By Mary
Rose Roberts
I
recently stumbled across an online article about changing the way U.S.
residents make their fashion choices. Let’s face it. Most Americans buy cheap
fashions from retailers including Target, Old Navy and Macy’s. These are often
throw-away garments: They don’t wash well, they fall apart and are out of
season before they leave your closet. Even worse is that fact tiny little kid
hands often make those fashions for you--and every time you buy, you support
child labor or outsourced U.S. jobs.
Few of
us have the time or the desire to build a proper wardrobe, like our grandma and
grandpa had. They went to Marshal Fields, bought the best and something that
lasted, and had it tailored to fit. We need to get back to this and reduce the
waste created by the fashion industry. That is why I was attracted to
Fashioning Change, a beta website that helps users find eco-alternatives to their
favorite fashion brands. So I checked it, and then interviewed Adriana Herrera,
founder and CEO.
For
your time, Adriana is offering the following discount to readers:
Promo Code: StyleWise
Discount: 10% Off
Valid: 8/1/2012 - 8/7/2012
What was the thinking behind starting the
business?
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| LBD from Wear This, Not That section of fashioningchange.com |
I grew
up with a unique lens on making purchases. My father grew up on Juarez, Mexico,
a city that many consumer goods companies outsource to. He had friends and
family that worked in many of the factories and knew what it meant for the
people and the community to purchase one brand over the other.
He
instilled in his children three rules we had to abide by when it came to
making purchases: We weren't allowed to
buy things made in Asia; we weren't allowed to wear clothing made of synthetic
materials; and we weren't allowed to wear dark clothing because my dad feels
that children are the light of the world. From childhood, I was always thinking
about where something came from, how it was made, who it was made by, and under
what conditions.
I ended
up co-founding a product development company and domestically manufactured
eco-friendly handbags, opening up connections to designers that also were passionate
about socially responsible manufacturing. So many of these designers were
incredibly talented in making beautiful products, but they were forgetting the
business element of reaching consumers. So to solve the problem, I decided to
leverage emerging technology to build a platform that connects shoppers with
brands that do fashion better.
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| Perfect work shirt + guilt-free! |
Fashioning
Change provides the missing link of providing consumers with sustainable and
ethical designs that are direct alternatives to brands they already know they
like.
What is Fashioning Change’s mission?
Our
vision is simple: to partner with online shoppers and facilitate sustainable
positive change to protect health, the earth and human rights. Together, with
our partners, our goals are to create
applications that help people take steps towards leading authentically
sustainable and happy lives and facilitate
access to information that creates transparency in what our purchases support. It also is to introduce
shoppers to reliable eco-friendly and ethical brands that have the look,
quality, and price points of name brands; partner
with consumers to drive bottom-up systemic change in the retail and
manufacturing industries; and become
a partner and resource to social justice organizations that are working on
human rights issues and to protect the earth.
What exactly does the site do as far as
matching fashion?
Shoppers
share price, style, brand and values preferences and Fashioning Change
introduces carefully curated alternatives that match preferences and also
protect health, the earth, and human rights. Our Wear This, Not That series gives
shoppers better alternatives of on trend and essential pieces from top-name
brands. We've also launched Share The Goodness, a product recommendation tool
that pulls information from your friends on Facebook and provides product
matches. So, if your sister loves the beach and motorcycles, you'll be able to
easily suggest products that are perfect for her.
What are the challenges? Joys?
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| Love these socks for winter! |
My dad
always says, "The number one resource we have in life is time. It's the
one thing we can never get back." The toughest thing about running a startup
is that there's never enough time to do everything we want to do. One of the hardest things about my job is to
prioritize what we're going to do ensure that I'm creating the shortest path to
positive change possible.
It's an
indescribable feeling to wake up every day and know that I'm getting to work on
something that is creating change and was inspired by the way I grew-up. Not many people are able to push themselves
to take the risk that the Fashioning Change team has taken. It's amazing to see how far our hard work has
gotten us. We still have a ways to go
before we fulfill our vision but it's rewarding nonetheless.
Where can you be found online/social media?
Twitter
Handle: @fashion_change
Twitter: @adriana_herrera
Facebook:
Fashioning Change
Pinterest:
Adriana Herrera
