The Fair Trade Company Jepara Chair Review
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As you sit reading this, it's unlikely you're worrying much about the livelihoods and wages of the people who assembled the chair that's stopping you from dropping, Wile E. Coyote-style, to the floor. This new 'fair trade' chair, however, hopes to change that.
One of four different designs from new firm The Fair Trade Furniture Company (FTFC), the Jepara corner chair is made from a Mindi wood frame, wrapped in a banana fibre weave and topped with a duck feather-filled cotton cushion. The icing on this inedible cake is a commitment to trading "fairly" with the chair's makers in Java, Indonesia.
What that means is rather woolly, since the UK body which usually doles out official fair trade badges -- the Fairtrade Foundation -- doesn't yet certify furniture. As a workaround, FTFC has joined the respected International Fairtrade Association as a provisional member, with a view to becoming full members. Provisional membership means very little, but once promoted to full membership the chair's designers will need to file a self-assessment of fair trade practices which will be assessed by IFAT.
In the meantime, FTFC says it pays 60 per cent in advance, pays the full balance when goods arrive in the UK (rather than two months later) and agrees on a price that the Indonesian manufacturers are happy with. Obviously, we're taking the company's word for that. But with a non-exec director who used to work for Traidcraft and one of the team having formerly been a full IFAT member, we're inclined to trust them more than we would a start-up with no pedigree.
So, how's it fare at being a chair? Well, it's certainly a comfy one, with reasonable back support from the supplied lumbar cushion and enough space to curl up in for a nap. It's competently made, too. The banana fibre -- which sadly has no eco labelling such as FSC or PEFC to certify it's from a sustainable source -- is tightly and neatly wound around the wooden frame. Of the 218 horizontal weaves of fibre that we counted on our chair, not one was loose or fraying, suggesting this is a sturdy chair that'll endure more than one living room in its lifetime.
We also like the handsome design, though for the sort of money the chair costs -- a cool £650 -- we'd expect more of a luxury look and feel. Chairs of a similar size and function at Habitat cost more like £400. And while this chair is very well done, it's more on a par with Habitat than a deluxe designer standard.
One final thing to note on the actual chair is its size -- it's surprisingly big, measuring 740mm deep by 740mm wide and 1,100mm high. It's accordingly heavy too, so don't plan on using it as a portable chair to lug from corner to corner.
Back in Java, the chair is made by a factory called Mokko International, which FTFC has visited and describes as having conditions that are "certainly above average" and a "very pleasant working environment and atmosphere." Workers reportedly get free food and milk in addition to their wagers. The banana weavers are employed on a freelance basis at the same workshop and are given free food and lodging. By most furniture standards, this is a good degree of detail on manufacturing conditions. You can see (a few) photos online.
Green touches aren't neglected either. Products are shipped, not air-freighted, fabrics are hand-woven rather than machine-woven, the FTFC team carbon offset its flights to Indonesia and powers its UK offices from a renewables tariff from Ecotricity. We do have one niggle -- the lack of organic and/or Fairtrade cotton for the cushions, though we're told that's being worked on.
For a more green-tinged place to arrest your resting bottom, there are better alternatives than the Jepara. If, however, you're in the market for a centrepiece living room chair with a fair trade element and a thought-through ethical approach, this is the best we've seen so far.
Quality
Value
Ethics
Green
