Kehlani Instagram – Made in Falasteen, as always. This cotton tee is cut and sewn in a family-owned sewing workshop on the outskirts of Bethlehem. Then it’s screen-printed by hand in Umm al Sharayet, Ramallah.
What you should know about the sewing workshop: it employs nearly 50 people from villages neighboring Bethlehem. Back in October, they could not come into work because the roads were too dangerous due to s*ettler attacks. When they were finally able to return to work, the amount of work had decreased so significantly that they couldn’t come in consistently. Even now, when we call them to place an order we wait until the workshop can collect enough orders to open back up. Usually a few days. This is also in a time when so many workers who had jobs in ‘48 lost their work since October and unemployment rates are soaring.
We don’t do many collaborations because the prices of tees are relatively expensive when you compare them to other countries. I remember that a collab with a SWANA film streaming service because the founder’s partner worked at Burberry and said that this can’t be the real price of a t-shirt or tote bag lol. People assume that Palestinian prices must be dirt cheap but the reality is everything is more expensive because we have to pay import taxes to two governments, not one. Nothing is allowed into Falasteen w/o going through the occupier and then it has to go through the P.A. And then sometimes it has to also go through Jordan.
I have so much more to say but I will leave it there for now. Thank you @kehlani for doing something real. Not just donating to Palest!ne with a t-shirt that you could have had made in a country with questionable and invisible labor practices, but instead putting money into local businesses on the ground here in Falasteen.
photographer: @omrimassarwe
model: @zaina.amous
assistants: @mayykhatib and @lamar.mauge
MUH: Noor H. | Posted on 05/Jun/2024 21:04:30
