Fashion with purpose: Geelong boutique fights modern slavery

THE Offspring Collective, a pre-loved boutique store in Pakington Street, is thrifting done differently.

The ethical fashion movement with Geelong roots is offering locals a chance to join the global fight again human trafficking and modern slavery.

Launched by former physical education teacher Kristi Davidson, every piece sold and donated supports the work of not-for-profit organisation the Offspring Project, which provides young women who have survived sex trafficking with a safe home, trauma recovery, and pathways toward independent living.

The new store serves two purposes: an income stream to support the charity’s vital work overseas, and as an awareness piece, educating people at home about modern slavery.

The collective also hopes to spark questions about where and how our clothing is made.

 

 

“We just want to be a quality secondhand clothing store that not only supports that cycle of fashion, but sustainable fashion,” Davidson said.

The store holds a range of top design labels include Sass and Bide, Scanlan and Theodore, Scotch and Soda and Spell.

“We’ve been just amazed that people have been willing to part with them…and we’re able to sell them at an affordable price.”

It was during a trip to India in her mid-20s that Davidson first learned about sex-trafficking.

“I was just like ‘What do you mean? How can someone buy and sell a human life?’ and not only that, but then sell it for sexual exploitation?

 

 

“I came home and really wrestled with it, and I was just like ‘I have to do something’.”

Soon after, she left the teaching job she loved and purchased a one-way ticket to India.

There, she joined an anti-trafficking organisation working on the ground to support young women who had experienced or were at risk of being trafficked.

She continued this work in Greece, providing support to a young woman who had been trafficking from China. But, when the young woman turned 21, she aged out of the support programs available through the organisation.

Fearful of what might be ahead, the young woman confided in Davidson, sharing her concerns that she did not have the skills required to navigate the world alone.

 

 

It was a “lightbulb moment”, inspiring Davidson to set up a program offering young girls training and skill-building opportunities to ensure they feel equipped to enter the next stage of their life.

“I wasn’t expecting to set up an organisation. It’s not like I went out on the hunt for it,” Davidson said.

She started “one step at a time” in Kolkata, India, in the red-light district. Girls who are trafficked internationally, Davidson said, are typically trafficked first into Kolkata.

The Offspring Project now runs vocational training centres and after-care centres for survivors, a prevention centre working with women at risk of being trafficked, and partners with local organisations to rescue women who have been trafficked.

These women are then connected with the Offspring and invited to join its programs, which offer them sewing classes and a fair wage. The product they make are then sold in Australia, a key part of the not-for-profit organisation’s funding model.

Social workers share strategies to help the young women to work through their trauma, and every morning, educational classes, covering maths, language and other life skills, are offered.

“It’s the teacher staying in me there,” Davidson jokes.

 

 

The stories of abuse are horrific. The impact of the Offspring Project profound.

Davidson shares the story of one young woman who has come through the prevention centre. Her mother and grandmother work in the trade from home.

“When the family needs more money — they’re vulnerable, they’re in poverty — the next step is for her to work in that same spot at home.

“So, we’re able to provide her with a place to come to work, to earn money, because then she gets to give that back to her family, say ‘I am earning money’, and be in a safe, welcoming environment where she’s valued.”

When she made her first product with the Offspring Project, Davidson shares, her family were so proud, they walked through their community showed the garment to everyone.

“I was just so proud that she was in a workplace where she was valued and that she was learning and creating, and that for me was a really cool testimony of the prevention centre and how much value that holds in the girls’ lives,” Davidson said.

 

 

The focus now is on building the collective, and expanding the programs it supports overseas to provide more job pathways for women who have come through the organisation’s after-care or prevention centres.

“There’s 50 million slaves globally — it’s more than double the population of Australia,” Davidson said.

“If we don’t change here, it doesn’t change over there. There’s currently 40,000 slaves in Australia — it happens here.

“When you look at that, that’s overwhelming. You think ‘How can we, little Offspring, ever do anything? But we always talk about the ones, talk about the one girl that we’re able to support or the one person we’re able to educate. That’s creating impact.”

The Offspring Collective is at 377-379 Pakington Street, Newtown.

For more information, head to offspringproject.org or follow Offspring Collective on Facebook and Instagram.