Bobelle - Gorgeous, fair trade, ethical gifts

I wanted to share with everyone the web address of an online boutique that sells fairly traded and sustainable gifts, accessories and babywear, http://www.bobelle.co.uk/. The lady who's set up the business came to talk to my Fair Trade student campaign group last week, and told us about how it IS possible to be in business and be sustainable at the same time. The best thing available on the website is the eel skin purses.

You'd think eel skin would be UNethical - what about the poor eels, don't they need their skin, etc, etc, but these purses are made from eel skin that has been discarded by the food industry in South Korea, and is three times tougher than leather, whilst being incredibly smooth. So instead of the eels being farmed for their skin, as is sometimes the case with cows in the leather industry, the purses are making use of a natural resource that would otherwise go to waste. The purses come in a range of gorgeous colours and are, of course, manufactured under fair trade conditions, with the producers given a living wage. The producers are not currently fair trade certified (i.e. given a "mark" like this:)

But given that it costs money to get fair trade certification, and that not all cooperatives can afford the assessment process, I'm not going to let this stop me buying one. The student loan (or lack of it, rather) will, unfortunately.