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Label STEP

STEP is the non-profit organization committed to the wellbeing of workers in the carpet industry.

07/10/2026

What does support at work look like through Label STEP?

At the Women Weaving Centre in Feroze Watwan, Pakistan, more than 20 women currently work across ten looms, with over 30 registered overall. An on-site day care supports more than 20 children during working hours. Women have access to clean sanitation, drinking water, appropriate lighting and ventilation, first aid and regular physiotherapy exercises.

Wages are paid directly to the women, while rights awareness and health support are integrated into the centre’s work. This reflects the broader approach of the Label STEP Standard, which covers fair wages, health and safety, humane treatment, protection from discrimination and regulated working hours.

Supported by STEP Pakistan alongside local partners, the centre shows what these principles can look like in practice — shaped around the realities of women’s working lives.

Read more about Women-Only Weaving Centre in Pakistan through link in bio.

05/10/2026

What does the future of weaving look like to the people who weave?

Across 24 conversations in seven carpet-producing countries, Label STEP spoke with 205 weavers about their work, their craft and the future of the handmade carpet industry.

Some hope their children will choose another path. Others see weaving as a skill worth passing on. Some embrace new designs and techniques, while others feel more connected to traditional ones.

But across these different perspectives, a bigger question emerges: What would make weaving a future worth choosing?

02/10/2026

Technology is changing how handmade carpets are designed, communicated and brought to market.

But between a digital design and a finished rug is something technology cannot simply reproduce: the accumulated knowledge of the people who make it.

Weavers interpret colour, material, tension, technique and design through skills developed over time. And technology does not necessarily have to compete with that knowledge. It can also support it.

In Nepal, for example, Label STEP has explored digital tools as a way of making weaving training more accessible to women in artisan communities. As part of STEP’s Artisan Villages initiative, a specialised weaving app gives women in rural communities access to training resources, complementing hands-on learning and support from experienced weavers.

For Label STEP, this raises a bigger question. As new technologies become part of the handmade carpet industry, how can they strengthen the people and skills at its heart? What should the relationship between technology and craftsmanship look like in the future?

We’d love to hear your perspective.

29/09/2026

What does fair trade monitoring look like when the conditions around it keep changing?

In Iran, ongoing conflict and instability continue to affect not only weaving communities, but also the conditions in which Label STEP’s local team works.

Security restrictions, checkpoints, disrupted internet access and electricity outages can make travelling to weaving regions, communicating with producers and carrying out regular monitoring significantly more difficult.
Yet the work continues.

Recently, Label STEP’s team in Iran carried out two verification and monitoring visits in the Fars region, adapting their work to changing conditions on the ground.

It is a reminder that responsible supply-chain monitoring cannot always follow a fixed routine. It depends on local knowledge, flexibility and an understanding of how wider events affect the people behind handmade carpets.

Earlier this year, we shared some of those experiences directly through the voices of weavers and their families, who spoke about disrupted education and communication, fewer weaving orders, rising costs and uncertainty about the future.

The handmade carpet sector does not exist separately from the conditions surrounding it. Neither can the work to support the people within it.

Read Lives Interrupted: Voices from Iran’s Artisan Communities through the News link in bio.

23/09/2026

WHEN CRAFT BECOMES COMMERCE, WHO BENEFITS?

For generations, weaving knowledge has been passed from hand to hand.

Today, that knowledge is also part of a global industry.
And that creates opportunity.
But it also raises a question:
Who benefits from the value created by craft?

For living heritage to have a future, the people who carry its knowledge need to be part of that future.

Fair working conditions. Decent work. Respect for human rights. A voice in an industry built around their skills.

21/09/2026

In rural Türkiye, the working year does not necessarily revolve around a single occupation.

For many women in carpet-weaving communities, different forms of work exist alongside one another. Agriculture shapes part of the year; weaving another. Household and community responsibilities run throughout.

This relationship between agriculture and weaving has deep roots. Research into Türkiye’s handwoven carpet sector has documented how weaving has historically adapted to the agricultural calendar, with production taking place during periods when farming demands less time. The result is a craft deeply connected to place. Rather than separating weaving from rural life.

This is also visible in workshops Label STEP works with in Türkiye, where women combine carpet weaving with seasonal agricultural work. During the weaving months, the workshop brings women together around the loom, allowing highly specialised skills to remain practised within their rural communities.

18/09/2026

Can work be valued equally when not all work is paid?

Around the world, women continue to carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work. In handmade carpet production, where weaving often takes place in the home, paid work and unpaid responsibilities can exist side by side.

Through its work in weaving communities, Label STEP supports initiatives that help address some of these realities, from access to childcare and health services to women’s empowerment programmes alongside its work to promote fair remuneration.

On , we look beyond the pay rate to the realities that shape women’s opportunities to earn.

All images taken by René Fietzek Photographer in Artisan Villages, Nepal.

Women carry out the majority of unpaid care and domestic work worldwide. Cooking. Cleaning. Collecting water. Caring for children and family members. Work that takes time, but often comes without pay.

Women perform 76.2% of unpaid care work globally and spend more than three times as much time on it as men. Women in many rural communities also contribute to unpaid agricultural work — further shaping the time available for paid work.

Equal pay is about more than a piece rate. Fair remuneration matters. But so do the conditions that determine who has the time and opportunity to earn. Supporting women therefore also means looking at the realities surrounding their paid work.

Unpaid care work is a much larger structural challenge. But recognising it matters when we talk about equal pay. And within the handmade carpet industry, it makes one principle particularly important: work carried out in the home should not be worth less. Because valuing women’s work equally also means recognising the conditions that shape their opportunities to earn.

14/09/2026

“Craftsmanship does not simply reproduce a design. It can actively refine and shape it.”

For more than 30 years, Sascha Misio has worked with contemporary hand-knotted rugs, developing deep expertise in design, customization and production in Nepal. Today, he brings this experience to Mischioff Design AG - Handmade. by design., combining it with a contemporary approach to design, individualization and responsible production.

When Sascha first entered the sector, rugs were largely produced for stock, in standard designs, colours and sizes. Today, customization has transformed not only what can be designed, but also the relationship between designers, makers and the spaces rugs are created for.

For the first edition of our new In Conversation series, we speak with Sascha about three decades of change in the handmade rug industry and his perspective on where it might be heading next.

11/09/2026

Inside rug production in Afghanistan.

Following a recent visit to Afghanistan, STEP Certified Partner I S H K A R shares insights from meeting weavers, suppliers, long-term production partners and the local Label STEP team.

The article offers a closer look at Afghanistan’s rich weaving heritage, but also at the difficult realities surrounding the craft today. Carpet weaving remains physically demanding and wages are typically low. At the same time, restrictions on employment opportunities for women have left many with few alternatives outside home-based work. For women who had pursued education and professional training in fields such as healthcare, education and law, opportunities have become significantly restricted since the Taliban takeover in 2021. As ISHKAR shares, weaving therefore remains one of the few viable sources of income for many women and families.

The article also looks at production processes, natural dye traditions, wages and livelihoods, and the role of responsible and transparent supply chains.

Following conversations during the trip, ISHKAR has committed to incrementally increasing what it pays artisans for flatweave production by 40% over the next 12 months. Through its partnership with Label STEP, these developments will be monitored through regular audits.

Read the full article, shared by ISHKAR, on the Label STEP website via the link in bio.

Images courtesy of ISHKAR.

02/09/2026

As the distance between maker and end consumer grows, so does the invisibility of the labour behind the object. Looking closely becomes a way of restoring some of that connection.

Label STEP works to make that connection tangible — working locally across handmade carpet supply chains to protect fair working conditions, strengthen the position of weavers and workers, and help ensure that the value of the handmade reaches the people behind it.

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Website

http://www.label-step.org/

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