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Introduction
Eternal Creation: Fair Trade fashion for babies, kids, women and men.
We aim to improve the lives of Tibetan refugees and local Indians by providing stable employment and training in beautiful surroundings and promote friendship between the two communities.
Eternal Creation's beautiful range of fair trade babies, childrens, womens and mens wear is lovingly crafted and ethically produced at the Fair Trade certified Himalaya Tailoring Centre. It is located in Dharamsala in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, which is the political and spiritual capital for Tibetan refugees, and home to the Dalai Lama.
At the Himalaya Tailoring Centre, we strive to produce the highest possible quality garments for a competitive market, while maintaining good working conditions, fair pay and high employee morale. These guiding principles inform all decisions that relate to the running of the workshop and staff are encouraged to get involved in all decision-making process.
We aim to improve the lives of Tibetan refugees and local Indians by providing stable employment and training in beautiful surroundings and promote friendship between the two communities.
Eternal Creation's beautiful range of fair trade babies, childrens, womens and mens wear is lovingly crafted and ethically produced at the Fair Trade certified Himalaya Tailoring Centre. It is located in Dharamsala in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, which is the political and spiritual capital for Tibetan refugees, and home to the Dalai Lama.
At the Himalaya Tailoring Centre, we strive to produce the highest possible quality garments for a competitive market, while maintaining good working conditions, fair pay and high employee morale. These guiding principles inform all decisions that relate to the running of the workshop and staff are encouraged to get involved in all decision-making process.
Contact Info
Address:
27 Eltham St
Gladesville
NSW 2111
Australia
Gladesville
NSW 2111
Australia
Tel:
+61 (0)2 8007 3373
Website:
http://www.eternalcreation.com
Offering
- childrens clothes
- baby clothes
- girls dresses
- boys clothes
- womens fashion
- womens sleepwear
- womens accessories
- childrens pyjamas
- mens shirts
- girls hair accessories
- toddlers clothes
Hours of operation
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Meet Our Team (1)
Frances Carrington
Owner and Designer
The woman behind Eternal Creation is Australian designer Frances Carrington. Capturing the imagination of thousands of women around the world, she’s forged a remarkable path. After a volunteer placement working with Tibetan refugees, she fell in love with India and started her own company to support the Tibetan and local Indian communities.
Here’s her story of trials, triumphs, and chai breaks while working in India!
Starting out
After graduating from the East Sydney institute of fashion design in 1994, Frances registered with Australian Volunteers Abroad, hoping to use her skills in a community in Africa. Instead she was sent to India. She was put in charge of the fledgling tailoring department of the Norbulingka Institute in Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile. Her job was to teach newly arrived Tibetan refugees the finer points of tailoring and design. She oversaw the growth of the department from 2 to 15 fulltime staff by the end of her stay.
Falling in love with Indian and Tibetan culture, not to mention the fantastic landscape of the Himalayas, she determined that at the end of her tenure she'd find a way to use her skills to continue to benefit the local community in some way. In 1999, armed with a $5000 loan from her father she started Eternal Creation, with the aim of producing quality womens' sleepwear and accessories.
Working with refugees
The early days were difficult. Frances started with only 3 tailors, in association with the Gu-Chu-Sum movement of Tibet, an ex- political prisoners' organisation. Gu-Chu-Sum's 200-plus members are all former prisoners of conscience, some of whom have endured terrible privation and torture at the hands of the Chinese authorities. The organisation is dedicated to improving the lives of recently arrived political refugees by providing jobs, training, health care and accommodation.
The small tailoring unit slowly grew, employing several ex-prisoners and battling with fierce monsoons, water shortages and frequent blackouts, often simultaneously! One of the biggest challenges was training people who had previously led a pastoral or nomadic existence, to understand the concept of delivery deadlines and international quality standards.
And kids!
With the birth of her 2 children, Frances found herself naturally gravitating towards designing kidswear, and sales of her initial childrens' collection quickly proved that there was a market for her classical look, love of colour and immaculate tailoring.
As the sales of Eternal products grew in Australia, the company was faced with a difficult decision - outsource or expand? Outsourcing would bring with it the ethical dilemma faced by many designers: how do you know your designs are being made under fair labour conditions and not subcontracted to other factories that may not meet these standards?
Ethical decisions
Frances felt that outsourcing production would ultimately end up betraying the original reasons she started the company. So she decided to increase the capacity of the workshop, which would provide more jobs for the local Tibetan and Indian community, as well as ensuring that Eternal Creation's trademark high quality standards were maintained.
In 2005, Eternal Creation opened the fair trade Himalaya Tailoring Centre in lower Dharamsala, which is one of the largest private employers in the area. Eternal Creation is a full member of the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand, selling online and in over 100 stores in Australasia, USA, Europe and Asia.
Here’s her story of trials, triumphs, and chai breaks while working in India!
Starting out
After graduating from the East Sydney institute of fashion design in 1994, Frances registered with Australian Volunteers Abroad, hoping to use her skills in a community in Africa. Instead she was sent to India. She was put in charge of the fledgling tailoring department of the Norbulingka Institute in Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile. Her job was to teach newly arrived Tibetan refugees the finer points of tailoring and design. She oversaw the growth of the department from 2 to 15 fulltime staff by the end of her stay.
Falling in love with Indian and Tibetan culture, not to mention the fantastic landscape of the Himalayas, she determined that at the end of her tenure she'd find a way to use her skills to continue to benefit the local community in some way. In 1999, armed with a $5000 loan from her father she started Eternal Creation, with the aim of producing quality womens' sleepwear and accessories.
Working with refugees
The early days were difficult. Frances started with only 3 tailors, in association with the Gu-Chu-Sum movement of Tibet, an ex- political prisoners' organisation. Gu-Chu-Sum's 200-plus members are all former prisoners of conscience, some of whom have endured terrible privation and torture at the hands of the Chinese authorities. The organisation is dedicated to improving the lives of recently arrived political refugees by providing jobs, training, health care and accommodation.
The small tailoring unit slowly grew, employing several ex-prisoners and battling with fierce monsoons, water shortages and frequent blackouts, often simultaneously! One of the biggest challenges was training people who had previously led a pastoral or nomadic existence, to understand the concept of delivery deadlines and international quality standards.
And kids!
With the birth of her 2 children, Frances found herself naturally gravitating towards designing kidswear, and sales of her initial childrens' collection quickly proved that there was a market for her classical look, love of colour and immaculate tailoring.
As the sales of Eternal products grew in Australia, the company was faced with a difficult decision - outsource or expand? Outsourcing would bring with it the ethical dilemma faced by many designers: how do you know your designs are being made under fair labour conditions and not subcontracted to other factories that may not meet these standards?
Ethical decisions
Frances felt that outsourcing production would ultimately end up betraying the original reasons she started the company. So she decided to increase the capacity of the workshop, which would provide more jobs for the local Tibetan and Indian community, as well as ensuring that Eternal Creation's trademark high quality standards were maintained.
In 2005, Eternal Creation opened the fair trade Himalaya Tailoring Centre in lower Dharamsala, which is one of the largest private employers in the area. Eternal Creation is a full member of the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand, selling online and in over 100 stores in Australasia, USA, Europe and Asia.
