Sunday 14 October 2012

Inspirational story of how Kate's stunning dress helped Indian sex trafficking victims

High fashion: The Duchess of Cambridge is a big fan of Beulah London
High fashion: The Duchess of Cambridge is a big fan of Beulah London

Duchess's favourite dress designer on how the clothes she makes for A-list clients support women sold into sex and slavery
When the Duchess of Cambridge wore a chic chiffon off-white dress and matching headscarf to visit the Assyakirin Mosque in Kuala Lumpur last month, she sparked the usual stampede by fashionistas desperate to copy her look. However, this time the dress wasn’t by Alexander McQueen or Alice Temperley but a less well-known name – Beulah London.
By the following morning, the fashion label had been inundated with requests from American women after their own version. Yet few would have realised that by wearing the dress, the Duchess was supporting not just her friend – Beulah’s founder Lady Natasha Rufus Isaacs – but also victims of sex trafficking in India.

Natasha, daughter of the Marquess of Reading and the fiancee of Kate Middleton’s ex-boyfriend Rupert Finch, was working alongside a host of other well-connected twentysomethings at Sotheby’s five years ago when she decided that her future lay in helping others.
Initially, the committed Christian volunteered at the Holy Trinity Brompton Church in South Kensington, Central London, helping with homeless projects.
Then in 2009, Natasha and her childhood friend Lavinia Brennan made the life-changing decision to swap parties at Club H – Princes Harry and William’s private basement at Highgrove – for a stint teaching needlework and English to victims of sex trafficking in India.
Natasha, 29, explains: ‘I had been talking to a friend about human trafficking and I was determined to do something to help. I met women who had been abused and a girl who was trafficked from the school where I was teaching. She fell in love with a man who promised her a new life and whisked her away, and she didn’t return. It was heartbreaking, but it helped me to understand slavery and how traffickers work.
‘It also taught me the importance of education because traffickers prey on the uneducated, the ones who have no options. I realised that providing skills could prevent trafficking.’
Natasha, who has a history of art degree from Oxford Brookes University, spent two months at a workshop teaching vulnerable girls who had been rescued from brothels and slums. ‘They were making simple things such as cushions and cards,’ she says. ‘It was not glamorous. I did cry.’ The sanitary arrangements were ‘bucket and chuck it’.
It was there that Beulah London was conceived. Natasha and Lavinia’s idea was to create an ethical fashion label that would pay a living wage to rescued women and save them from the economic necessity of returning to the streets.
‘It was a real motivator to start up a business which could be profitable and provide women with an alternative, sustainable livelihood,’ she says.
Until then, her interest in fashion had extended only as far as raiding the family attic for her mother’s old Biba and Ossie Clark numbers, but she bought a copy of the book How To Be A Fashion Designer and got to work.
Each Beulah garment comes with a canvas bag produced by victims of trafficking in India through a Calcutta-based project called Freeset.
Toula Adeyemi is one of the fashionista fans of Beulah
Beulah London's client list also includes Natasha Bedingfield
Fashionista fans: Model Tolula Adeyemi (pictured left) and singer Natasha Bedingfield (right) are two celebrity names on Beulah London's client list. The idea for the label was conceived on a volunteering trip to India
Some items in the collection are made via a project in Delhi called Open Hand, by women who have escaped trafficking and the sex trade, including some who are HIV-positive and widowed.
‘It is very hard trying to juggle starting a business and involving women in the production of the clothing, but we are making progress,’ Natasha says.
‘Some people thought I was crazy to give up the security of a job but it didn’t really excite me. My family were ridiculously supportive of my idea to set up a social enterprise.’
Three years later, Beulah London’s client list includes models Kate Moss and Tolula Adeyemi, singer Natasha Bedingfield, presenters Tess Daly and Natalie Pinkham, and Hollywood stars Sienna Miller and Demi Moore. But their most famous patron is undoubtedly the Duchess of Cambridge, who dazzled in a floor-length red Beulah London dress at a charity gala last year and wore a flower-patterned creation to a wedding in July.
‘I think she just really likes the collection and the ethical values behind it,’ says Natasha.
At first, Natasha and Lavinia worked on their designs in a spare bedroom in Fulham, and also moonlighted at Chelsea nightclubs to boost their income. Lavinia looked after VIP guests at Guy Pelly’s club Public, welcoming Chelsy Davy and Pippa Middleton.
Meanwhile, Natasha performed the same role at Dorsia, a favourite haunt of Made In Chelsea cast. ‘It was quite demeaning,’ she admits. ‘People would ask, “How’s business?” I’d have to say, “Clearly not that good!” ’
TV presenter Tess Daly buys items from Beulah London
TV presenter Natalie Pinkham has been known to wear Beulah London designs
Impressive clientele: TV presenters Natalie Pinkham (left) and Tess Daly (pictured right) also have worn items from the label set up by Lady Natasha Rufus Isaacs which helps victims of sex trafficking in India
But slowly things took off. Now, Natasha is sitting in her studio in Belgravia. Behind rails of reds and purples, interns are hard at work. The floor is strewn with sketches for the next collection, which department store Fenwick has ordered.
Natasha is part of the new breed of socialite-philanthropists creating brands with a conscience. She sees herself as fighting oppression using fashion as a weapon.
‘You think William Wilberforce abolished slavery?’ she asks, rhetorically. ‘Wrong. There are more than 27 million slaves in the world today and 120,000 women and children trafficked into Western Europe every year.’
Thursday is Anti-Slavery Day, and Beulah London’s mission, as well as providing a secure future for Indian girls saved from the sex industry, is to raise awareness of the problem.
‘Human trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the world,’ Natasha stresses. ‘Drugs can only be sold once, but people can be sold again and again. The sex trade is relatively obvious, but domestic slavery is very hard to find out about because people could just be locked into a basement for years.
Well-connected: Lady Natasha Rufus Isaacs (right) with Chelsy Davy
Well-connected: Lady Natasha Rufus Isaacs (right) with Chelsy Davy
‘It’s chilling to think that it is going on all around us. It happens everywhere, especially where I live. Of the 300 brothels in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, only 25 per cent of the girls are there of their own free will.’
Beulah London is available at Harvey Nichols and via Yoox.com, with dresses ranging in price from around £350 to £800.
Natasha and Lavinia launch their next collection at another Royal hangout, The Brompton Club in South Kensington, on Thursday, to co-incide with Anti-Slavery Day. But despite being worn by the most photographed woman in the world, their designs are yet to be tapped by Vogue.
‘Our customer is on-trend but not trendy,’ Natasha explains. ‘This is not fast fashion. This is a staple she can have in her wardrobe for years. She’s a lady of leisure who has events to go to – Ascot, weddings.’
It’s a neat description of the signature style of the Duchess of Cambridge – simple lines, flattering, pretty without being too revealing.
‘My granny asked me, “But are the dresses sexy?”, Natasha reveals. ‘I said, “I hope so!” ’
Her next step is to help girls in the UK. ‘I want to put girls who have been released from sex slavery through an apprenticeship scheme and start them embroidering on to every piece of ours.’
Last year, Natasha and Lavinia received a UN commendation for Beulah London’s work, and Natasha returns to India every six months to see the women she is helping.
‘Lavinia and I both love going back to see the work and meet the ladies because it brings to life what we do.
‘It’s very different from sitting in an office every day doing admin or the accounts. Going out there keeps us motivated.’


 

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