“We’re really passionate about our city and we’re really passionate about Fort Worth and we want to be involved in really impacting lives right here," Burson said.
That idea of walking in someone else's shoes forms the bedrock of another up and coming Fort Worth company, Rebel With Cause.
"I've always been a rebel with a cause, someone who goes against the grain and against the status quo and challenges it for a purpose," said Rebel With Cause Founder and CEO Ivet Taneva.
Taneva brought that focus to her business that employs women in her native Bulgaria, making leather boots the same way her grandmother did 50 years ago.
"Probably from her perspective, it's a dream come true," Taneva said.
She and her business partner, Serene Fletcher, traveled Bulgaria sourcing sustainable materials and local leather, and breaking gender norms with every meeting.
"Most business deals there are still done by men and initiated by men, and with men involved and it was just the two of us showing up in this little car with a road map!" Fletcher said.
The growing business now partners with several Fort Worth philanthropies, donating 20 percent of its profits at ongoing charity events.
"Giving back and being involved and part of that community is really important to me and it's a dream come true," Taneva said.
Dreams that weave through women's lives and stitch bonds across continents.
