A Peace Treaty: Reviving Traditional Handicrafts with eBay as a Research Tool

By Suzanne Singer
September 9, 2010

A Peace Treaty

The worlds of politics and fashion rarely intersect, but designers Farah Malik (left) and Dana Arbib (right) of A Peace Treaty aim to remedy that. Malik, a Pakistani Muslim, and Arbib, a Libyan Jew, met in Rome over what could have torn the two apart—that is, a longstanding and bloody conflict between their respective peoples. Instead, it inspired them to collaborate and fuse their backgrounds in social justice, human rights and graphics and textile design to form A Peace Treaty, a scarves and jewelry line founded on "a desire to increase awareness of ancient, disappearing crafting traditions." Each season, the pair travels to a different region of the world to source locally made goods from skilled craftspeople, paying them above fair trade wages. Malik expalins where they sourced their collections for fall 2010: "PITANIA's silk and baby alpaca wraps are hand-knitted by indigenous women artisans in Bolivia and Peru. Sunari jewelry is made by kurdish artisans in Turkey. Behna wraps are hand dip-dyed and finished by widowed and disabled women in Pakistan. And Sozan Doz were embroidered by widows in Kabul and Jalalabad in Afghanistan."

The Inside Source: How did you guys come up with the idea of A Peace Treaty?

FM & DA: APT began over two years ago when we realized a real lack of artisan made accessories in the luxury fashion industry. We wanted to elevate ethnic craftsmanship to the status of high end boutique level goods. We wanted to create employment opportunities for small businesses and families that have been out of work because of the political tensions and social unrest in their countries. We also really wanted to bring human rights into high fashion. What also informs our brand politics is the fact that we are a Muslim and a Jew working together (an arrangement that is rare traditionally) to build bridges to nations in which the average person has become caught up in their country's unstable situation and suffers because of politics. We are trying to reinvigorate local artisan economies and bring what they have to offer to the luxury marketplace while also bringing them long-term employment opportunities and "trade" so to speak. Everything we do is done ethically—and we pay above fair trade rates. A lot of our projects provide work for disabled or widowed women and we are helping to rebuild their lives. We really believe in bringing products to market that have a history and a story attached to them. Everything we make is like an heirloom piece that will last you a lifetime and you want to pass on to your children. We also saw a big gap in the market in neck accessories. Filling that gap is really what helped us take off. There were all these Chinatown scarves everywhere and really expensive designer scarves but no mid-priced scarves were available at the time and it was evident that in a time when everyone was wearing a lot of gray and black clothes there was need for bright colored scarves. This always started off as a personal peace treaty without any savior attitude. Our belief was that consumers need to be exposed to the rich culture and history of places that are steeped in misperception.

TIS: When did you branch out to include jewelry in the line?

FM & DA: Our first jewelry collection launched for S/S 2010 to a really warm reception.

A Peace Treaty Jewelry

TIS: Farah, how has the transition from the humanitarian world to fashion been for you?

FM & DA: I came from a Human Rights/Community Empowerment background and Dana from a graphic design background so it was natural that the company became infused with both of our ideals. We both actually come from a line of social justice and humanitarian work so after working for other people we progressively became antsy to do "things on our own terms" and we knew everything we did had to be charged with a social change ideal. Also, it was important that any of our projects involving the employment of others would be ethically motivated and fair. The transition for me has been a very natural one because our entire brand mandate and production model uses social and community change ideals. Essentially what we're doing now is using market and economy forces to create social change. Rather than doing it in a non-profit structure, we are actually really focused on profit but making sure that our producers are the ones that get the largest share of the profit. We're essentially cutting out the middle man and going straight to the producers—especially those that have lost their jobs or whose family businesses have been affected because of more and more factories opening up. APT is all about injecting human rights and dignity into fashion—and so the transition has been a very important one (my life's goal basically) even if there is still a long way to go in terms of educating consumers and buyers.

TIS: You both have had such interesting childhoods, do you think that your parents and visting/living in different countries influenced you in the designs for A Peace Treaty?

FM & DA: Certainly it did. Each country that we've either lived in or hope to work in influences our ideas according to the antique and traditional artisanal trades that particular country has to offer. With Farah's background in International Development and Dana's lineage from a philanthropic family, we really have developed first-hand knowledge of what beautiful things certain regions have to offer. In our increasingly unstable times, it is an absolute promise to ourselves that we help those who live within these unstable regions by supporting their skills and craft. Dana's family are Libyan Jews and after being exiled from Libya for being Jewish they ended up settling in Rome, so she has a very strong family connection there. I, Farah, was living in Rome training in Ancient Roman goldsmithing techniques. Our partnership was driven by us wanting to create an unofficial "peace treaty" by working together (as a Jew and a Muslim) and bringing opportunities to places that are socio-politically marred and in which there are all these innocent people suffering at the hands of the choices and decisions their governments are making. We've inherited a lot of scarves and jewelry items from our families and that heritage really influences our company. In the same way, since everything we design is handmade we also see our products as artifacts that can be handed down from generation to generation.

TIS: How do you choose your countries season-to-season?

FM & DA: We have projects running in seven countries now including: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bolivia, Peru, Turkey and India. Next up we are looking into West Africa and Haiti. Within some of these countries we travel to completely distinct regions and cities, villages and towns bringing work to unemployed farmers, slum-kids and disabled and widowed women. These are all people who have been so disadvantaged that they are unable to gain employment. Each season we choose a handcrafting technique such as handblockprinting, hand-loomed fabric, embroidery and hand-knitting and design a collection around it. We then research the countries that have a history with this particular technique. We find a region, such as Afghanistan for embroidery, and then use their own cultural design aesthetic for inspiration. We become focused on a type of craft that traditionally came from a particular place and then we research it's history and analyze how it came to be at risk of dying out. We then find unemployed but highly skilled artisans and by partnering with them we revive the traditional craft or technique. We also modernize the traditional handicraft technique for the high fashion market by injecting our own ideas and design.

A Peace Treaty Scarf

TIS: What are the themes for the A Peace Treaty Fall collection?

FM & DA: The Bauhaus Women's weaving workshop in Weimar and Dessau (Gunta Stolz was the lead artist) inspired the Fall hand-knitted baby alpaca collection of snoods, wraps, hats and ponchos. These were all knitted by Indigenous artisans so the Quechua and Aymara traditions and customs also inspired the collection. The Sunari jewelry collection is inspired by Kuchi and Central Asian nomadic and tribal jewelry.

TIS: Are the two of you eBay fans? What do you search for on the site?

Dana: I am a huge eBay fan. I recently renovated my apartment and developed an obsession with searching for the perfect fixtures and accoutrement on eBay. I search for lamps, posters, textiles and jewelry.

Farah: I search for Halston era dresses and vintage sandals or bags.

TIS: Did eBay play a role in inspiring your designs?

FM & DA: For the knits collection, we looked at old knitting designs and stitches to bring in some very rare and difficult to execute ways of knitting. In addition, if we wanted to add a vintage and late 60's twist to the Fall collection we would look up items that verify our chosen color. And for the jewelry line, we often looked up Afghani handmade amulets; talismans and ceremonial jewelry as well as the visual iconography that surrounded these tribes was researched for months. We were fascinated by the hand-carved, yet slightly irregular geometric patterns in the jewelry we found. Then these traditional jewelry aesthetics were modernized slightly, through colors, materials, scale and layout.

TIS: Did you use any special eBay keywords that you can clue us in on to find what you were looking for when searching for inspiration for this collection?

FM & DA: We used names of handicrafts, names of cities, names of accessories items in local languages from whatever region that serves as APT's current inspiration for design as well as the regions in which they work with local artisans to do their production. Favorite keywords: "vintage lighting” and "art books."

TIS: What are you searching for on eBay right now?

FM & DA: Embroidered and hand woven textiles. Old, almost, extinct stitches like Hardanger embroidery, Kashmiri shawls [and] Uttar Pradesh crafts. For Fall 2011, we are working on hand woven blanket inspired shawls.