Ethical Fashion

By wearing Ark Imports clothing and accessories you are helping to support fair wages and provide safe working environments to our friends, artisans and producers in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. We ensure that our standards meet or exceed fair trade guidelines. We are proud member of the Fair Trade Federation and have been manufacturing responsibly for the last 34 years and will continue to do so.

The Nepali handicrafts industry not only practices and preserves age-old tradition and culture in Nepal but also is a driving force in eliminating poverty by creating innumerable job opportunities, especially for women. We're extremely proud that our main supplier is a female entrepreneur with more than 50% female workers. 

Our goal is to ensure that everyone we deal with -- from the knitter to the person that will ultimately wear our products, has a positive and enjoyable experience. Nepal has given so much to us, we feel it is our duty to continue to give back.

Ark Fair Trade regularly sponsors children at the Srongtsen Bhrikuti Boarding High School in Tinchuli, Boudha Kathmandu and at the Swostishree Gurukul school in Sanobharyang Kathmandu. We also donate to the Pranmaya-Ganesh Bahadur Chitrakar Memorial Foundation, an organization that plays a key role in priving social benefits to community members and heritage prevervation.

Our story

It all started in 1984 when Arks founder, Noah, decided to take a break from university studies in Canada and go backpacking, see the world and figure out what to do with his life. While trekking in Nepal, he got a feeling he should bring some of the cool stuff he saw in Kathmandu back home to sell. After spending a few months on the beaches in Thailand thinking things over, he was ready to go for it. Ark Imports was born in 1985 and since then, Noah has been going back to Nepal twice a year for the last 34 years. I guess he figured out what he wanted to do with his life.....

Manufacturing ethically since 1985.

Find us in The Good Shopping Guide’s Ethical Fashion Directory