Fair Trade Finds: Boutiques at The Pit Building

Clockwise: AsiaAmour, Bisous La and Baliza Shop

Boutiques Singapore is a biannual shopping event geared towards the expatriate community. For its 2014 spring edition, it featured over 100 independent vendors that sell original designs as well as artisanal goods made from all over the world. Most importantly for me, it is probably one of the few boutique fairs in Singapore that feature a wide-range of fairly traded goods from apparels to home decor. Fair trade vendors present at the fair include: AsiaAmour that sells classic, tropical resort wear fairly made by Cambodian seamstresses; Bisous La that sells accessories and home decor items made by craftsmen across South East Asia; and Baliza Shop that sells Bali and Ibiza inspired resort wear.

Colourful tassels made by the children at Ladli. Photo courtesy of Baliza Shop.

Gema Santander, a spunky, petite Spanish lady runs Baliza Shop and she enthusiastically told me that all the products are made in Ladli, a vocational training program for street children in Jaipur, India. Children as young as ten assemble the tassels whereas older kids are tasked with the sewing. Without Ladli, many of these kids are left to fend for themselves and have to resort to begging, child slavery or prostitution. Ladli is run by i-india, an NGO that provides education, artisan training, nutrition, healthcare, counselling and accommodation for these street children. Baliza currently reinvests all its profits to develop and promote its production at Ladli.

I bought a kaftan from Baliza Shop for my upcoming Mediterranean trip (my sad wardrobe is mostly filled with work clothes) and I have to say I am very impressed by both the quality and unique design patterns, made through traditional techniques of hand dyeing and printing. The last time I bought a kaftan was over a year ago through the Victoria's Secret website and was very disappointed with the quality. It was flimsy and crumpled easily, only supermodels like Miranda Kerr can carry it off.

To buy from any of the above mentioned retailers, you can subscribe to their facebook pages to receive the latest news on their upcoming events. If you're lucky, you can also set up appointments to visit their showroom.