Creator of the Month: Fashion & Compassion
One block off busy East Boulevard in Dilworth, there is a quiet green and white house that is home to hundreds of women from all over the world as well as some pretty special Charlotteans.
To understand that sentence, you have to know the whole story and that is why our December Creator of the Month is not a person but this place Fashion & Compassion (F&C).
It was founded over a decade ago by Michele Dudley who went on a mission trip to Rwanda and came back forever changed. She was so profoundly moved to help the women she met in this country decimated by a civil war, Michele created necklaces from the crosses and beads she had bought on her trip, sold it to her friends and sent the funds back to those Rwandan women. It sparked an idea—women could help women—friends could shop and sell the goods made by local and international artisans. Michele’s vision became a highly successful nonprofit based in Charlotte serving local women as well as families in seven countries in Africa and Central America. After ten years, it was both an exhilarating and exhausting venture. Eighteen months ago, Michele, the visionary founder, stepped down and new Executive Director, Beth Bell stepped in with both excitement and trepidation.
While she had lots of experience in both jewelry design and as National Charity Director at BeautyKind, Beth knew “change management” can be difficult. Recently, Beth had led the Harvest Center through a leadership change, and she had experienced the turmoil that can rumble through staff and board as a result. There were both small and large changes to begin leading Fashion & Compassion into a new season. First, there was an update to the logo and branding. Then, a design makeover of that little green and white house in Dilworth. Walk in today, and you will be greeted by a boldly patterned boutique full of the necklaces, earrings, and bracelets that Fashion & Compassion is well-known for. Newer introductions are the home goods, bowls, leather purses, and a full display of products from Multiple Blessings by Caroline Simas. And now, prominently displayed in the main room, vibrantly colored wrap-around skirts with matching face masks, a new fashion collection in partnership with Peachy the Magazine.
Skirts with matching face masks? Beth laughs when she tells me the story, “I had no idea this was coming. It was a God thing.”
Beth is a member at Myers Park Presbyterian Church which helps sponsor a vocational school in Uganda called the Bududa Learning Center. Court Young, MPPC Director of Outreach and friend Virginia LaFar, convinced Beth to go on a mission trip in February hoping to foster some type of collaboration between F&C and Bududa. Beyond selling fashionable products, the core mission of F&C has always been to empower women. Fashion & Compassion not only supports women in countries like Ethiopia and Ecuador, they train and support local women overcoming abuse, addiction, incarceration, intergenerational poverty, ethnic persecution, and sex-trafficking. Over 120 women a year will learn with F&C and while their stories differ, the women share similar life stories which have brought trauma. Whether born in Burma or Beatties Ford Road, the women served around the table at F&C come together to understand and heal.
In February when Beth left for Uganda on her trip with MPPC, the world looked very different. The global pandemic had not yet begun, and no one imagined that everyone would soon need to wear a face mask. Beth wasn’t even sure why she was in Uganda or how this could tie into the F&C mission which currently focused on beads and bags. Beth recounts some wild stories of crowded and crazy transportation to visit fabric shops sourcing for cloth F&C bags. Somewhere in the crowed markets, a new idea began to form—skirts. Beth had brought on the trip a wraparound skirt she had purchased the year before in Uganda. Not sure where the idea might lead, Beth showed her skirt to the Bubuda team, “Can you make these?”
A flurry of innovation followed and Beth returned to Charlotte excited about this new fashion collaboration. And then, Covid-19 shut the world. “If I had taken that trip even a week later, we would not even have gotten home,” Beth said.
Everything changed in Charlotte and abroad. The artisans could not gather as they had. The boutique could not receive customers. The commerce flowing with all their goods from seven countries stopped. “It was bad,” Beth admitted. “We had no idea what we were going to do. I just kept telling myself—God’s got this.”
That’s about the time Beth received a phone call from an F&C supporter, Laura Burt. “Beth, have you thought about making face masks? Everyone is going to need a face mask.”
The first time Laura suggested the idea, Beth didn’t listen. “I was so focused on what how to keep our Artisans and organization solvent, I could not begin to imagine a new product.”
A week later, Laura called again. “Beth, I found a pattern for face masks.”
This time, Beth listened. She brought in two of F&C’s local lead artisans, Mary and Kidist. “Do you think you could sew face masks?”
Originally from Burma, Mary loves to sew and was excited to begin. Kidist was born in Ethiopia and had trained with the F&C jewelry program and always wanted to be in fashion. The two immediately began taking the face mask pattern and making it their own with colorful fabrics.
In May and June, face masks became 60% of Fashion & Compassion sales and the sewing was just getting started. Beth and her team sourced Dutch waxed cotton prints inspired by African Kitenge fabrics, which are now being made into skirts with coordinating face masks and even hair scrunchies.
Beth called Blair Farris at Peachy the Magazine and asked about collaborating to let women know about their new fashion line. Sales at in home Dignity Parties took off and now, you can shop curated outfits—skirts paired with earrings, necklaces, cuffs, purses and of course, face masks.
You can shop for all of this online or you can come in person to that little green and white house in Dilworth. It is home to the amazing all-woman F&C team who makes all of this happen. It is home to over 120 women each year escaping sex trafficking, incarceration, poverty, and addiction learning to rebuild their lives. It is home to over 400 artisan families in countries all over the world. And above all, it is home to so much innovation, dignity, and love.