Photography by Carmen Troesser
Christina Weaver is concerned with an oft-overlooked but important aspect of fashion: the path each garment takes from factory to consumer. A decade ago, she founded Route to sell fair trade products in Columbia, Missouri. Two years ago, Weaver, who now lives in St. Louis and helped start the STL Women’s Pop Up Shop, shifted to an online business model that curates ethically made clothing and accessories sourced from places such as Ethiopia and Nepal, as well as St. Louis.
How do you choose the products? Our partner groups are people we have long-term relationships with. We understand their story. We have proof of what they’re doing, where they’re doing it, and the impact they’re having in their communities. We believe the process of commerce and good employment is what permanently helps families and communities out of poverty.
What path do your products take? We work with one company, Tonlé, which has a zero-waste model. They creatively cut their patterns and use upcycled fabrics and all-natural dyes. We know it goes from Cambodia to Tonlé’s distribution center in San Francisco and directly to us.
Why is it so important to you? One of the problems with the fashion industry is this race to the bottom with pricing, meaning the person who makes the product is paid so very little that they really can’t live a sustainable life. I love the idea of flipping that on its head so every piece I buy is going to help the environment or at least be neutral—and it’s going to create long-term, sustainable social change.
What’s in the works for the December pop-up shop? It’s for women-owned businesses to come together and sell their products to the community. Route is one of those companies, but we’ll have close to 40 vendors on December 2.
The next STL Women’s Pop Up Shop is from noon–4 p.m. December 2 at Wild Carrot (3901 Shaw).
