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Ep 26. Clothing Poverty, Pre-loved South Asian Wedding Fashion and Building Community for Change with Anoli Mehta and Sol Escobar (x Fashion District)
82 Plays10 hours ago
Special episode by No Ordinary Cloth x Fashion District
In this episode, Mili speaks with Sol Escobar, founder of Give Your Best, and Anoli Mehta, founder of Circular Threads, two inspiring women tackling fashion’s social and environmental challenges from different angles. Sol’s award-winning social enterprise helps bridge the gap between clothing waste and clothing poverty by allowing people in need—such as refugees and survivors of domestic violence—to shop donated fashion online for free, preserving choice and dignity while promoting circularity. Meanwhile, Anoli’s platform gives South Asian wedding and occasion wear a meaningful second life by creating a space for people to buy, sell, and rediscover preloved garments, extending their lifespan and reducing waste.
Both founders are proving that community-driven circularity—whether through redistribution or resale—can reshape the fashion system, reducing waste while building inclusivity and meaningful connection in how we consume and value clothes
Key Topics Discussed:
- How Sol and Anoli’s businesses address fashion waste and offer alternatives to buying new
- The problem of clothing poverty in the UK and how Give Your Best gives agency and dignity to vulnerable individuals through free shopping for donated clothes
- The challenge of overconsumption and the cultural significance of South Asian fashion, and how Circular Threads is building a dedicated marketplace for preloved occasion wear
- The power of community: building genuine connections with buyers, sellers, donors and volunteers
- Stories of personal identity, belonging, and the emotional meaning tied to clothing
- Behind-the-scenes experiences in entrepreneurship, including overcoming failure, learning resilience, and finding inspiration from lived experiences
- What success looks like—impact, culture shift and empowering others
Calls to Action:
- Listeners are invited to support both projects by donating clothing, becoming a volunteer, attending events, or simply spreading the word to raise awareness
- Anyone with South Asian outfits or formalwear they no longer use is encouraged to visit Circular Threads’ store or online marketplace
- For Give Your Best, all are welcome to donate clothes, connect with local volunteers (“Besties”), and help extend the platform’s mission
- Join these communities to help fashion last longer than an evening out
Follow and connect with Sol Escobar and Anoli Mehta:
Connect with me
Mili Tharakan: LinkedIn I Insta I Website I Buy me a coffee
If you enjoyed this, please share the episode with a friend or colleague. Subscribe and leave a review, I love to hear your feedback.
Recommended listening:
Ep 22. Beyond the Bin: fighting against Fashion Waste
Ep 21. Circular Fashion in Action: Insights From Luxury and Highstreet Brands
Cover art: Photo by Siora, Photography on Unsplash
Music: Inspired Ambient, Orchestraman
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Hosts Introduction
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the No Ordinary Cloth podcast, where we explore innovations bubbling away at the intersection of textiles, emerging technology, sustainability, and craft. I'm your host, Millie Tharakin, a textile researcher and innovator.
Partnership with Fashion District London
00:00:21
Speaker
Join me today as I sit down with pioneers who are radically reimagining the very way we make, use and reuse textiles. This is another very special episode I'm bringing to you in partnership with Fashion District London, a dynamic hub for fashion innovation in East London, supporting startups with innovation networks, affordable spaces, business guidance and investment opportunities.
Exploring Community and Sustainable Fashion
00:00:44
Speaker
Today, we're delving into the heart of what makes a movement in sustainable fashion. That's community, resilience, and reimagining how we value our clothes.
Guest Introduction: Anoli Mehta on Circular Threads
00:00:55
Speaker
I'm delighted to be joined by two extraordinary founders, each approaching circularity and conscious fashion consumption from very unique perspectives.
00:01:04
Speaker
First up, we have Anoli Mehta, founder and CEO of Circular Threads. Anoli is on a mission to transform how we shop for South Asian fashion, making pre-loved clothing such as high quality, beautifully crafted pieces of South Asian bridal collections, exquisite saris, lehengas and more, and making these pre-loved clothing the first choice, whether it's for weddings, festivals or everyday wear.
Guest Introduction: Sol Escobar on Clothing Poverty
00:01:31
Speaker
Our second guest is Sol Escobar. She's the founder and co-CEO of Give Your Best, an organization leading change by tackling clothing poverty head-on in the yeah UK and driving circular fashion through their paid-forward fashion platform.
00:01:48
Speaker
Give Your Best has gained significant recognition for its impact being selected by the British Fashion Council as one of their Future of Fashion Innovations in 2023 and winning eBay's Circular Fashion Fund in 2024.
Origin Stories and Community Impact
00:02:02
Speaker
Together, we will dive into how they got started, the impact they have on their communities and the change that they've made through these communities, as well as learn about the intersection of entrepreneurship, social change and conscious consumption.
00:02:17
Speaker
Both Seoul and Anoli have a deep understanding of the profound effects fashion can have on identity and community. Quick note, if you find this episode valuable, please consider buying me a coffee using the link below in the show notes.
00:02:31
Speaker
It helps fuel those late night editing sessions as I bring you these stories. All right, let's meet our wonderful guests now.
00:02:45
Speaker
Anoli and Sol, thank you both for joining us today on the podcast. And I'm really excited about our conversation today. um especially looking forward to hearing about your entrepreneurial stories, learning about communities that you've grown and exploring how you are changing the landscape of circular fashion in the UK and beyond.
00:03:03
Speaker
And both of your journeys reflected deep commitment, not just to sustainability, but really to the people at the heart of the fashion ecosystem. And that really resonated with me. And through your work, you've each shown that fashion is so much more than just what we wear. It's a tool for connection, empowerment and real world impact.
00:03:23
Speaker
So with all of that in mind, welcome to the show. And I can't wait to get started and hear more about your inspiring journey and the communities you have helped to shape. So between the two of you, who should I pick first? Let's start with A, Anoli.
00:03:38
Speaker
First question for you.
Anoli on Circular Threads Inspiration
00:03:40
Speaker
so you founded your business Circular Threads in 2022. Tell us a bit more about Circular Threads and what inspired you to start this business.
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, so thank you so much for having me. and Really love watching your podcast so far. So excited to be on here. So Circular Threads, we are building the UK's first and fastest growing marketplace for pre-loved South Asian fashion.
00:04:03
Speaker
So I don't know whether any of the listeners have been to and ah South Asian wedding before, but they are extremely extravagant. They are five days long and you require kind of a different outfit for every ceremony across the five days.
00:04:18
Speaker
And now more and more, especially diaspora, they're looking into more lavish weddings, almost as a demonstration of wealth or kind of connection back to their culture. So it's just getting bigger and bigger.
00:04:30
Speaker
And as a result of that, a lot of South Asians have to buy lots of outfits. They tend to kind of go around hubs across the UK to look for their outfits. A lot of people end up flying all the way back to India, buying five or six outfits or kind of pushed into that consumerism mentality that they've only got one week in South Asia or Pakistan. So they kind of, you know, max out um what they need to buy and they overbuy and then come back and you wear the outfits once.
00:05:01
Speaker
for a couple of hours at each of these ceremonies and then um more often than not they don't remain relevant because the types of weddings that you're going to might begin with family members or best friends and then they branch out to kind of you know, more distant relatives or, you know, more distant friends where, you know, the outfits are not as relevant and therefore people kind of grow out of them. They stay under your bed.
00:05:27
Speaker
And each of these outfits are kind of three or four kilograms in weight. And now a few times up by five, you you can see the impact. So from a buying perspective, it's a very difficult process. And then on the other side, you end up kind of storing these outfits and there's no dedicated platform to buy.
00:05:46
Speaker
sell them on and especially when they retain value they retain quality and condition so we're providing an opportunity for people do that so can you tell me a little bit more about what happens on your platform Of course. So like to kind of compare it a little bit to eBay in that you can buy and sell your outfits. But I guess our differentiation is we provide valuations for the outfits.
00:06:13
Speaker
We also um have a store where people can come and try them on. Like most of these outfits are worn at festivals or weddings, and therefore the the order value is slightly higher.
00:06:24
Speaker
And so people do want to try them on and make sure it fits them before they make the purchase. So we have a store and then also you can kind of use the online service as well.
00:06:35
Speaker
And we have a dedicated community of buyers looking to buy the specialist outfit. And I think that's where the biggest differentiator is, because if few sell on other platforms like Vinted and eBay, etc., there's no kind of dedicated community of buyers and sellers that are looking for this specific specialist outfit.
00:06:56
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. and So this is a physical store where people can come and try your these gorgeous langas and saris. Do you also offer a renting option as well? So we have a small rental collection.
00:07:09
Speaker
we do kind of push for people to buy and resell just because you're buying for kind of very special and important events. And so we don't really want people to feel conscious in their outfits and really, you know, a lot of them are quite delicate. So when you're renting, you're constantly worried about things spilling on it, et cetera. Obviously we want to keep them in great condition, but we also want the um recipient to love what they're wearing and feel comfortable in it. And, you know, it's a very important day in their lives. So kind of make sure they feel comfortable. And then
00:07:45
Speaker
off the back of that they can sell it and it's essentially the same as a rental but we do have a very small rental arm for some outfits which are less kind of heavily embroidered and a lot easier to kind of you know prevent damage in as well yeah I mean when I'm dancing around in one of them I don't want to be worried about my heels getting caught and ripping any of it yeah Excellent. Lovely. Thank you, Anoli. And Sol, now to you You founded Give Your Best in 2020 during the pandemic.
Sol's Journey with Give Your Best
00:08:15
Speaker
What inspired you to do this in the middle of a pandemic? And tell us a bit about your business. Yeah, thank you so much for having me as well. And I love hearing your story and Oli as well. I've been following your journey in the secular fashion ecosystem and we've coincided before. And it's just really lovely to hear more more detail about your journey as well.
00:08:34
Speaker
Yes, so ah Give Your Best is a not-for-profit social enterprise and we tackle both clothing waste and clothing poverty. So it's interesting to talk about it being founded in 2020 because really it started in my bedroom with my clothes, not knowing what it was or what it was going to become. I had no plans to get to where we are today.
00:08:55
Speaker
it was literally simply wanting to do something more to support particular communities. So it ah it started because I had been volunteering in humanitarian relief for quite a few years.
00:09:08
Speaker
supporting in refugee camps, primarily in northern France, and also resettled families where I was living in Cambridge at the time. And so i had been ah going almost on a monthly basis to support in the in northern France. And then when the lockdown hit, everything stopped all...
00:09:27
Speaker
ah Charities didn't really didn't know what to do or how to support communities at contact stopped, the trip stopped. And I remember just ah kind of towards the middle of the year when we realized that this was probably here to stay.
00:09:42
Speaker
I remember thinking I needed to do something more. We were trying to support certain in communities via the via phone, e etc. And one of the things that kept coming up was the fact that they didn't have clothing for the transition into different seasons, et cetera.
00:09:59
Speaker
And at the time i was specifically supporting one household of women, around eight women who were seeking asylum and they had been placed in shared accommodation ah by the Home Office. And they were all saying how they essentially they had arrived with nothing. And so at the time i remember thinking, well, I have loads of clothing.
00:10:19
Speaker
that I actually had been storing because I wanted a more meaningful way to donate them. So I wanted to ensure that they were going to someone who needed them for two reasons. One, I had been volunteering part of what I was doing in Northern France was redistribution of clothing. So we were receiving a lot of clothing donations and I saw the amount of waste that existed behind the scenes, even in the charity sector.
00:10:46
Speaker
And then on the other hand, also, Just, I think, probably a few months within that summer, there was a a report that came out to say that revealing how only 20 to 30 percent of donations that are given to charity shops actually go on to be sold, with the rest ending up either in landfill or in the global south.
00:11:07
Speaker
And so I remember all of this was sort of happening in my head with I need to, I wanted to do something to help. I also had all my clothes still there that I didn't know where to donate. And so at the time I thought, I'm going to round up all my friends and let's get clothing together to send to these women. But also at the same time, I knew from my experience that sending a lot of things that they may or may not use, might not be their size, et cetera, could cause more of a problem because they can get moved really quickly and they might not be able to carry it with them. So at the time I thought, okay, i'm going to take pictures of everything that we have.
00:11:42
Speaker
um I'll upload them to a private Instagram page and I'll send them the link so they can choose what is their size, what they like. sort of like to give them also a little bit of a shopping experience and a little bit of agency.
00:11:53
Speaker
And after all of that happened, um I had another call with them and I remember them saying how amazing it was. its It was kind of like a shopping experience that they hadn't had in years.
00:12:03
Speaker
And there was one thing that one of them said, which really kind of stuck with me throughout this whole process, which was that she said, but don't worry about us. Don't go through all of this trouble for us because we're in no position to say no to anything that you give us.
00:12:18
Speaker
And I remember thinking at the time, you know, and I'm generalizing here, but as women, sometimes it's hard to ah assert our own decisions and our own choices. And I thought, well, going through a system that is almost designed to strip you of all of your agency, you're kind of internalizing that you're only worth what you're given rather than being worth your own choices. And I thought, why don't we start restoring that space of agency one item at a time? in might it' You know, we all have clothing in our wardrobes that we don't wear. How about we try this out? way
00:12:53
Speaker
Yeah. And so in the great lockdown of 2020, that's how it all started. But literally with me and a couple of volunteers at first, not knowing where it was all going to go And it was it was actually not until 2022 that we launched our donation platform as it exists today.
00:13:11
Speaker
actually our latest, which is the Pay It Forward store, and we only opened it last year. So yes, the idea was born in 2020, but actually... more recent, the the the biggest sort of entrepreneurial
Clothing Poverty and Fashion Waste
00:13:25
Speaker
journey. i had no background in entrepreneurial anything, not in social enterprise, not in business, not in nothing. My my career was in academia, I was lecturer at university in a completely different field. And so it has been ah huge journey for me to grow this organization, to shape it, to run it. It continues to be a journey for me.
00:13:48
Speaker
So it's quite hard to get our heads around the concept of clothing poverty, ah right? Because on one hand, we hear about so much waste, fashion garments just being thrown away, a lot of waste.
00:14:00
Speaker
Just help us understand that a bit more and share if you could share some data, especially in a first world country like the UK. How do we face this? Yeah, absolutely. And I was incredibly surprised as well, because what started to support one particular vulnerable community actually sort of opened the doors to much wider, a much prevalent issue.
00:14:20
Speaker
And so essentially in the UK, there are currently five and a half million people estimated experiencing clothing poverty. But to me, what is also incredibly shocking is that at the same time, we are throwing away 140 million pounds worth of perfectly good clothing, which means that we could actually be dressing every single person who needs it several times over with the clothes that end up in landfill. And we could actually be solving two issues at the same time. And I kind of got a little bit of inspiration from the food poverty and food waste situation.
00:14:52
Speaker
circular cycle, which actually started a lot earlier and has been proven. There are certain, but there are apps now, there are systems, there's legislation. And and I really did take inspiration from like, I was a user of all your app, for example, and always trying to like reduce waste. And I thought, but this is not happening with non-perishables than with clothing, etc. And so doing more research into it, I realized that it was a hugely prevalent problem.
00:15:21
Speaker
And I think that, as you said, is it's a little bit difficult to sort of wrap our heads around it because that with the rise of fast fashion, i think it's difficult for us to understand that when clothes can be so cheap and easy to access that there can be so many people experiencing clothing poverty.
00:15:41
Speaker
Really, the reality is that when you only have £10 a week and you need to feed your family, you're good you're not going to choose to buy clothing no matter how cheap they are. And a lot of the communities that we support, they don't even have bank accounts. They can't really shop online, etc.
00:15:58
Speaker
There's a whole proportion of the population that is completely left out of the conversation in terms of circularity, in terms of fashion, etc. a lot of the time, fashion is, I guess, considered a little bit frivolous of and really is just a basic right like anything else.
00:16:16
Speaker
And you just very quickly mentioned paid forward as a service.
Pay It Forward Store Model
00:16:20
Speaker
Could you expand on that a bit? Yes, of course. so So our two main services, one is our online platform, which we, it was the first service that we created, and stemming from the whole taking pictures and uploading it to to Instagram. And so we actually developed from scratch a bespoke platform where essentially it's sort of like a vintage for donations. And it's the first one of its kind. So you can Take a picture of an item that you want to donate, you upload it to the platform, and then everything that is uploaded for donation then can be shopped for free by the around 5,000 people that are currently using our services. That list grows all the time. We received a few thousand items uploaded every month, and it
00:17:01
Speaker
the platform, it's completely sold out on a weekly basis. So with that need, unfortunately, we are barely managing to to tackle that need. um And on the other hand, last year, we opened the first Bay It Forward store, which is currently in Islington in in London.
00:17:16
Speaker
And the idea, um it was kind of to bring that idea from the platform into supporting our community in person, because we started doing online for lots down reasons. And so what we do at the store is we now sell clothing to the general public from donation secondhand donations, but also from our brand partners that donate excess stock. And so we ensure that all of those clothes are diverted from landfill. But at the same time, each item that we sell directly funds someone from our community to come to the same shop to shop for free. So essentially, the concept is that whether you can afford it or not, you get the same treatment, the same stock, the same clothes.
00:17:59
Speaker
and So essentially, we want to, again, restore that dignity, that empowerment, e etc. Amazing. I mean, you're both tackling fashion waste from very different ends of the spectrum, whether that's everyday basics that you wear to the grocery store or the park.
00:18:14
Speaker
or special occasions wear like wedding dresses. But I think the message is the same, isn't
Conscious Consumption and Shopping Habits
00:18:19
Speaker
it? Conscious consumption matters everywhere and change can happen when we make, actually change can only happen when we make thoughtful choices in all parts of our wardrobe, no matter the occasion.
00:18:31
Speaker
so Just helping our listeners understand a little bit more about what is conscious consumption and how do you see initiatives like like yours really reshaping how people are thinking about shopping in the future? Enolly?
00:18:45
Speaker
Conscious consumption, yeah. i Our entire business kind of hinges on that. And I think I kind of mentioned it earlier in the sense of the habits that we have ah across our community because of the accessibility of outfits.
00:19:00
Speaker
people are kind of pushed into overconsumption and pushed into buying more and more and more. And it's multifaceted. It's the the aspects of kind of demonstrating, so especially our consumer tends to be diaspora. So people living outside of South Asian countries.
00:19:17
Speaker
So it's kind of that trying to reconnect back to your culture through demonstrating that they have access to really beautiful outfits or the latest trends the latest designers.
00:19:28
Speaker
But then also kind of that lack of ah accessibility being such a key factor so that when you do have access to the outfits, you end up kind of over consuming, over compensating for what you can find during that time. And I think we've got into this terrible cycle and habit of kind of just buying when we can and over over buying that items just end up stored in wardrobes and closets and then to be never worn again.
00:19:59
Speaker
So I think what we're trying to do is really change that behavior into thinking, okay, how What is my cost per wear for this outfit? What other ways can I wear this outfit? And actually, if I know that I'm unable to wear it again, how can I get the best value for the outfit if I decide to resell it?
00:20:18
Speaker
And we kind of do that education piece throughout the journey throughout the consumption journey so that people are already thinking about OK, what's the best way to resell or what value can I get out of this outfit versus just I need to buy as many as I can because I can't. I find it difficult to find.
00:20:36
Speaker
So with you um and your community, how do you see maybe you touched upon this a little bit, but how do you see fashion influence personal identity and foster a sense of belonging within community?
Fashion, Identity, and Community Empowerment
00:20:48
Speaker
And in what ways has your platform really empowered individuals to express themselves or connect with others through clothing choices?
00:20:56
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think similarly to Anoli as well, we there are two sides to what we do actually. On the one hand, we do want to similarly as well ah reshape that relationship that you have with your clothes by the knowledge that they can have a positive impact on someone else. And so for us, Yes, there's an aspect of consumption as well, but also of what happens to the clothes after.
00:21:20
Speaker
And that also influences at the point of consumption as well. And so a lot of the people that donate clothes with us, they actually have garments that they are very attached to and that they have there's there's meaning in them as well. And so for them to be able to pass them on to someone that they know is going to to really make use of it is very important. And I think, I mean, I donate my own clothes and on our platform all the time, of course, but I think having that knowledge that on the other side of the parcel that you're sending, there's a woman that is my same size and has my same fashion sense because she's shopping my wardrobe.
00:21:59
Speaker
but it's living in very difficult and different circumstances. I think you're connecting through that item of clothing in a way that you might not be able to otherwise. And I think that there is that aspect of meaning and attachment and changing that kind of behavior of of that disposability of of items, which I think with the rise of fast fashion, that's something that has really taken over.
00:22:25
Speaker
And of course, so the other on the other hand, the communities that we support, um there is research that shows the importance of fashion and clothing and being able to express yourself within your well-being, your access to work opportunities, your access to education, your social life, your mental health actually the way that you present yourself has an impact on so many aspects of our life. And when we don't have access to that, the detriment to to to everything in our life is actually a lot wider and bigger than we might. and
00:23:02
Speaker
And so i think we always get um the feedback from our community of how important it is for them to be able to choose the clothes that make them feel good in the in the style that makes them feel good. And a couple of months ago, we got an email from one of our shoppers to say how she was so happy to be able to choose a few garments that wear the color purple because in her culture, color purple means strength and resilience and bravery. And so she was like, I'm so happy to be able to wear something purple because it makes me feel stronger in these very difficult circumstances. And I thought,
00:23:42
Speaker
that is exactly what we're trying to achieve. It was just kind of like very much capturing the essence of what we're trying to do. Yeah, that's super inspiring. So because I think that's a lot of like synergies with our platform as well in terms of the stories. So like transferring that story from one person to another, especially when there's such amazing kind of memories associated to these outfits. And I think that's very similar, I guess, Sol, in your circumstances. Yeah. Especially for you, Ayoly, because these these garments are so intricate and so special and used, always worn in very special occasions, right? Exactly. And it's it's the meaning and it's also that sentimental value that gets passed on was is really beautiful. So like some of our sellers kind of speak to our buyers and once they see the buyer wearing the outfit, creating new memories in that outfit, it's like another but value add to the to the end-to-end transaction, which...
00:24:41
Speaker
as a platform that allows that connection. And I assume, Sol, you feel the same way as once you've made just one transaction, it makes three like parts of the value chain like you know super happy. And I think that keeps us going because you see those stories, you see the continuation of these stories outfits that would have otherwise been just stored for years years to come so yeah that I really enjoyed listening to that as well because it it really resonates when when it comes to like storytelling yeah that's a very good point it kind of it's it goes beyond the circularity of the actual garment which yes from an environmental perspective of course is important but also is the circularity of the story behind it and the meaning behind it as well which I think sometimes we'd we'd lose touch with that side of it
00:25:28
Speaker
And clearly building that community has been such a crucial part of your business and and so important to your business.
Building Communities and Overcoming Challenges
00:25:36
Speaker
But how did you go about creating that community and the connections?
00:25:41
Speaker
Because it's easy to look back now and see, I've got 5,000, 10,000 people in my community, but it's hard work to build that up and to keep people in that community and to feel like they belong there. And what were the key steps you kind of took to nurture ah the community and to continue growing it?
00:25:57
Speaker
And now, Leigh? Yeah. So i guess to to begin with, similar to Seoul, it started from my bedroom as well, looking at my outfit. So and during lockdown, I was kind of, but I saw the rise of Vinted and eBay and, ah you know, they were already super um successful platforms. But then I thought to myself, okay, um I was kind of reorganizing my wardrobe, reorganizing my outfits. And then I came across 12 South Asian outfits in my loft, taking up half of the loft. And ah firstly, the first thought that came to my mind was, wow, like, I can't believe I have 12 to begin with.
00:26:36
Speaker
And secondly, why are they just sitting there here? and And, you know, it's such a ah waste. So I went to the usual platforms, eBay, Vinted, and try to sell so the outfits. But I was having to dramatically disccount discount them. And then, ah as I was mentioning before, the consumption process for these outfits was super onerous. It was difficult. and I ended up going to India to buy them. And then it was expensive on top of that.
00:27:02
Speaker
And now they're just sitting there, but like rotting away. So tried to sell them... got absolutely you know I was having to sell them for £10, £20 to get any sort of traction.
00:27:13
Speaker
And it it was because there was no kind of dedicated community of buyers looking for the outfits. And those finite number of people who were looking for the outfits weren't willing to pay lot because they knew that obviously that wasn't the demand wasn't so high.
00:27:29
Speaker
So um that's when I kind of set out to say, okay, why is there nothing for South Asian outfits? And there's a whole entire industry that's getting missed off the map. And that that's a lot of the work that we're doing is to actually put it but South Asian South Asian ethnic wear on the same kind of map and the same level when we come to talking about fast fashion. Like when we think about fast fashion, we think about Shein, we think about H&M, but we don't ever put ethnic wear on this map. And the production process for these outfits is hugely damaging, let alone, you know, the consumption process as well.
00:28:04
Speaker
So, um, Back to the point of community. um We, um off the back of that, when I tried to sell the outfits on eBay and Vinted, did some initial market research. We got about 300 responses across the uk with results that really resonated, which was,
00:28:22
Speaker
We want a a dedicated platform for South Asian outfits and we want to sell our outfits, but we just have nowhere to do it. And that's what gave me the drive to actually build ah a very quick and dirty MVP and see like what the response was. And off the back of that, we started like on day one, we started seeing sales.
00:28:40
Speaker
And we grew ah an Instagram account. And a lot of South Asians resonate with the problem. we just haven't had a solution for the problem. And because we were the first to kind of build that solution, that got a lot of initial traction. and But in order to retain that engagement and grow the engagement has been great.
00:28:59
Speaker
difficult because you you're needing to make sure that every message out there resonates with your audience. You need to make sure that you know people really, that they're continuing to see the growth as well because that allows them to think, okay, this is actually, you know the more people in the community means the more people to buy my outfits, which which means you know and but like that retains the kind of engagement there. so It's a very different, there's different challenges now so when we started building out the community, but it shows that you really need to evolve your messaging and what type of content you're putting out there as your community grows as well.
00:29:42
Speaker
I was also thinking about recycling one of these garments. I don't even know where to begin. i mean, it's hard enough trying to recycle a pair of jeans, you know, exactly um and the amount of embroidery and the metalwork threads and things involved in it. Yeah. So the more you can keep it going around, the better. do you have any data on that?
Sustainability in South Asian Fashion
00:30:02
Speaker
The production process is hugely wasteful. On average, about each Lenga weighs between three and five kilograms. um And then for bridal Lenga, so it can go up to 20 kilograms, which is, yeah. So if you can imagine the textile waste, and the back of that.
00:30:19
Speaker
A lot of people do, ah sustainability is very inherent in South Asian culture. And this is where the question mark kind of arose to me, which was, because it's so inherent in the South Asian culture, why are we not being sustained when it comes to our clothing? And digging in deeper, people are sustainable with their clothing. They just, and that's why a lot of it is hoarded. A lot of it is kept in lofts.
00:30:44
Speaker
A lot of it is kept in suitcases because people think, okay, one day I'm going to wear this outfit. but then it just stays there for years to come. And I think that's the kind of difference which is for consumers are just kind of holding onto to pieces and then that's fueling the additional production because even though people have outfits,
00:31:07
Speaker
that the accessibility is is the issue. So I think when Sol was talking about clothing poverty, and i i I think it's kind of translated in a different way, which is like clothing scarcity in our case.
00:31:19
Speaker
but But the irony is that there it's not scarce, it's just not accessible. We're trying to kind of take them out of people's wardrobes and cupboards and closets and make them accessible so that we don't need that overproduction.
00:31:33
Speaker
And then coming back to your question on statistics, I think so far we've saved over 3 million litres of water based on the sales that we've done. And, you know, I think the entire production process is wasteful from water to to textile waste to the number of man hours on each outfit. I don't know if you remember, but Priyanka Chopra's outfit took over six months and over 300 workers just on one outfit. And you think like,
00:32:01
Speaker
Okay, when you extrapolate that out, it's just so wasteful. And it's also kind of disrespecting the work and the artisanal work that goes into these pieces when they're just kind of withering away when they have so much life in them.
00:32:18
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
Managing Diverse Communities and Corporate Education
00:32:20
Speaker
And so I feel like you juggle quite a few different communities. So you have the people who need these clothes. You have people who want to donate and you have corporates that you're trying to get on board as well.
00:32:33
Speaker
How do you manage all of them? Because it's very different groups of people, very different messaging and stories for each of them. Yeah, and then we have the biggest community of all, which is our volunteers, because we have hundreds of volunteers that are supporting our efforts as well.
00:32:48
Speaker
um And truly, we are community first in the sense that without all of those different different community groups, and especially our volunteers, we just wouldn't be able to achieve that.
00:33:00
Speaker
a fraction of what we have achieved so far. And when we started, one of the advantages that we had at the time to start creating community, which actually grew on social media quite rapidly on over the first like year and a half, two years, was primarily that during lockdown, there was this like urgent surgence of sort of mutual aid community groups.
00:33:23
Speaker
You know how every every neighborhood had ah had a mutual aid group, et cetera. And I think that there was a lot of appetite for people to support others. And so...
00:33:34
Speaker
quite quickly, we had a lot of support. And we started online. And I think over lockdown, everyone was chronically online. And so on social media, it grew quite quickly, people started sharing, etc. And so we we started getting a lot more donations, a lot more volunteers. we Back then, we had a lot more volunteers, the a lot of them still with us years later.
00:33:58
Speaker
But now when we do call-ups for volunteers, we get a little bit fewer, because of course, people are out living their lives now Whereas before everyone, was a different dynamic. And so we did grow quite quickly. But as you say, we do have sort of different, almost like stakeholder communities within our work.
00:34:16
Speaker
Of course, one of the most important ones for us is the community of people that we support who come referred to us via our partner charities. we have ah an extensive list of charities who refer them to our support.
00:34:31
Speaker
And We try as much as possible to include them in the work that we do. So something that is very important for us as an organization is to have lived experience representation in the development of new services.
00:34:45
Speaker
Like, for example, when we created the platform or when we opened the shop to employ people from the community that we support in our board of directors, they work with us. And of course, then our donors are a big part of our community as well. And what we try to do as much as possible is to For example, host events where everyone can come together. so i don't know if you've seen that we had our annual fashion show last Friday. I'm still recovering from it. okay it' It's always such an intense time of the year, our fashion show. but
00:35:17
Speaker
One of the ways in which we wanted to bring all of these communities together was in this fashion show that we started in 2022. And the idea is that all of the models in the fashion show are refugees from the communities that we support.
00:35:31
Speaker
And then we partner with sustainable fashion brands or designers, and we bring together businesses, fashion brands, the corporates, et cetera. And the idea is that it's a celebration of our work, of the fashion the power that fashion can have for good.
00:35:49
Speaker
um And also really it's very important for us to to shift narratives and and behaviors as well, because there is such negative rhetoric surrounding refugees most of the time.
00:36:01
Speaker
And so what we want to do is to show anyone who comes to our show that actually with a little bit of empowerment and a little bit of of a beautiful outfits, actually refugees are just beautiful women like the rest of us and that love to dress up and love to have a good time.
00:36:18
Speaker
And so we want to sort to of try to uplift all of our communities and empower them and and bring them together to support our work, essentially. What's the sort of education work or awareness work that you might have had to do with the corporates and to get them on board?
00:36:35
Speaker
We do that education piece way with our corporates in terms of delivering. We deliver education sessions on Lunch and Learns. We organize in-house volunteering days as well for staff where we speak about our work. We always bring with us someone with lived experience to talk about their experiences as well.
00:36:57
Speaker
And essentially to try to get people involved have have a an understanding not only of clothing and poverty and the communities that it affects, but also fashion circularity. So whenever we, um for our corporate partners, when we do volunteering days, we essentially set up the whole circle of that circularity of the garment.
00:37:18
Speaker
We'll have people bring their clothes, they We clean them, we photograph them, we upload them to the platform. And because unfortunately, the need is such that items start getting shopped within 10 minutes.
00:37:29
Speaker
And in a span of maybe two hours of or three hours of one of these volunteering days, we process this over hundreds of orders in the span of two hours.
00:37:39
Speaker
And so I think people can really see the whole cycle of how and an item of clothing can really support certain communities. And so we encourage people to write notes of support to go in with the packages, etc, which are very meaningful for our community as well.
00:37:55
Speaker
um And so yes, we try as much as possible to add to that element of education as well. um We also try to engage in policy and with government as well as much as possible.
00:38:09
Speaker
New organization, it can be a little bit difficult to penetrate all of these ah kind of layers for partnerships or for policy. But we are very persistent. we yeah going Brilliant. I love that.
00:38:25
Speaker
So while I was doing some digging around and research on both of you, I realized that neither of you actually come from a fashion or textile or retail background even. Enoli,
Anoli's Career Transition
00:38:36
Speaker
you completed your MBA at London Business School.
00:38:39
Speaker
And before that, you were at the London School of Economics, where you did your BSc in Geography and Economic. Then you worked at Ernst & Young, so a very corporate job for six years.
00:38:50
Speaker
What happened? What motivated you to lead into your corporate world? To build a startup, which is just, it is the hardest thing anyone can set out to do, I think. i wish someone would have told me that it was the hardest thing. Tell me about it. Tell me about it. So again, just, you know, have a startup in the circular economy space. And also, how did your past experience and the learnings that you had from your business school and others help you approach your business and how you built it?
00:39:20
Speaker
Yeah, as you say, a very crazy decision that I made. but I think for me, it was very much that there was a problem that I wanted to solve. Like I was so obsessed with this problem and how many other people also had the exact same problem that I've spent four years, like, you know, trying to find a solution for and build the solution out. And I think that in order to kind of have that tenacity,
00:39:50
Speaker
you really need to care about what you're doing and care about the impact that you're having. But back to kind of my background, I think I was in management consultancy, specifically in change, working on change programs.
00:40:03
Speaker
And then I kind of moved into the technology and innovation space. So a combination of those two things kind of drew me into the kind of obsession with solving a problem that I really felt myself and felt that we really need a solution for that's getting completely missed off the map, overlooked, and you know nobody's operating in that space.
00:40:26
Speaker
And then my background in you know geography with economics, I was always very interested in kind of the development of the South and and looking into kind of sustainability and the impact that we're having on on the environment.
00:40:40
Speaker
i think slowly but surely throughout my journey, my like small triggers that basically brought me to where I am now and made me realize that this is what I want to be doing and the problem that I want to be solving and and a problem that so many other people have. And I think back to the community element, we have our buyers, we have our sellers and we have boutiques as well that want to work with us to sell their samples on with us. And as we've been building out the solution, we've realized actually how many different cohorts of stakeholders that our
00:41:13
Speaker
platform actually impact in a positive way. And all of that is just reinforcement to why we need the business and why we need the platform. and Yeah, such an important point that you brought there. You were obsessed with the problem. And i think that's the heart of being a founder. You need to find a problem that you're going to be obsessed with for many, many, many years, because it really is about perseverance, a lot of blood, sweat and tears as you try and build it up.
00:41:39
Speaker
And if you're obsessed with a problem, you will come out the other end as well. ah Now to you, Saul. You did your undergrad in neurophysiology and then your MSc in translation and teaching English to speakers of other languages.
00:41:53
Speaker
You were managing international language syllabus at Cambridge University. Before that, you were at the University of Essex. You're an aid worker at Calais, so many different things you've done, world completely separated from fashion.
00:42:07
Speaker
What motivated you to transition from that career and build a venture in fashion, retail and circular economy?
Sol's Career Reflection and Motivation
00:42:15
Speaker
Yeah, good question. Yes, I'm one of those people that has lived a million lives. actually I'm also old enough to have on lived a million lives.
00:42:25
Speaker
um And so, yes, first degree I started, um it was neuropsychology. And that was when I was very young. I left my country when I was 19 to go and study abroad.
00:42:37
Speaker
And from there started just essentially the rest of my life. traveling the world. I never went back to my country. I've been back twice in 25 years. And so essentially from there, it took me, my journey took me to many different places and living in in many different countries until I as sent eventually came to the UK and settled here. And that was in 2006, so it's going to be nearly 20 years now that I've been living in the UK.
00:43:06
Speaker
And when I came here, actually, after having traveled and lived in many countries, I fell in love with cultures and languages. And so I went back to university to do entirely new career, essentially.
00:43:19
Speaker
So I studied linguistics and languages. I did my master's in also in linguistics and teaching. And then from there, I became a lecturer and I started my career in academia, essentially, which is what I was doing at Essex University.
00:43:33
Speaker
And a few years ago, I came to Cambridge and I started working at Cambridge University more in the development of curriculum, etc. And that is something that I still do. I still work at Cambridge part time for two reasons. Why? Because I still love it.
00:43:49
Speaker
um I'm one of those people that I love to do many different things at the same time. And, but also because a startup is a hard thing to do financially and I've got a mortgage to pay. And so I need to have another part-time job so that my organization pays me a part-time salary, but we also employ 10 other people. And so i still kind of live that double life, which suits me so far.
00:44:15
Speaker
So, you know, it's an, an, You never know within the startup how the future is going to look. So there's that a little bit of security in still having my other my other career.
00:44:27
Speaker
I guess for me, that that having that background, what has it it has helped me because I have this insatiable curiosity and need to learn new things. I love learning new things.
00:44:40
Speaker
And so whenever I do something and I get to a point where I'm like, oh, I think I just, you know, I know everything there is to know about this. Now I want to move on to the next thing and learn everything about that. And so that's sort of what happened um with this. i was I discovered a whole new world of social entrepreneurship and running an organization, and I had no idea how to do any of it.
00:45:03
Speaker
And all of a sudden I found myself an accidental founder of a nonprofit. And so I thought, well, Now is a good opportunity to learn everything there is to learn about it. So I started doing incubators and accelerators and any program that will have me and that would teach me around this organization. I continue to do so.
00:45:22
Speaker
ah There's still so much to learn. And so I think that ah in that sense, having that background in in education and also in traveling and cultures, et cetera, it really did shape where I am now that also kind of gives me this perspective of who knows what's going to happen in 10 years.
00:45:41
Speaker
If you asked me 10 years ago, would I be doing this now? I would have said never in my life. But also 10 years ago, I didn't know that I was capable of doing what I'm doing now. And so that I think that as we grow older and as someone in her 40s, I can confidently say as you grow older, you can always reinvent yourself and you can always...
00:46:01
Speaker
learn new things and you can always follow your dreams, whatever they might be at whatever stage of your life. Absolutely. i love that. And like you mentioned, being an entrepreneur is an extremely tough journey.
Failures, Learning, and Resilience
00:46:12
Speaker
It's filled with both very exhilarating moments of success, but also many failures.
00:46:18
Speaker
So are there any sort of favorite failures or projects or experiments that really didn't go to plan? If you can share a bit of but about that and how that may have ended up opening up new doors or highlighting an overlooked opportunity.
00:46:32
Speaker
I think the journey of entrepreneurship, there's lots of ups and downs. um And I think one that kind of shouts out to me is I think when we first started, initially we launched our Instagram and our um our website and we were reaching out to influencers to kind of support our mission and our journey.
00:46:52
Speaker
And there was one influencer we reached out to. we tried every channel as you do. so he do we tried email, Instagram DMs, And we just got no response, not even, we couldn't even see that that she'd read it, et cetera.
00:47:06
Speaker
And then about ah year later, that same influencer reached out to us and was a fully like paying paying member. She has over a million followers. And I think like, it really shows that, you know, eventually if you want to get to someone, you can firstly, and secondly, timing is so important. for when to approach specific people. And I feel like we got, I never thought, you know, like when we did first reached out, it was a long shot. It was a whole new platform.
00:47:37
Speaker
And we thought, okay, why not try? and then when she did it, when she did the full circle, she was like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I didn't even realize, but I'm glad you reached out because it meant that you were in a certain inbox. And then it allowed her to kind of find out that we were actually existing, we're a legitimate company, et cetera.
00:47:55
Speaker
And I think that, yeah, like what felt like a failure when we first reached out, it it wasn't. It was just kind of a stepping stone into into where we got to. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It's definitely, now I know, I think kind of like in hindsight, you realise that what you thought at the time were failures and that then actually became, as you say, a nollie stepping stones for the next um the next phase. But I think if there is something that this journey has taught me is about failure and about rejection because we continue to be, but especially at the beginning of the journey, we were essentially 100% grant funded and we were very lucky to be able to raise a considerable amount of grant funding, but that was through sheer determination and continuing to to try and try and
00:48:48
Speaker
I didn't know anything also either about writing grant applications. I just had the passion and the idea and I thought, surely everyone is going to see how a great idea this is.
00:48:58
Speaker
um And when you start getting rejection after rejection, i think there is is a little bit of like exposure therapy because at the time, especially at the beginning, and sometimes it happens now as well, you know, it's it's hard to take these rejections because you think,
00:49:14
Speaker
Well, it makes you think, is it actually that my idea is not worth it or it's am I doing something wrong? But I think something that I learned quite quickly was that, again, these rejections may be a stepping stone, maybe a learning opportunity. One perfect example, the first really big funding that we got was from Innovate UK, which is very yeah famously incredibly difficult to get.
00:49:41
Speaker
um I applied twice and didn't get it. I keep getting a lot of feedback and a lot of feedback. And every time I was a little bit higher on the league table. And eventually i thought, okay, one more time, even though it's incredibly onerous to apply for Innovate UK.
00:49:57
Speaker
And I thought, I'm just going to keep trying and see what happens. And eventually the third time we did get the funding and sort of I tried to get to to carry that kind of resiliency throughout it as well. And, you know, sometimes we get a lot of funding and sometimes we don't get any for months. And so it can be very testing and and stressful. But those failures certainly teach you to keep going, at least in my case.
00:50:22
Speaker
Yeah. And just just to jump off the back of that, like the fundraising process for us was just us kind of, you have to have real personal resilience as well to kind of not take everything to heart, but also to recognise that your problem, you know, not everybody has the same problem and that other people won't have the same kind of, they won't place the same importance to the business as you do. So,
00:50:46
Speaker
but you need to just tap into the right people who do. And I think it's kind of finding those people because there's enough of those people out there, but not everyone is going to care in the same way as you do about aspects that you do.
00:51:02
Speaker
That's true. What does success look like for
Defining Success and Cultural Change
00:51:05
Speaker
both of you? i mean, is it based on numbers, impact, cultural shift or something else? What does success look like? Sol, for you?
00:51:13
Speaker
That is a very good question. And you I think that the measure of success keeps changing all the time for me. And sometimes like I, don't know, sometimes I feel like,
00:51:24
Speaker
You know, we've had some really great achievements this year, also personally, you know, awards and things like that. But then when, you know, last Friday, when I went to the fashion show and I was talking to the women that we actually support and them telling me the impact that all of this has on them.
00:51:42
Speaker
I actually, it really brings it back. And I think, oh, no, actually, this is what what we're doing, what we're doing. It's not for the partnerships and it's not for the funding, although all of that is the means to an end.
00:51:53
Speaker
But actually, this is what we're doing this for. And I kind of feel like I need to, that's the one thing that i hold on to myself, because I feel like,
00:52:04
Speaker
i'm not I'm never going to be able to solve the entire refugee crisis by myself or the entire clothing poverty crisis. But if I can make one person's life and journey a tiny little bit easier, then that is the success for me, I think. Also, as an immigrant myself, I know but as an immigrant, but also as as a very privileged one that had the correct passport to be able to come and and settle here that spoke English at the time. I'm white. And so like for me was, and even then it was incredibly difficult for me to create a life here.
00:52:42
Speaker
I didn't know anyone. i didn't know how anything worked. And sometimes I kind of feel like There's such a huge discrepancy with the way that I am treated as an immigrant and the way that the women that we support are treated.
00:52:56
Speaker
And my journey through living in six countries to come and settle here is seen as adventurous. And their journey, even though I could go back to my country, and their journey when they can't is seen as, you know, criminal.
00:53:07
Speaker
So like all of these kind of, it's such a rooted problem and that is really close to my heart. And I kind of feel like whenever I talk to the community that we support, that all kind of comes together. And I think that that is for me what the achievement and the success metric is.
00:53:24
Speaker
Absolutely. That's really powerful. Thank you. So how about yourself and Oli? yeah it's super inspiring so for us i would say like our overall mission is to make pre-loved the first choice for when people are buying ethnic wear um and right now it's i guess behavior behaviorally it's just about coming to the mindsets of people to think that they can buy pre-love so now i've and transitioning that into it being the first choice is that we still have a way to go but we want people to realize that you can still buy outfits that are brand essentially brand new lot of them haven't even been worn because we discussed earlier you know people are overbuying they're not even wearing the outfits and they're getting stored
00:54:09
Speaker
You can buy brand new perfect condition outfits that have been cleaned for a fraction of the price. And it just makes so much more sense. And you can then sell sell it on. So we just want to try and get people into this behavior, into this motion of buying pre-owned and selling them again, especially for very gently used outfits.
00:54:30
Speaker
And then kind of increasing that accessibility and getting South Asian fashion on the map when it comes to talking about fast fashion and and waste in the in the fashion industry globally.
00:54:42
Speaker
So I think there's a lot of work happening in getting South Asian fashion to the global stage in general. But I think now it's also putting a spotlight on the fast fashion industry when it comes to South Asian fashion as well, and then more widely for ethnic queer.
00:54:58
Speaker
So what's your call to action for the listeners today? How can people get involved in your community and be part of this incredible movement that each of you have created?
Community Participation and Support
00:55:07
Speaker
Sol? Yeah, there are so many different ways in which people can support our work and get involved.
00:55:12
Speaker
Of course, number one, Reaching to your closet for that that those items that you never wear is so easy to make a difference in someone's life. You can donate it through our platform. Super easy. Take a picture of it and upload it.
00:55:24
Speaker
um You can donate it via our shop in Eastlington as well. We also have a network of a few hundred volunteers who are called our Give Your Besties. And what our besties do is they act as essentially sorting centers in their community. So if anyone has its moving house and doesn't have time to upload things, they can apply to be connected to a bestie in your community. And then you can drop off your clothes and she or he will take pictures of everything and upload it to the platform, et cetera. People can volunteer with us as well. We have a lot of different roles on our website and of course donate to our fundraiser as well. Follow us on socials and most importantly, tell people that we exist because we depend on word of mouth as well for people to know that we're an option to donate clothing.
00:56:11
Speaker
Absolutely. And Ali, how can people get involved? Yes, very similar. So reach into your closet if you have any South Asian outfits that you do want to sell. I know A lot of South Asians do. But even if you're not South Asian, if you've been to a wedding if you have any outfits, feel free to upload them to our website. Super easy to do. And if you want to come into our store, it's in Northwest London and Bushy. We would love to see you.
00:56:36
Speaker
We're also hosting a bunch of different events. we We tend to host pop-ups and every quarter, but we're also doing quite a lot for Diwali. So Follow us on socials and we will will be sharing our timetable of events that we're putting together. And I think the best way to keep in touch with us is through our socials or coming to visit us in person. We'd love to meet you.
00:56:57
Speaker
Brilliant. I'll put both your socials in the show notes so people can find you very quickly. I know we talked about selling our clothes and and passing it on, but sometimes, you know, I think textiles are so powerful and they can have can have a really deep connection with you and you don't want to let go of that one thing that's in your closet. You never fit into it again, but you still want hold on to it. It's got some special memories.
Sentimental Value of Clothing
00:57:20
Speaker
Is there a story that you can share with us about a textile or a piece of cloth, a garment that you hold on to because of the story that's deeply connected to it? For me, like what gives me more sentimental value is seeing someone else wear something that I've owned. And I'm like, ah that would have literally been in my wardrobe for a very long time.
00:57:40
Speaker
ah Even when you kind of give hand-me-downs or your cousin wears something and loves, you know, she like had an amazing time. There's photos of her wearing and she's it. She feels really good and empowered and confident in yeah one of your outfits that you would have just kept in your wardrobe for ages. And it just feels really, that for me gives me the sentimental value too. Yeah, absolutely. And actually, likewise, it had it happened a couple of months ago that someone from our community that when we did an event, she had bought something that I had donated. and some she was learning yeah And that happens as well. Whenever we post like pictures of our community on social media, we get DMs of people saying, oh, she's wearing my dress.
00:58:20
Speaker
I got a message the other day from one of our brides and she was like, please, please, can you send this to the cell? Like all her wedding photos to the cellar. Like she made my day, like, you know, this is the best day of my life. And it was, but you know, like she would played a massive part in it. So like it's things like that that make me feel really like, okay.
00:58:38
Speaker
yeah I'm getting goosebumps listening to these stories okay last couple of questions very quickly tell us a bit about your background where are you from where'd you grow up and what was sort of your interesting curiosity growing up ah so I grew up in northwest London i was born and brought up there I'm a second generation Indian my mom is Punjabi my dad is Gujarati and actually more and more and I'm having more conversations about second generation and identity and kind of where do you affiliate to and doing my MBA, there's people from kind of everywhere. And i think we've been having this conversation a lot in that I'm referred to amongst my MBA peers as British, but I don't identify as British, even though I was born here, I feel very much Indian. So it's kind of this interesting mix. um as a second generation.
00:59:28
Speaker
But yeah, born and brought up in London, but i do feel like I have the values and culture an Indian. And what kind of sparked curiosity growing up?
00:59:39
Speaker
I would say um that kind of identity association has led me even more into the business that I'm growing right now, which is there's a lot of second generation South Asians in in the UK and a lot of people kind of feeling the same thing. And this is a way that I am able to reconnect with my culture in that deeper level because growing up, it was always kind of something that i Shan feels like a very strong word, but it was something that i kind of shied away from versus len into. And now I'm kind of, i feel like I'm leaning into it more. And this is my way of kind of connecting back to my culture as well.
01:00:18
Speaker
Amazing. Amazing. So you briefly touched upon your background, but tell us a
Guests' Backgrounds and Personal Growth
01:00:23
Speaker
bit more. Where are you from and where did you grow up? And, you know, you seem to have lived in six countries. So tell us a little bit about that journey as well. Yeah. So I was ah born and raised in Uruguay in South America. My family, part of it is ah Italian. So I have dual citizenship, Uruguayan and Italian, hence why I was able to settled in the UK.
01:00:44
Speaker
And I, yes, I grew up there. I went to school there until I left when I was 19. And I left to go study abroad. So to go and do my university studies on abroad.
01:00:57
Speaker
Growing up, I guess I was probably what led me to then leave at such a young age is I was always obsessed with the world. I always wanted to know what was going on out there, what else there was. I i used to love languages as well. I was successful in English and at a really early age as well. And I think this was at a time, i mean, I'm in my 40s. I grew up in the 80s and 90s. And so having grown up in South America in that time, but there was no internet. There was no...
01:01:29
Speaker
and social media, there was no access to world in the way that we have it today. So to me, it was such a, it was so far away, world, that I always was fascinated by this like mysterious world.
01:01:45
Speaker
that was happening beyond ah the time in my tiny little country. um And so I think that is sort of what spurred me to decide when I was young that I wanted to go and study abroad and got a scholarship to go study in Canada. And that's kind of like what started it all. Yeah.
01:02:02
Speaker
Yeah, so after Canada, so I did my my first undergraduate there and then i had this Italian passport all of a sudden and I had never been to Italy. So I thought, why not? I just can't do this.
01:02:15
Speaker
In the way that you do when you're in your early 20s and your frontal hasn't developed yet you have concept of consequences so um so yeah so I just I literally without I didn't really have any family left in Italy so I just with my uh with my passport I just decided to move to Italy that's that's how it all started ah moved to Italy and then I lived in a few other different countries within Europe because once I was in Europe I was it blew my mind how you had so many different countries, different languages, cultures in such a condensed landmass. And so I just started traveling and what was supposed to be one year, it turned into about five.
01:02:55
Speaker
And so um eventually I came to to the UK to continue my studies, et cetera. Yep. If you could start over, what would you do differently? What would you tell your younger self, and knowing what you know now?
01:03:08
Speaker
Very difficult to keep that one brief, but I think there's so many things that I would have done differently in hindsight. I think that that's key. Like hindsight, is it's very easy to say like, oh no, I should have fundraised earlier. I should have you know started this 10 years ago. Like we would be in such a different place or I wish I knew x I know now back then. But I think it's very, when you're starting and especially like, I think in the case of me and Seoul, like we're,
01:03:40
Speaker
paving a whole new route to something where our platforms didn't exist before, our solution didn't exist before. So it's I feel like I'm kind of like going through the woods, kind of just trying to find a path.
01:03:54
Speaker
And so I think that If we were to do it again, i think it would be a very similar journey because so the learnings that we've now, sorry, I'm speaking on behalf of both of us, but the learnings that I've had now are allowing me to pave that way. and I think going through the failures that we spoke about before and going through all of that ah is making that path clearer and clearer.
01:04:16
Speaker
So, um, you know If I was to to do this again, i i would kind of want the same want to have the same learnings that I'm having now. If only it could be sped up, that would be amazing. But I think that that's kind of just the journey we have to go through understand. I would say the biggest thing would probably be, i do wish I fundraised a little bit earlier, just so that we could have accelerated the pace um and got more support earlier.
01:04:43
Speaker
But again, you know, that's said in hindsight. saying Oh, that's beautiful. Thank you so much, Anoli. You're such an inspiration to all of us and especially ah to South Asian, British South Asian communities as well and young girls who are looking to sort of start off on a new journey. It doesn't always have to be that corporate job that your parents really want you to have.
01:05:03
Speaker
There are other options as well. So thank you for being an inspiration and joining us today. and how about you? If you could start over, what would you do differently? Or what would you tell your younger self knowing what you know today? yeah I think similarly to Anoli, it's really interesting to to hear her discuss kind of her journey and but and in her in hindsight what she would do because I completely agree. Yes, there are things that I wish I had known, but I think...
01:05:32
Speaker
Had I known then all of the things that I know now, i would have been a completely different person. And so I think that the person who started Give Your Best needed to not know anything.
01:05:46
Speaker
yeah Because that kind of like shaped... my, I guess, my creativity and my, the ideas that I had, because I didn't have a concept of how hard it was going to be.
01:05:59
Speaker
And so i just thought all of these different things that i wanted to do my um kind of like my my my frame of mind was, let's just give it a go and see what happens.
01:06:09
Speaker
And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. And let's learn how to do this. And so I i guess, yeah, Yes, there are things here and there of grants that I wish I had ah applied or things that i wish I'd known, etc. But also, you know, yes, what I've learned in with all of those mistakes that I made, I kind of needed to learn it to learn it. And so, yes, probably nothing.
01:06:33
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. Yeah. You want to make all of those mistakes again, because that is really where the learning happens. I think that this journey, you know, I've learned a lot, but i I also there's a lot that I don't know yet.
01:06:48
Speaker
um And I've learned a lot about myself, not only about about social entrepreneurship and about running this organization and fashion, etc., but also about what I want and what I'm capable of and all of this. And so um I'm looking forward to keeping learning. this ja i'm curious, what have you learned about yourself through building this startup?
01:07:11
Speaker
I mean, I've learned that I can do this, which I definitely did know I could at the beginning. My, you know, that kind of like voice that we have that tells very critical kept telling me that I was crazy. That what was I thinking about trying to start something new in it in my forty s when I have an entire career that I've built?
01:07:33
Speaker
And so, you know, there are so many doubts, et cetera. And it was kind of that side of me that was like, well, let's learn something new and see what happens. And, you know, if it doesn't work, you know, that's life. and And I think, yes, I think learning that I am capable of doing things that I didn't know I could do is a really big one because that kind of like sets me makes me really excited about the future and about things that I'm going to do that I don't know i can do yet.
01:08:03
Speaker
um And I think that that's the main takeaway. the future where you don't know the things you don't know but you just walk into it yeah and that's not a bad thing that's an exciting opportunity which it wasn't really my my frame of mind before and it definitely is now yeah and it's just to have the courage to just keep moving forward and figuring things out doesn't it ah Thank you so much, Sol. Again, so inspiring to see what you've built, the impact that you're having on lives.
Conclusion and Conscious Consumption
01:08:32
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's just, you know, the stories that you tell are really just so moving um and something that's so important for us in a you know in a culture of
01:08:43
Speaker
over consumption and of of of too much of everything to still be really conscious and aware of the people who don't have any of that and and how we can really actively change that it's we don't have to accept that as just the way the world is we can actually change it and you're really giving the everyday person the chance to to make a difference so thank you so much for that work that you do so no thank you so much for having me with a really lovely lovely chat it was a great conversation so thank you
01:09:16
Speaker
I love that episode. mean, we've heard how conscious consumption across everyday wear and special occasion fashion can reshape our relationship with clothing, fight fashion waste and empower communities. What a brilliant episode.
01:09:32
Speaker
Sol and Anoli both showed that social impact, circularity and connection are possible when we rethink how and why we shop. And their journeys remind us that innovation and meaningful change begin with a bold idea, often while you're sitting in your bedroom during a lockdown, and the drive to build community around it can make all the difference. Do check out the links to their website and socials in the show notes below.
01:09:59
Speaker
Communities are what really brings about change. You heard their call to action. Join their communities and support their work. Let's dig deep into the back of our wardrobes and find those clothes that we don't need anymore and clothes we won't ever wear again. so let's start.
Podcast Wrap-Up and Future Episodes
01:10:16
Speaker
Spread some clothing love because there's always someone else who needs a bit more of that. Let's make fashion last longer than just 10 minutes. So check out their website. Join these communities.
01:10:28
Speaker
Let's make some change here. If you want to learn more about the sheer scale of fashion waste, circular fashion and shopping consciously, check out episode 22 of this podcast. That's Beyond the Bin, Fighting Against Fashion Waste.
01:10:42
Speaker
where Annabelle Hort in the UK discusses her circular fashion outlet, Round Retail, and Yaira Agbofa from the Katamanto Secondhand Market in Ghana shed more light on fashion waste and how they're reclaiming fashion through circularity.
01:10:59
Speaker
This is a really powerful episode and I will highly recommend it. So go check it out, guys. And episode 21 is also another great one on the same topic where we dive into circular fashion, what it is, the various ways we can shop more consciously. And you can also hear from high street retailers such as Nobody's Child and ah the luxury women's wear designer Patrick McDowell about their circular and sustainable initiatives. Another great one.
01:11:25
Speaker
Okay, that's it from me. Thank you for joining me today. Stay tuned for more episodes. Please don't forget to leave a review and subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of textiles, technology, craft and sustainability.
01:11:39
Speaker
Until next time, I'm Millie Tharakin reminding you that there's no such thing as ordinary cloth. Every thread tells a story.