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Naomi Cornelius-Reid set up NV London Calcutta in 2009. The label specialises in ethically produced leather, canvas and silk accessories for men and women, designed in UK and created in a fair trade co-operative in Calcutta, India.  The company has gone from strength to strength and has recently been awarded the Notonthehighstreet.com’s Make Award Community Contribution and the Ethical Fashion Forum’s Supplier Innovation Award.

What inspired you to create NV London Calcutta?

A love of India, especially Calcutta, and a dire shortage of beautiful, ethically produced bags available in the UK. 

The East Indian ‘City of Culture’ is close to my heart; my great grandfather spent many years living there and it is an incredibly vibrant city which made a huge impact on me when I first visited. The population now exceeds 15 million and poverty is a major problem for a great many of its inhabitants. 

For some time I’d felt disillusioned by the western ‘fast fashion’ culture of mass production, bargain basement prices and the pervasive ‘wear it and throw it away’ mentality; not to mention shocked and saddened by the all too frequent horror stories of sweat shops and child labour in the news. 

I felt that I could do something to create jobs and foster artisan skills in India and give the UK marketplace some seriously desirable bags and accessories that would last a lifetime and actually make a positive impact on those who created them.

What is your favourite product and why?

That’s a really tricky question. There are many products I am very proud of. My Coco and Virginia handbags, from the original collection, are perennial best-sellers, which I think is a testament to their clever design and quality manufacture. I love them and still use mine to this day. 

More recently, I’ve been obsessed with the silk collaborations we’ve done with the artist Rob Ryan. His artwork is incredible and my factory surpassed themselves in the screen printing, which was incredibly detailed and technical. I am so proud that we have managed to complete difficult jobs like this, still sticking to our principles of using only the most traditional artisan methods.

What has been the greatest challenge so far?

Fighting the perception that ethical products are in some way of a lower quality and less desirable than other, more well known, high street brands’ output. Ethical fashion is still really in its infancy and I think people need to be made more aware of the huge developments there have been in design and production quality. The sector is advancing at lighting pace. Ethical goods are no longer just purchases you make to help the disadvantaged, but real contenders in terms of style; the added bonus is the good that they do behind the scenes. 

As a relatively small company, it’s also hard to complete with bigger brands and their huge marketing budgets. That’s one of the reasons why we have a real focus on collaborative projects with sympathetically minded high profile, larger companies, such as Cowshed. They benefit from our ethical credentials and we can raise our profile to consumers, flying the flag for all that is great about ethical fashion.

What kind of people are your customers?  Is it important to them that the products are fair trade?

I think our products have a wide appeal. We are not slaves to trends, we simply make beautiful, premium products with timeless appeal; bags and accessories that will not go out of fashion as the seasons and whims of fashion change. I think customers do appreciate the nature of our business and take a real interest in the heritage and story behind them. We make every effort to be as transparent as possible and show people, not just tell them, about where their goods came from. That’s why we have the many galleries on our website – so people can really follow their bags from raw materials to finished product. That said, I don’t think it is by any means the only reason people buy from us. In the vast majority of cases you buy something first and foremost because of its aesthetic appeal.

Where do you see the business in 5 years time?

I hope that we continue to grow and flourish as we have been since launch. I have deliberately taken a very organic path to expansion. In this day and age it makes no sense to me to over extend ourselves too quickly. I want my workshop to have a chance to grow at a steady pace, so we never overwhelm them and create undue pressure. Back at home, I think the current global financial crisis only make me more aware that taking huge loans and pushing for rapid growth just isn’t sensible, or responsible. We live within our means and grow at a consistent pace. 

I hope we continue to collaborate with exciting companies- we’ve already got some very exciting plans in the pipeline for 2012, create more covetable collections of our own and continue to expand into other countries with our wholesale business and corporate gifts offering which has been a big success for us in the last year. 

In five years time I hope we are a well recognised brand that customers know they can rely on. And that we have continued the positive work we have done in Calcutta for our workers. We have already contributed to the creation of a pensions scheme and for the future, who knows what we can achieve. I know there is a lot we can do to help and we intend to do it.