Luella Bartley for EJF: organic cotton charity t-shirt

Luella Bartley has backed the Environmental Justice Foundation’s (EJF) Pick Your Cotton Carefully campaign, designing a t-shirt to raise awareness of the use of forced child labour and the ecological devastation associated with cotton production.

"Cotton is something that we all take for granted, something that we all probably wear everyday without knowing the environmental damage and impact on poverty it has. I feel that we should all make an effort to be more conscious of where our cotton comes from".

Also in the project are Betty Jackson and Christian Lacroix. The t-shirts are produced on organic and fairly traded cotton and printed with organic certified inks.

All money raised by EJF from the sale of the t-shirts goes to support the charity’s valuable work. The t-shirts are available in ladies fitted from £30 from www.ejfoundation.org/shop (worldwide delivery).

Around the world, whether it is state enforced, or child trafficking, millions of children face severe exploitation in the cotton industry. In Uzbekistan, the world’s 3rd largest exporter of cotton, roughly a third of the population are forced to work in conditions near slavery for the state run cotton industry. Many are children. Schools across the country are shut down for the cotton harvest as children from the age of 7 are sent to work for weeks in the fields, paid little or nothing, but benefiting their repressive government through this forced labour.

Juliette Williams Programme Director, EJF, says “Even in tough economic times, our buying power can be a force for good. Choosing organic and fairly traded cotton actively supports communities in some of the world’s poorest nations, where fair and equitable trade to the west can literally mean the difference between life and death. With public support, companies have been inspired to look at the way the cotton they buy and sell is produced, and high street names are saying ‘no’ to cotton from Uzbekistan until child labour and environmental abuses are eradicated. Together we can change our world”.

Julia Dunstall and Irina Lazareanu in Luella Bartley organic cotton charity t-shirt
Photos by Eric Guillemain

Georgia Frost and Heidi Mount in Luella Bartley organic cotton charity t-shirt
Photos by Eric Guillemain