If you haven’t heard of Ethical Apparel Africa (EAA) – it is an enterprise that helps brands with sourcing and production operations, such as product development, quality control, logistics facilitation, and raw material/trims sourcing. 

Moreover, what they’re trying to reach at Ethical Apparel Africa (EAA) is: ethical garment manufacturing, where the products are cost-competitive and of high quality, plus (on top of all that) guaranteeing employees: payment of their living wages, respect, and empowerment. EAA has made it their mission to create high-quality jobs, especially for women, as it is a means of making sustainable changes in yet developing economies.

What is more, in less than a 10-year span, they are determined to:

• Create 5,000 jobs in apparel manufacturing that will also be focusing on training and employing women.
• Help 15 African-owned clothing factories by training, developing and inspiring to incorporate a sustainable operating model.

Down below, you’ll be able to find an interview with the co-founder of Ethical Apparel Africa (EAA) – Keren Pybus, where she answers our questions regarding why she has chosen to involve herself in the African fashion industry. 

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• Would you mind telling us a bit about your background and why did you decide to be involved in the fashion industry?

For me personally, it stemmed from a love of Textiles and clothing right from school - I then pursued this as a degree subject and discovered how many different roles there were within the industry outside of buying.  My career path has taken me closer to the needlepoint driven by a passion to see those that are involved in creating clothing empowered by their role in the supply chain and not exploitation. 

• What is your achievement until today that you are most proud of and why? 

- Creating and founding EAA with my business partner Paloma and working with such great partners in West Africa to realize the positive impact the industry can have on people's lives.

• As a person running a business, what are some skills or attributes that you have found to be indispensable?

- being of the mindset of constant learning

- listening and finding the root causes of issues and success so you can make sustainable change

- having a great team around you

• What do you think of the current state of the African Fashion Industry?

- At EAA we are working to create sustainable jobs at scale so at this stage that means our focus is mainly on exports.  The local market is growing but is still majorly impacted by the second-hand clothes that flood the markets.

• From your point of view, how do you see the “Fashionomics Africa” involvement?

- Being creative in the Fashion Industry can also mean working in mass production and not just in designer clothing.  For example, there are many courses training people to pattern cut but hardly any training them to be commercial pattern cutters that can work in mass manufacturing and create for larger brands and have a large influence.  I would like to see Fashionomics researching and reporting more on the wider industry.

- Ghana is an emerging market and yet under-represented on the companies and finances list so would be great to see that expand 

- Be good for the website to have a better search function to be a key resource for those looking for designers, manufacturers and jobs in Africa - at the moment you have to scroll through the whole list which takes too much time