Have you ever stopped to think about who the people are?
behind the products you consume?
Who produced the clothes you’re wearing right now?
If they had asked me this question about four years ago, more or less,
I would have replied that I did not know.
Today, I came here to share with you some information from the fashion industry
and how it has evolved and changed over time.
In the last decades,
the main intention of the big retailers was to create cheap products
without caring about the negative consequences.
For you to have an idea,
in the last two decades, fashion consumption has increased by 500%.
All this, among many other consequences,
brought the textile waste and today, for you to have an idea,
12 tons of textile wastes are thrown away in São Paulo,
in the Bom Retiro region.
But then, I ask you:
Did you ever stop to think that there is no “play out”?
In fact, there is no such thing as “throwing in the trash”.
Everything we do not want anymore will stop somewhere in the world.
By 2013, some of you may have seen,
a tragic accident happened in Bangladesh in the capital Dhaka,
where a building came down with more than a thousand people.
These people worked in extremely precarious conditions,
in factories that supply products to large retailers.
For you to have a notion, these people received on average $ 3 a day,
on a journey of about 12 hours and six days a week.
In another news, you must have also seen in 2014,
some people have found, within their own clothing,
requests for help from people who worked in those factories.
But we do not just have bad news as well.
So, since these accidents, anyway …
that we even heard of it here in Brazil itself;
these problems are much closer than you think.
They are not there in China alone, or in Bangladesh.
Today, we also have news of great stories that are happening.
of people and movements in search of a more ethical, more sustainable fashion,
and more conscious consumption.
I really believe that, with small attitudes,
we can cause micro-revolutions.
I’ll tell you an experience.
In 2012,
I participated in an experience of social mobilization in a community
where I have experienced in practice
What was the difference between sympathy and empathy?
and in this experience I was able to perceive
that I can empathize with someone or about someone
and to continue my life the same way, without doing anything to change,
or I can have empathy,
and there comes an issue that I really consider
which may be the fundamental fact for us to achieve more humane cities.
After this experience,
it was very clear to me, even though I relented a little for a few years,
that I wanted some more of these experiences called social
or voluntary work.
I had already done several volunteer work for some time
and in that experience, I felt a voice inside,
calling a little stronger,
saying that’s what I had to keep doing.
So I realized that the way I wanted to do this
would be undertaking.
To undertake was the way I discovered
of how I could create this world that I was looking for,
but who seemed so distant,
looking for options within these traditional models
which people are accustomed to see.
After realizing this, I joined another person, a friend,
and we begin to live together weekly in this community
and, in this coexistence, it was very clear to us what we wanted to do.
In fact, it was not clear what we wanted to do,
but with whom we wanted to do.
After this initial coexistence,
for some time, some two or three months,
even if we did not know what the final result would be,
we were very clear that, of those people,
we wanted to understand what skills they had
and what was the common intention that existed in that group.
Besides, we knew we did not see those people,
who were artisans,
just as labor.
This issue of work, in fact, we saw as the differential.
We wanted these people to be part of a whole creative process,
because they usually only get there at the end, at the time of production.
So, to us, it made a lot of sense
that they were involved in this process of creation from the beginning.
And after this cohabitation of about four or five months,
co-cooking with these women and with these people,
we gave life to an initiative that today is called Colibrii.
Colibrii is a company
that is born with the intention of bringing these diverse realities closer together
to promote social impact.
In fact, the way we found it
and what we have done so far is through the development of products,
from the reuse of textile waste
along with these artisans of communities.
In this group of women we encountered
and who identified with us – in fact, it was a mutual identification –
we found a very important person
which is part of our history from the beginning.
That person is Eni.
Eni, even without understanding at the outset what our proposal was …
in fact, we did not even understand what we wanted to do,
so it was a bit difficult for her to understand,
but I think something she noticed in people
and, from the beginning, she threw herself together.
And, over those years, it’s almost three years or so,
I see a change, a transformation in the huge Eni.
I see a more determined person today, I see a more confident person
and who is sure of the work she does and is proud of the work she does.
For you to have a little idea
of the issue of empowerment so much talked about,
We listen very much: “How do you feel empowering so many women?”
And, in fact, what we usually say is that we do not empower anyone.
In fact, this power is within each of us,
is within each of those women we work with.
What we do, in fact,
is to create a means for this power to be outsourced.
For you to have an idea of the importance of Eni and these women
in this creation of Colibrii, from the beginning and until today,
the resignification of textile waste is something that came from their indication.
It was a suggestion of the group itself.
For us, at the beginning, it did not make the slightest sense,
perhaps by some attachment to standards or our own prejudice,
but there came a time when I think it was inevitable,
when we came to Eni and said:
“Hey, what do you think we should pack?”
For you to have a notion, Eni was a dressmaker.
So, in this process, there was a very large development
by everyone.
I did not talk before, but this development happened to us too
because, as was said in my presentation,
I graduated in law,
and my friend is a graduate in economics.
So imagine how important this process of co-creation was for all of us.
We needed to exchange this information,
We need to change our knowledge.
So the Eni at one point spoke thus:
“Gurias, I’m going to move on, I’m going to keep challenging myself,
but I also want you to accept our suggestions. “
Then, when we talked about making a backpack,
the first thing that came into Eni’s head was:
“Let’s make a backpack of jeans.
After all, there are so many jeans out there in the world … “
Since the beginning of Colibrii, another very important thing,
besides this process of co-creation integrating all these people,
is the question of just pay.
We saw that it did not make the slightest sense only one side to win,
as often happens.
For us, it had to be a win-win relationship.
So, from the very beginning, we take care
to show a little what is behind the products that we sell.
So we do not sell just one product;
we try to get through the whole story behind it,
the whole process of creation and production that happen, from beginning to end.
We imagine that people can understand a little more
all the difficulty of this process, everything that exists behind,
and get to value this work a little more.
Another thing that also came up with Eni
it was a feeling she had from the beginning
which she shared with us in one of the first meetings we had,
in which she told us that one of her biggest dreams
was to see the products she made spreading through the city.
Then it was a bit funny because she said,
“I have this view up here from the hill
and I see so many people down there who do not know me
and you do not know my products.
How nice it would be for these people to know, and to know me. “
And, thinking a little about how we could make this approach
among these diverse realities,
from the beginning we also put ourselves inside the products that we sell
this little note with a phrase that the artisan herself chooses, in short,
whether authorial or some inspiration,
in which she feels represented.
That’s the way we found it, we found, in fact,
to represent all our work.
You have come to see that little note I told you about before,
of workers asking for help?
So we can see that there are solutions
if we do not want that kind of ticket for help anymore.
We want another type of ticket.
From the beginning, what I feel
is that we have undergone several transformations,
for many challenges,
but from the beginning, I had very clear
that I had people by my side who believed
and that made me go on, even with all the challenges and, finally,
with all the obstacles that arise in the middle of this path that is to be undertaken,
and still undertake socially.
But speaking a little innovation, we see that it is a bit difficult,
but I think we have to get a little out of the bubbles.
There are a lot of people looking for these things that are happening.
So we have to get together and share some of these stories.
Sometimes, when we’re working, in the day-to-day running,
we think that you are alone in this story,
and in fact we are not.
There are many collaborative networks,
there are many people who are looking to do differently.
And, speaking a little of the Colibrii,
we are inside a space called Vila Flores,
which is a collaborative house,
in this space where we are since the beginning of the year.
So it’s almost a year of actually having a collaborative home experience,
where we met people who are looking for purposes,
who seek a better city, who seek a better life
and when we are surrounded and surrounded by people who seek this purpose,
everything gets easier.
We do not feel alone, we feel very supported.
Speaking a little of the inclusive cities,
and bringing this context of collaborative houses,
what I really hope is that we can, with these experiences,
have more humane cities, more inclusive cities,
where we do not find so many barriers,
where we do not find so many limits,
where social conditions are not a limit
for people to travel between spaces,
where the skin color is also not a limiter
to transit between the city.
I very much believe that the best way to predict the future is to help create it.
Do you remember that question I asked at the beginning?
I’m running out of time, but I wanted to bring this reflection to you.
Do you remember the question:
“Do you know who the people are behind the products you consume?”
I believe this is very important.
and it’s time for us to stop thinking, if we still have not stopped.
I invite you to be part of this future.
Let’s all make these micro-revolutions together.
Thanks.
(Applause)
”
Be First to Comment