Not exactly a clothing or trend related topic, but definitely something that should be “in fashion”!

One Sponsor Helping One Child: The Beginning of a Lifelong Friendship.

Children International’s mission is to help children living in dire poverty. Through the generosity of contributors, they provide needy children with a variety of programs and services to meet their basic needs, enhance their self-esteem and raise their physical and educational levels in a meaningful, lasting way.
Since 1936, Children International has been providing assistance to children and families struggling in terrible poverty.

Today, through the Children International® Sponsorship Program, they help children in 11 countries – Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mexico, the Philippines, the United States and Zambia.

With your support, they can continue to help poor children grow up healthy and educated.

www.children.org

Serendipity’s design is based uniquely on natural materials in certified organic cotton and
production, which cares for the body, our environment and people. Clothes for both body and soul.

Because we wear our clothes all day everyday and they are in such close contact with our body, Serendipity believes that it is so important that those clothing fibres are natural and organic, they are even cautious that the manufacturing process is as natural as possible, that is why tehy are GOTS and Fair Trade SA8000 certified for the entire production process.

This collection is filled with windy skirts and dresses, shirts and shorts in deliciously light woven fabrics decorated with tulips, blooming cherry flowers, tree trunks, stripes and squares.
Crisp pastel colours in milky green, lilac, rose and very soft grey is powered by single contrast colours. India dress for girls and skater knickers and light shirts for boys gives the entire collection a scent of bohemian trendy romance.

“We’ve been working on this all year”, Soleil Moon Frye tells PEOPLE Moms & Babies. “It’s a dream come true”.

In stores since July 4, The Little Seed for Target collection features everything from cozy hooded towels and blankets to comfy onesies, pants, caps and more, in a variety of vibrant colors for babies sizes 0 to 12 months.

“You can go in and really get a piece to suit your lifestyle,” Paige Goldberg Tolmach says. Adds Frye, “It’s all about layering. Parents can buy three pairs of pants and three onesies, and create so many outfits. It’s hip and fun.”

Another bonus? Each piece is 100 percent organic and comes in sparse (but pretty) eco-friendly packaging, which not only minimizes waste but gives consumers the chance to touch what they’re about to buy. “It was important to us to let moms feel it,” Tolmach says.

More importantly, the line is kid-approved. “I put everything on my girls first, because they’re certainly the models,” Frye says of daughters Poet, 4½, and Jagger, 2.

“I ask them what their favorite colors are, what feels comfy. If Poet loves it, I know kids across the country will love it.”

The Little Seed for Target collection will be available on target.com and in select Target stores from July 4 through Oct. 14.

Source: — Kate Hogan. www.people.com

Founded in July of 2005 by social entrepreneur Mary Fanaro, OmniPeace is a humanitarian fashion brand that donates 25% of net profits to charities supporting peace, education, human rights and ending extreme poverty in Africa by 2025. By using branded apparel and other consumer products as a vehicle to share its powerful message, OmniPeace has been able to gain supporters ranging from Hollywood celebrities to leaders in the global movement to bring change to Africa. To date the company has raised close to half a million dollars for charities that support their mission, and built two schools in Africa with two more on the way through their partnership with Ed Hardy.

Fanaro conceived the idea of OmniPeace while watching Live 8, a string of benefit concerts created to highlight the urgent need to address global poverty and relieve African debt. Inspired, Fanaro decided to create a company to address vital humanitarian needs through the distribution and sale of branded consumer products that would allow her to quickly and simultaneously raise money for, and awareness about, the continent and its people – two things the region desperately needs.

A visit to impoverished parts of Africa moved Fanaro to find a way to not only take action that would make a long term difference, but also to align with an organization that shared the same goals as her vision. While reading the Los Angeles Times, she came across an article about economist and global anti-poverty crusader Dr. Jeffrey Sachs whose formula for making African villages self-sustainable was proving to be ground breaking. Soon thereafter, she contacted his organization, Millennium Promise, a non-profit seeking to end extreme poverty by 2025. Mary met with Sachs and with his support and blessing, OmniPeace was born.

OmniPeace is available for children through kidswear label Joah Love.

Joah Love chose to work with OmniPeace primarily because of their core mission. Secondly, Joah Love’s founders were inspired by the fact that they must get to work directly with the OmniPeace’s Founder, Mary Fanaro, who not only has a great passion for her work but ensures the consumer’s donations go directly towards accomplishing tangible results.

Kingston Rossdale in his OmniPeace boots

Supermodel / actress and World Health Organisation’s Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Liya Kebede discovered that traditional weavers in her native country of Ethiopia were losing their jobs due to a decline in local demand for their goods and wanted to do something about it. Recognizing the beauty, quality and historic significance of their work, Liya started Lemlem in 2007 as a way to inspire economic independence in her native country and to preserve the art of weaving

Today, Lemlem, which means to flourish or bloom in Amharic, is thriving.

Bamboo Dress

Mudd Kids’ philosophy is to offer groovy clothing that is not made from cotton full of pesticides and insecticides and is fair trade. They have researched and found the finest quality sustainable wardrobe for all the MiniHipsters!

Organic Cotton

Bamboo Pants

Cotton Top

Retro Cotton Jumpsuit

This is a fabulous brand and one of our favourites on MiniHipster. The designs are always simple and thats what makes them so cool. This brand was set up to help Jake, who has cerebral palsy, with a % of profits to provide for his future and to assist with other children who have cerebral palsy. The kids range is made up of tee shirts and are really only for the fellas (sorry girls) and although we couldn’t find any images on their website, the kids hoodies are soft, warm and are equally as cool.

We are in love with the beautiful strong colours that is the theme in this Spring Summer range from this quite amazing company.

The girls dresses pair beautifully with the cardigans (and its not always easy to find a ‘cool’ cardigan) and the tee shirts are just so much fun! But its the philosophy driving this company that makes it even more special……

Barley & Birch opened their doors for business in January 2009 and from day one they have remained focused on maintaining the highest environmental and social standards in the industry. Every single facet of this line is carbon neutral. They offset their emissions created by production and shipping, work with manufacturers and suppliers that are largely powered by solar energy and chose only certified organic cotton and water-based inks, (so the air and water is not polluted with chemicals.)

Essentially, they go beyond the level of convenience to be fair to the planet.

A minimum of 15% of their profits go to several carbon-reducing initiatives in order to fully offset the carbon emissions that result from the production of their garments. And at least another 15% goes to organizations that improve people’s lives around the world, funding everything from educating rural farmers on sustainable agriculture to providing shelter to victims of abuse.

barly & birch

The crew at speesees believe in playing fair and being nice. Their cotton is 100% skal-certified organic, which means no pesticides or chemical fertilizers have been used in its cultivation. speesees fabrics are treated with low-impact and herbal dyes, prints are made with pigments and pvc-free plastisols, and they skip the dioxin + formaldehyde altogether.

Meanwhile, in a small village in india…surrounded by an organic garden, their factory’s limestone walls create an open, airy ambiance, and chai breaks twice a day make work days pretty sweet. The factory is certified  SA8000, a social accountability standard for decent working conditions (including workplace safety, renumeration, fair working hours, no discrimination, child labor, etc). the money earned by their factory supports not only its workers, but also is extended to help the community.

For every dollar that you spend at speesees, it is used for a variety of purposes within the indian village where they manufacture: from buying school supplies and a water pump for the zari pada school, to building a playground at the local orphanage.