Adwoa Aboah Fronts Ethical Jewellery Campaign

In 2016 fast fashion prevails, gender inequality is rife in the industry, and leading brands are constantly under fire for producing their collections in unsatisfactory conditions. If these are problems that are regularly playing on your mind when making purchases, look no further than this jewellery line.

Gurls Talk founder, model and feminist Adwoa Aboah has been unveiled as the new face of Pippa Small Turquoise Mountain, the Kabul-based diffusion line by designer Pippa Small, set up to help create and sustain jobs within Afghanistan’s jewellery making industry.

During the Taliban regime (from 1996 until 2001) jewellery making was reportedly banned in Afghanistan, meaning that when the Taliban were eventually overthrown, the majority of the traditional artisans had fled, or were no longer practicing.

Turquoise Mountain – "an internationally accredited vocational institute training a new generation of Afghan artisans in woodwork, calligraphy and miniature painting, ceramics, jewellery and gem-cutting" – was subsequently established in 2006 under the direction of Prince Charles and the former President of Afghanistan in order to reintroduce these skills, and offer jobs to young people in a country with a bleak future, ripped apart by the regime.

For many men, career choices are still limited to jobs such as taxi driver or fruit seller, while women's options are even fewer and the majority are expected to stay at home, rather than work alongside men. The Turquoise Mountain workshops employ both males and females and encourage them to work alongside each other, a notion so progressive in the country that the company has faced numerous security threats in its short history.

With Gurls Talk, Adwoa has quickly become the fashionable face of feminism, engaging with a new, large audience by using social media to promote her message of female empowerment. Now she's pushing that message even further in becoming the face of Pippa Small's remarkable jewellery line, changing lives in Afghanistan.

"When I was approached to be the Pippa Small Turquoise Mountain ambassador for SS16, I didn’t even need to think about it before accepting," Adwoa explains. "It’s incredible what Turquoise Mountain are doing in Afghanistan – not only are they helping to create jobs, boost the economy and promote the arts, but they are empowering women, which is a cause very close to my own heart through my Gurls Talk initiative. In a world where we are still struggling for gender equality even in the UK, it is awe-inspiring to see the work that Pippa Small and Turquoise Mountain are doing to combat the gender divide in Afghanistan by encouraging women to enter the workshop and earn for themselves – all while crafting a truly beautiful collection of jewellery."

Click ahead to see the entire campaign, to discover more about the remarkable collection and learn about Pippa's inspiring story...

The SS16 Pippa Small Turquoise Mountain collection is available now. The collection is priced from £60 - £1650.