Each month Sass Brown, an expert in ethical fashion, sustainability and craftsmanship, shares a fashion brand that approaches business differently and innovatively or operates outside of the main fashion systems and capitals. Sass is the former Dean of Art and Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the founding Dean at Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation.
Carla Fernandez is a Mexico City-based designer and brand, well known for supporting and promoting indigenous traditional craft from across Mexico and famous for saying that the haute couture of Mexico is located in the indigenous villages.”
According to Sass, “one of the beauties of Mexico, and one of the things that Carla feels so strongly about, is the fact that there is such a diversity of material traditions across Mexico, across crafts, across communities that are all unique and special.” And she explains that Carla sees it as an honor to be able to work with, and in partnership with, those communities and those people. “She has a long history of working with indigenous communities by going and spending significant time with them, listening and learning from them about what their traditions are, what the meanings and the codes embedded in those traditions and processes are, and what their actual needs are.”
As an extension to her work with indigenous craftspeople, Carla designs a fashion collection, which she sells in her stores and online. Managing the supply side as well as customer demand for fashion products can be difficult, so she has divided her business into two entities: for-profit and not-for-profit. Sass explains that this is not unusual for a socially motivated brand to do, especially when they realize the limitations of a for-profit only business. She adds, “To a degree, the for-profit arm of the business offsets the costs of the not-for-profit work which focuses on engaging with artisans to develop their traditions and crafts into marketable products.”
For the full transcript, visit FCNewsBytes.com
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