Tonic (the feel-good/do-good website)
and Citta (a non-profit dedicated to providing assistance to marginalised or indigenous communities)
have joined forces to create a limited edition pashmina scarf, designed by Lucy Barnes and hand-knitted by members of the Citta Himalaya Women's Centre in Nepal, with proceeds funding the new Citta Jaisalmer Women's Centre in Rajasthan, India, which will provide local women access to classes on health, hygiene and nutrition for themselves and their families. Thandie Newton, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie, David Byrne, Susan Sarandon and other notables who have changed the world with their words were asked to select a word that holds special meaning in their lives, and the Nepalese seamstresses embroidered the chosen words onto each scarf in Sanskrit, allowing them to learn a valuable new skill they can use to fund their independence.
"I'm hoping that Citta can work with more designers to help them make exquisite, unusual products and also provide a way for very poor communities to make a fair living, have access to basic health care and educate their children," Lucy Barnes told VOGUE.COM. "I think this is also very important to the consumer - that production be ethical and environmentally sensitive throughout the whole process, from sketch to finished design in the store. If we demand it, en masse, it will happen." The scarf, available exclusively at www.tonic.com, will retail for $100 and will help 100 women in need.
David Byrne: Dust - "First of all, it kind of took me back and I thought, 'Interesting,'" says Daube. "But it really made me think. I thought, 'What a small, minute thing that covers everything, is pervasive.'"
Susan Sarandon: Awake - "She said, 'First you have to be awake to do anything in your life; to have an intimate relationship, to be engaged in your life, to have dialogue with anything — you need to be awake.'"
David Bowie: Funk - "It's interesting because his definition is: It's an inner rhythm, or soul. Funk as in music, as a beat. So I was happy to figure that one out because there are several different meanings for Funk."
Thandie Newton: Surrender - "When it went to be translated by the Sanskrit scholar, it meant, 'when you take on a new understanding that absorbs your entire being.'"
Sting: Resolve - "His word was also very fitting for him to come up with because it's 'a sense of determination or purpose in life.'"
Scarlett Johansson: Reuse - "It has a very poignant meaning now because people are very wasteful. They don't think enough about consumption ... and the effect that we have on different parts of the world. When it was translated, it was very interesting because it came up as 'a respect for material.'"
Natalie Merchant: Silent - "That was easy to translate into Sanskrit because it's a very profound, descriptive word.
Queen Latifah: Strength - "It just fit her and I thought, 'What a perfect word for her to come up with.' Then we put it to the Sanskrit professor at Berkeley and one of her meanings was 'shakti.' And shakti means strength from a female perspective, a female energy. And I thought the whole amalgamation of these choices was perfect."
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