This small business consists of an online shop based in Barcelona, which offers the possibility to buy any fashionable sustainable article of clothing (such as bags, wallets, sunglasses, phone cases, trousers, shirts, etc). What does “sustainable clothing” mean? They take into account the processes by which each accessory has been produced, the materials used, and how people was treated in the whole value chain. If your product is a result of an environmentally and society friendly process, you can ask Gaiabcn to sell it.
I feel this project is a huge opportunity for big corporations to think how they produce their products. Having this little online store grouping different eco brands shows that dressing in a sustainable way is not impossible, as lots of clothing businesses have been trying to demonstrate.
I would like to encourage, from my modest blog, any entrepreneur not to be afraid of changing the standards. As Gaiabcn showed, there exist other ways of doing things. By having these small start-ups, value is being added to our society. These small businesses make consumers believe in other ways to behave and not be pushed by those behaviours imposed by huge corporations. And by having consumers questioning standards, corporations would have to question themselves as well as their practices.
Moreover, I strongly think this project is not addressed to super green consumers, but to the whole society. The idea itself is very attractive, so everyone could have a try on any of their products, either because you are a green person and you believe in sustainable articles of clothing or because you just want to break with your traditional way of getting dressed. Once you have tried one Gaiabcn’s sustainable article and you see it really works, you could think of having another accessory. And the process continues to the point where you realize it is possible to wear sustainable fashionable clothes in a daily basis. The project not being addressed to a very tinny specific target market (true-blue greens) but to the whole society makes me believe in the project’s success.
minawillett
February 20, 2016 — 3:16 pm
I really enjoyed reading this blog because I think it expands on what I wrote about in a previous blog, a clothing company called Reformation. It is also a clothing/fashion company that is challenging the standards of the industry by using a RefScale to show the environmental impact of each piece of clothing. I think that you did a lovely job of expanding past what this company is doing it and encouraging others to change the standards or norm of an industry, and add value in new ways.
One thing that also caught my eye on this sight was the collective/community aspect that brings people together around selling and sharing environmentally friendly products. Providing smaller brands and companies a place to sell products is fostering a community of education and sharing stories around the idea of sustainability. Personally, I think this is very important to building sustainable brands, and reminds me of Zero Waste Market. They focus a lot on customer interaction and community to sell their products, and this seems to be a tactic also used by Gaiabcn. Thank you for sharing Mariona!