Green Entrepreneurs in Fashion

Entrepreneruship is a very extended concept right now in the world of business, specially in the fashion industry. Thus, tired of buying clothes from big multinationals supporting the now called fast fashion, many entrepreneurs have created their own clothing brands. These small sustainable clothing brands create products that fit with their style, but most important with their values. Thereby, entrepreneurs have taken over the sustainable fashion industry, creating small brands that sell sustainable and socially ethical clothes.

Starting a company is not an easy thing. There are many things that must be taken into consideration. Moreover, the entreprenurs that enter in the sustainable fashion industry face a lot of difficult challenges. These are some of the difficulties:

>Funding

Getting funding to start up a company is very difficult, and even more when you are a young entrepreneur. Usually, banks refuse to lend money becaue of the high risk of failiure that any new business carries, specially looking at the long run. Not to mention that only 50% of the small businesses make it pass the fifth year. Also, banks fear young people´s lack of commitment to new projects. Creating a sustainable fashion company is a big investment, there are a lot of areas that need financing. For instansce, traveling to find suppliers, manufacturing the first pieces, digital or physical platforms for product selling ,and shipping.

>Getting Sustainable raw Materials

This is a very difficult taks because there are not that many companies that supply sustainably grown materials, such as cotton. Cotton is the most important material used in the production of clothes. Big multinationals use cotton that has been grown in mass production, not respecting the environment in the process. Pesticides that contaminate the water are applied, so it makes impossible to reuse that water, increasing the amount used in the fields and contaminating rivers and water . Finding companies that grow sustainable cotton is hard to find because it is not as profitable.

>Finding Factories following Ethcal Standards

Consumers often times forget about who has produced the piece of clothing that they just bought. However, for sustainable fashion entrepreneurs it is a must when it comes to finding suppliers. They want to get their raw materials and products from companies that respect and protect their workers. Unfortunately, most of the time the people who produce clothes are located in third world countries in which workers´rights do not exist or are not followed. Therefore, these new green fashion companies want to improve these people´s lives by not only providing them a job but also a healthy and safe environment to work. Abolishing child labor and respecting workers´ rights.

Here it is a video created by BASK (<-their link), a basque entrepreneur who has started up in the sustainable fashion industry. This video shows the tragic situation that one of those third countries suffer due to the fashion industry, Bangladesh. (Turn on english subtitles)

>Sending the Message across

After setting the company´s vision, it is crucial to send the message that the vison carries across to the consumers. However, this task has been difficult in the sustainable fashion industry. This is becasue the public has not changed their habits on shopping fashion. Low prices drive people crazy without paying attention to the story that is behind that clothing piece. Sustainable fashion entrepreneurs want to change it and make every material and person that is behind each piece count.