Sustainable Fashion Future

Speaker 1: [Music] what keeps you going what motivates you every day what gives you the passion that you need to go through difficult periods or very stable periods where there's not a lot of adrenaline or excitement it's really about understanding what your priorities are and what you want from this what are you trying to do and who are you trying to do it for and asking myself questions like this repetitively and working with people who remind me the importance of why this exists and where it comes from I think that's the most magical part of this company hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it the career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and infus Tech Innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in thank you for joining us eileene you are the founder of made for a woman tell us about it and what led you to create and launch your business I am the founder of m forom i founded m forom in 2019 I'm a half Italian half Indian but I grew up in Madagascar a country filled with Beauty in terms of biodiversity 80% of the floor found in this country is only found here however today it is considered one of the poorest countries in the world growing up in one of the poorest countries in the world IIs took responsibility of wanting to give back to such a beautiful and wonderful place where I had an amazing childhood I never truly accepted the injustices in terms of social statuses and I never understood the concept of poverty I just didn't understand why it existed so having a mixed cultural backgrounds in the sense that I'm Indian and therefore I have a very strong Heritage in terms of culture and religion and and India is a space filled with wonders and it's just incredible its slogan anything is possible and then putting together my Italian side which is all about fashion and made in Italy in high quality and Madagascar has an amazing savare craftsmanship I decided to put all of these worlds together and create my own world which is made for a woman a social entrepreneurship with the with the objective of improving the overall quality of life of people Madagascar through the art of weaving I love that and can you tell us how your clothing is made of course we've created a beautiful space which we call the um we have over 350 individuals that we work with every day Artisans we have partnered with the minister of the population and local associations we decided to work with the most marginalized individuals of our country we work with disabled individuals single mothers gbb survivors and what we do is not only do we give them Financial stability today we are wfto certified and very soon hopefully in 2024 we will be Corp B certified as well but we've created a space where these people can improve their financial stability as well as their psychological and emotional stability as we work with social assistant workers psychologists doctors and other professionals who help our workers at a very emotional and psychological level all of our Rafia because we only work with Rafia certified Rafia comes from the Northwestern part of the country a region called maanga we work with a certified supplier with whom we have been working together for a while I actually filmed a mini documentary with a good friend of mine who works at National Geographics he's a freelance and we filmed the first documentary regarding the supply chain of the Rafia palm tree which we then presented at the festival Dean in 2021 and won an award for our sustainability commitment congratulations thank you which showcases where the Rafia comes from all the way to the point where our Artisans work it so trying to be as transparent as genuine and authentic as possible and that is one of our marketing strategies but more than that it's just honest communication which is essential to H have a successful company in the future of fashion you became the first women-led and focused sustainable fashion brand in Madagascar how does the work that you're doing in the world make you feel I've always seen myself as an individual who's in service of others I grew up with this mindset in the sense that everything that I in this life is not for myself but is all about compassion and giving back and and sharing as much authenticity and honesty as possible so it's a beautiful statement in the sense that I'm not alone obviously I have a wonderful team who shares my values and my vision as well and who are as passionate as I am about the project but most importantly about the people that we're helping so I think it's amazing that we've been able to accomplish this in only four years now and most importantly I think the most beautiful part of this all is the fact that in only four years I have actually seen an improvement in the overall quality of life of the people I work with on a daily basis that is the best kind of successes achievement I could have requested then I do believe being known at an international level in terms of what fashion stands for we also work with luxury Brands but at the end of the day those are just dopamine feelings of short term happiness and in reality the best part of it which is long-term happiness what we and myself can actually do for others on this planet and that leads me to my next question which is all the work you're doing now how do you hope it affects the world in the future there's so much Injustice in this world there's so much suffering I've never accepted it and I don't think I'll ever accept it until the day I'm not on this planet anymore and that's I'm going to keep fighting for and that's what gives me a purpose to live as well we all need something to move forward towards that's the purpose I've given myself and I do think that we're an exemplary model a sustainable model that just proves to the fashion sector especially the textile sector which is one of I think the second or the third most employed industry in the world which means an employes millions of people in developing and underdeveloping countries it just proves that you can be a successful and a profitable company even by putting humans first and it's possible so that's what we're trying to do and the people using and wearing the products appreciate that as well I think today fashion is all about transparency and giving the right tools and the right information the correct information to your customers today through social media and Technology consumers can know anything they want so it's not about promoting fake marketing anymore more or fake dreams it's really about showcasing real and aspiring and authentic dreams and people with real stories and successful stories and that's what we stand for and it's so true you mentioned luxury Brands tell us about those collaborations and why are they meaningful to you one of our strategies has always been to fit into the luxury positioning because I believe that our country has a potential in terms of artisanal Couture malagi people are extremely creative and gifted in terms of manual work so I've decided with the company with me for a woman to really position ourselves at the highest level chlo actually contacted us two years ago really inspired by our story and what we do and Gabriel Hurst who was the creative director of CH is a Visionary and she really put importance in the human aspect but also by unity and environmental aspect and making it cool before Gabriel Hurst these Concepts were not considered cool in the fashion industry and today they are we created a first collection with ch last summer capsule collection which which was made for wom for CH and this year we're developing four other collections with them working with their sustainability team to try to improve our social aspect they also approved our social impact report which was published openly on our website as well we're working very closely with Flo and they're very supportive of the work that we do and what we stand for and I believe that it's going to be a long-term partnership and then there's modest which was introduced to us by our showroom who is this multi-brand luxury brand located in in all the most touristic and luxurious areas in Italy ptoo ptoi Porto but they opened air for store in Paris and they're opening up soon in other locations in the world and we actually presented our first ready to wear collection all dedicated to sustainable Rafia and recycled Rafia in their store in May in 2023 it was the first ever Rafia collection all handmade all recycled so it it was a great opportunity to showcase a diversification of our categories and of our brand and I've seen the pictures of your Artisans working and doing their craft and all of your Creations are unique works of art just like the people who make them how do you hope your company inspires others to be who they are we're really all about authenticity the best part of my job is working with the artisans in our production sites because they remind me of the Simple Pleasures in life and appreciating the simple things in life this is what I keep wanting to transmit through our products happiness and simplicity and authenticity and honesty and genuinity and we do this through colors we do this through our tags which have the face of the woman who made it and the QR code that leads you to the page of the woman who made it I've always wanted to create a platform a website where I want there to be a direct dialogue because I think this way made for a woman can be its best Storyteller and by creating this dialogue the product becomes life and you create an emotional attachment to it and and I think that's the most beautiful thing because at the end of the day every single one of our products is handmade 100% And there's so much energy and so much love and compassion that goes through these products and then transmit it to the final consumer and this is what we're trying to transmit magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us Joy what is one way that you make sure to find and live your joy I work a lot on myself in the sense that I always prioritize genuine and authentic communication Within Myself in the sense that I'm very honest with where I want to go with what I want to do with this brand and why I want to do it it's really easy to get lost in all the superficiality of things but in reality when a startup and it's been four years now you have a lot of ups and downs and what keeps you going what motivates you every day what gives you the passion that you need to go through difficult periods or very stable periods where there's not a lot of adrenaline or excitement it's really about understanding what your priorities are and what you want from this what are you trying to do and who are you trying to do it for and asking myself questions like this repetitively and working with people who remind me the import of why this exists and where it comes from I think that's the most magical part of this company it's so great and you're so right you have to keep asking yourself that question because when you're running a business and growing a business it changes every day exactly and what you want changes constantly sometimes it seems totally you need consistency you have put so much thought into your business and we need more businesses like yours in the world so thank you can you please share with us how and where we can find you today we have our b2c s e-commerce website mefor woman. shop and we have our Instagram accounts we have a strong B2B distribution as well you can find us on Far fit we have a list of our to stock list on our website as well as on our Instagram account thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello.com on on our Sheil it website or @ Sheil it on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave