Dialog ethical accessories

Dialog is a Hong Kong-based accessories label dedicated to helping poor communities in Asia.

After meeting at Central Saint Martins, Cassandra Postema and Dong Shing Chui spent time on individual projects before coming together. Cassandra launched her own label, showing at Alternative Fashion Week in 1997 and won New Generation sponsorship to show at the London Fashion Week exhibition. Dong took time out after graduating, then moved to New York working as a textile designer. She headed to Malaysia where she taught and was a course director for a Central Saint Martins franchise, before moving to Hong Kong in 1997 where she specialised in interior design. Cassandra decided to head to out Hong Kong to work in order to pay off debts which her fashion label had incurred. When Tsunami disaster struck in 2004, the ladies launched Hope Tees, a graphic T-shirt company which originally raised money to help rebuild those whose lives were devastated, but which now supports a number of Asian initiatives from a Day Care Nursery in Ho Chi Mingh to a project supporting sewing workshops to help empower Montagnard villagers in Vietnam. "We just really felt we had to do something positive," says Dong. "We got talking and realised we both very passionate about it."

"Our plan was always to work a different way," explains Cassandra, "so we set up Dialog Network Limited and began working with various groups, training them and basically helping them avoid poverty by producing for us." The starting point was a four fold tuck rug which is a traditional Malaysian creation. They travelled to a tailor's workshop in Borneo to work out how to transfer the four tuck on to bags and purses. The majority of the trimmings for Dialog's accessories are made by a sewing group in Vietnam, some are made by Love Multi Culture, a Pakistani group of migrant workers based in Hong Kong and bags are now being produced at a factory across the border in China which employs disabled people. By working with groups who already produce clothing, Dialog ensures its trimmings are all from recycled out-cuts.

Dialog's current range includes cute horse and fish purses (£15-£18), bags (£50-£95), and necklaces (£18-£25). "We really enjoy spending time with people at grass roots level - it is more meaningful," says Cassandra. " The emphasis is on the meaning we create with the product - rather than the superficialness that comes with being in fashion industry." Look out for Dialog's expanded range including cushions and dresses shortly.

Words: Marian Buckley