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Launching a Sustainable Fashion Business
50 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, we gave basic resources for launching a sustainable fashion business. While this content is great for conscious brand founders, we also wanted to inform everyone: whether you’re curious to know the behind-the-scenes sustainable production stories or you want a deeper understanding of the industry.
🌱 There is a growing movement and community that is pushing for change and reshaping the fashion industry.
🕑 💡 KEY MOMENTS
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[00:06:24] 👗 The past and present of fashion and sustainability
[00:08:08] 🌱 Maria's journey to slow fashion
[00:12:54] 👗 Rethinking raw materials
[00:15:43] 🌱 Degrowth and slow fashion
[00:18:20] 🌱 Reshaping the future through textile agriculture
🌍 SUSTAINABILITY PODCAST CREATED BY NEW PERSPECTIVE
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This podcast is proudly sponsored by New Perspective Marketing, a dynamic growth marketing agency in Boston, MA, celebrating 20 years in business. We help sustainably focused B2B organizations grow their brands and scale up revenue. If you or your organization is looking to grow, visit npws.com for more info.
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Transcript
Sustainable Fashion: A New Season Begins
00:00:10
Speaker
Hi, you're watching a new season of Green New Prospective Launchpad, which is a webcast series. We're going to talk about sustainability in various industries. We're starting this season with a topic of sustainable fashion and design, because unfortunately, the fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in
Meet Yvonne Abiocina: Advocate for Local and Sustainable Fashion
00:00:27
Speaker
the world. So my guest today, I'm going to have two guests. But the first one I'm going to introduce is Miss Yvonne Abiocina. I'm going to read the introduction here, because I don't know this all by heart. Yvonne Abiocina is a master of textile technology and engineering.
00:00:40
Speaker
the author of two books. The first one is called Modo Suven, the essay on political, economic, and social impassion. And the second one is called the Therani of Fashion, using a dormant in search of identity. I read them both. They're both really great. If you want to, you know, get your introduction to sustainability in fashion, I think that you can order them via book depository. So check that out. Ivana is also the head of the recently launched Institute of Sustainable Fashion.
00:01:07
Speaker
A project which is focused on local production of sustainable clothes and education and spreading the idea of sustainable fashion.
Maria Kolusic: Slow Fashion as an Alternative
00:01:15
Speaker
And my second guest is Ms. Maria Kolusic, a costume and slow fashion designer. So we're going to learn more about slow fashion, which is
00:01:22
Speaker
an opposite of fast fashion system which operates globally. My name is Dunja, I'll be your host and I hope we all have some fun during this 30 minutes long interview. If you do have fun, please do hit that subscribe button and we also want to hear your feedback so please tell us in the comments below what you liked, what you dislike so we can improve our content in the future.
00:01:47
Speaker
That's it from me for this short introduction, so wait for a bit till my guests arrive.
Ivana's Connection to Nature and Sustainability
00:01:58
Speaker
So, hi Maria and Ivana, how are you? Hi, hello. Very well, you look.
00:02:04
Speaker
I wanted to start with the questions like immediately because we don't have much time so let's use it wisely. First question will be I already introduced you briefly but I would like you to introduce yourself but not like you know like give me your autobiography. I wanted of you to tell me how did you
00:02:25
Speaker
stepped into this world of sustainable fashion? And what did you found out about the industry that motivated you to, let's say, change it as much as you could via being a sustainable designer or sustainable educator?
Historical Influences on Ivana's Sustainability Journey
00:02:42
Speaker
Maybe even I could answer first because she wrote a book and then she, let's say, founded this project.
00:02:51
Speaker
where she's doing education as well. So maybe that would be a good start and then Maria can tell us how she started to do sustainable design. So even I can you start and then Maria, you can just continue.
00:03:08
Speaker
Okay. So well, I know that people like a good story. I would like to have this like Eureka moment in my life that happened, but unfortunately that wasn't the case because I was born with it and I was born into it. So I was born in a small town, uh, in a working class family.
00:03:27
Speaker
with single parents, single mother and I was connected with nature but also I saw that the balance was off, the balance of the system, the balance of life and also part of my family was into environmental work and was into
00:03:47
Speaker
this whole green green economy so i knew the problems from the first moment i i knew about the world and the system and everything i knew that it was out of balance i knew about all the problems that were happening from the 80s
Self-sufficiency vs. Global Dependency in Textiles
00:04:04
Speaker
So as a child, I wore, you know, save the world, save the planet, T-shirts. And it was always a part of me. So, but then of course, as you go into adulthood and when you go into college, I started to grasp the whole picture, you know, I started to think about, okay, what was happening in Croatia, what was happening in Yugoslavia in our textile industry. And that's when,
00:04:33
Speaker
the whole picture started to come into the whole. So that's when I started to go into sustainability. Of course, then it wasn't called sustainability, it was called environmentalism or activism. So as long as I know, I was always questioning the system. I always knew, felt, and I always saw
00:05:00
Speaker
that it was out of balance. And then when you go into research, you see it deep in the data, it's all clear. But how did the system looked in the 80s and how does it look now? I mean, it's much worse now than it was in the 80s. So actually you saw the fall of the system, actually the speeding up of the system. Well, it's a very complex question with a very complex answer because
00:05:29
Speaker
I don't think that things are worse now because there is this illusion that in the 60s, 70s and 80s we were living like this utopian paradise of golden age of textile industry but the problems were
00:05:44
Speaker
obvious then, and the problems were that we didn't have any raw production, production of raw materials. Back then, even then, we were dependent upon import of raw materials, but there was a golden era that was in the 1920s and 1930s,
00:06:05
Speaker
most people don't know about this era when we were like of course we're a closed society but we we produced like 96 percent of raw materials for our own use so we were we were sustainable then and we were talking about Croatian market you're talking about Croatian market. I'm talking about Yugoslavia but also
00:06:27
Speaker
so Croatia but it was like this bigger market and we were the third biggest producer of hemp in the world back then so at one point we did have like this sustainability and then it all collapsed and now we are I don't know at the beginning at the end we are somewhere in the middle so a lot of things have changed but I think that we need to look in our
00:06:56
Speaker
in our past and see it was once possible, so it can be possible again.
The Sustainability Challenge in Fashion
00:07:04
Speaker
But what do you think globally? Globally, well, you think about the change in sustainability.
00:07:13
Speaker
Well, you know, when you go onto this sustainable path, sustainable journey, I think it is quite challenging and it's quite challenging because you have to hold this image in your head and it's an image that things are much worse and things are much better.
00:07:31
Speaker
So at the moment we have like we have ultra-fast fashion, shame, but we also have sustainability. We also have sustainability being pushed as a marketing tool. We also have a lot of greenwashing, but we also have like these growing communities, growing individuals, growing movements that are pushing towards change, that are rebuilding, that are reshaping the story. So it's happening all at once. Worse, better, and you have to decide
00:08:01
Speaker
in which tribe, in which path you want to go. Maria, what do you have to say?
Maria's Transition to Sustainable Practices
00:08:08
Speaker
Well, from my angle, my story was kind of a classical fashion story. I gained an opportunity to show my work through one of Creation Fashion Week.
00:08:23
Speaker
And it was something that needed to happen for me to see that's the thing I don't want to do. I experienced it. I was having like maybe two or three shows to three seasons. And then I realized this is not working for me. I need a slower pace. I realized that I can't do it that fast. I don't have time for
00:08:48
Speaker
for designs for the whole process. So then I decided to go my way and to do in my own pace. And that was in 2016. And from then I started to have my own options. I wasn't actually at the moment kind of sustainable completely, but I realized I didn't like what was happening around me. So I,
00:09:17
Speaker
I kind of started to do whatever I could to do with everything that surrounded me. That was my first time I started using deadstock fabrics. I started using natural dyes and started printing my own fabrics.
00:09:34
Speaker
with all the stuff that surrounded me. And it kind of pushed me towards exploring more towards with each other collection. I wanted to do something more. I wanted to push myself more. And at this moment, I think I'm still thriving. You know, I can't call myself completely sustainable because no one is. But it's kind of my my process of pushing all the time. So it was
00:10:03
Speaker
For me, I needed to discover that kind of classical fashion story to actually decide for myself what I want to do. So yeah, I'm now in that path and still growing and exploring more options for me.
Navigating Sustainability in an Unsustainable System
00:10:20
Speaker
Ivana said the sustainability network in fashion is growing, but is it difficult to be a sustainable or thriving sustainable designer in an unsustainable system? How difficult it is for you to find the materials, to pay the workers, to pay yourself, to build a brand, to grow a brand?
00:10:45
Speaker
It's much more easier now than it was back then, like in 2016. I actually find myself being lucky because I live in a kind of smaller city, smaller country. You have this community, you have this possibility to employ all these people around you and to work like in small community. And I think that's something that's really good for a fashion brand too.
00:11:14
Speaker
to grow to find its path. And at the same time, it's not easy because you're kind of fulfilled with all this greenwashing, these examples that are not that ideal because there's a lot of sustainability
00:11:37
Speaker
so-called sustainability, but it's actually not what it's called. In Croatia we see a lot of brands trying to be sustainable, but it's actually not real sustainability, it's just a trend. But at the same time,
00:11:54
Speaker
They have so much possibilities here. They can use and reuse, recycle, as Ivana is doing also. You know, you have so much options here. So I find myself really lucky to be here. And I think it's not that hard. It's a choice. It's a choice you have to make and that's it. Stick to it. Yeah, you mentioned that Ivana is doing fabric recycling. So can you tell us more about that?
Upcycling and Storytelling in Fashion
00:12:19
Speaker
You're making a, I've mentioned your project, Institute for Sustainable Fashion, where you educate and advocate for production of slow fashion. And also, can you tell us how you recycle, how you manage to lower the textile waste within your working process?
00:12:45
Speaker
Uh, well, yeah, I mean, uh, Maria is, uh, like a classical fashion designer, but my approach is maybe a little bit different. I call my design peasant design because it's just like, you know, for peasants so simple, but my whole goal is trying to, uh, I don't consider myself a fashion designer. I consider myself a storyteller and I'm trying to like reshape the story of sustainability.
00:13:14
Speaker
because I think that's the biggest problem in sustainability now that it's being pushed in just the old way, the old system, in the straight line thinking, creating, working.
00:13:25
Speaker
So I think right now maybe it's just dawned on me that I'm really focused on raw materials, as I said, because I know that they are the biggest problem, like the beginning of the cycle and the end of the cycle is the most crucial part. So I'm trying to rethink
00:13:44
Speaker
raw materials I use as Mari also uses like antique linens, old cotton. I tried to reshape the story around the old industry that we had and also the old textile industry, but also raw material industry that we had. And also I'm doing upcycling. And while I was thinking about it today at the beginning,
00:14:09
Speaker
preparing for this conversation. I was thinking that while my beginning in sustainable fashion was in with upcycling. Of course, I didn't know it was upcycling. Then it was in high school when I started sewing and when I was just going through my mother's closet and just taking her stuff without her knowing and just reshaping everything.
00:14:30
Speaker
just trying to make something unique and trying to repush this story from monoculture when everybody looked the same into something unique. So yeah, I'm trying to rethink every part of the cycle. I'm trying to tell this new story.
00:14:49
Speaker
And also my main business is I produce sustainable items, sustainable clothing. And that's my business model of financing myself. So the education part of everything can be for free or at the lower price. So since you've seen this.
00:15:08
Speaker
small but important steps in sustainable development of passion industry. Can you tell me how do you see that new technologies are going to develop?
Embracing De-growth in Fashion
00:15:19
Speaker
How do you see that they're developing at the moment? And what do you think about, well, we can mention some new economic models like a big growth, because that subject is really popular in the, let's say, sustainability circles here in America.
00:15:35
Speaker
We're talking about de-growth, but I don't see it happening. So I wanted to see, you know, what do you mean? Can you, Maria, can you tell me? De-growth is actually something that I am very fond of. It's a model, it's actually not a new model. I think it's existing from the 80s maybe. It's being mentioned, but existing, I don't think it exists at all.
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of very similar to slow fashion for me. It has all other qualities that slow fashion is driving to.
00:16:21
Speaker
to slower the production, to make better quality garments and to buy less, of course, to produce less. So that's something that I'm trying also as a fashion brand to produce less because I have like two collections per year and that's my maximum. It's my choice to have it like that. And I think for the future, it's not about
00:16:47
Speaker
technology for its growth it's about it's more about taking a step back and degrowth is actually that like taking a step back to see what's around you to to include your
00:17:02
Speaker
local environment to include the people that surround you, to employ them, to activate them. And first of all, the main thing is to learn your customers more, to show them what they have to try to. If the customer is not looking for sustainable fashion or for slow fashion,
00:17:26
Speaker
It doesn't make sense. It all starts with customers. So it's on ourselves to kind of teach them, to maybe embrace and de-growth, you know, a bit more. Yeah. Ivana?
00:17:45
Speaker
What do you think? Well, of course, I agree with everything that Maria said. And for me, as I said earlier, it's all about reshaping the story, telling the new story, trying to think of new creative ways to
Local Materials and Heritage in Sustainable Fashion
00:18:01
Speaker
educate people to involve them into reshaping the story together. Of course, everything also in my storytelling is based around local and also, as Maria said, I really don't think that we need some grand technologies and that is the way, of course it is, but in a way it is, as she said, taking a step back
00:18:26
Speaker
looking into our past, looking into our heritage, looking into our really rich heritage of industry, of agriculture, and driving inspiration and knowledge from our past into the presence to reshape the future. Of course, we are using better technologies now. As I said,
00:18:47
Speaker
First thing I would like to see here is like some raw materials, some maybe small revolution in agriculture, in textile agriculture. That's my main goal now, to try to push young people in that direction, to inspire them, to connect, of course, with communities in Europe that are doing that, that are doing like some pigments, that are doing natural textiles.
00:19:17
Speaker
because it all starts from there. We are all in design, we are all in, you know, like this garments, but it starts at the beginning, it starts from the soil, it starts from nature, it starts from new story that has to evolve from us.
Optimism and Future of Biomaterials
00:19:34
Speaker
I have to say I'm excited about biomaterials. I would like to see that happening more. And there is some biomaterials development in the Balkans region. So that's really exciting. Well, thank you, girls. I hope it was fun for you. And I hope that our listeners, subscribers are going to learn something from this conversation. Thank you again. And see you again in the next few weeks with the new green new perspective
00:20:03
Speaker
Launchpad webcast. Bye, people. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Thank you.