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Tag: sustainable
Who are we and why did we open a clothing shop?
Vestya Shop is an artist-run, print on demand shop based on sustainable principles and created to help us all become more conscious creators and consumers. It was created and is currently run by Diana Matoso aka Ds WAY, an artist designer who from an early age developed awareness for environmental matters.
Our main motivation for opening a wear shop was the realisation that the Fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and the difficulty in finding alternative solutions. Other problems we identified and try to answer:
- How can we buy new clothes in a sustainable way;
- Where to buy directly from artists and support their art;
- How can we reduce the fashion industry carbon emissions;
- What can be a greener alternative for expensive slow fashion clothes;
- How can we decrease the amount of online order returns by customers;
- How to find and acquire affordable, customizable clothes (size, colour, shape…).
We aim to create a brand that is not only a shop but also a platform for the discussion and promotion of sustainable alternatives in the clothing industry where eco-friendly items can be customised and acquired. For this, we:
- Created a print on demand online wear shop, where only ordered products are produced;
- Work with certified sustainable manufacturers and high quality eco-friendly materials only;
- Offer shipping carbon offset to minimise the impact of deliveries and possible returns;
- Offer an array of all inclusive products, sizes and colours for customization ;
- Keep transparency and honesty about supply chain and practices;
- Produce some collections in small batches or on a pre-order basis;
- Offer artists & designers a platform for their art sales;
- Promote sustainability and conscious consumption.
In the long term, we aim to further develop a circular economy by creating proactive social groups, searching for local producers, expanding our catalogue to sell upcycled items and work with other artists and designers. If you wish to get involved, please get in touch!
What is Print on Demand and why do we use it?
Print on Demand (POD) is a production process whereby products are made to order using digital print technology. This allows affordable customised high quality products to be created only when ordered, reducing drastically the amount of waste from created but not sold products and also the extra transport of stock as the production company will do the shipping straight to the client who ordered it.
Before digital printing technology was introduced, there were many constraints in the manufacturing of individual quantities as industries were set up for mass production, but with the advancement in digitization, technology and eCommerce, the concept of small series and print on demand business model arose.
So all the products you see in our shop are actually mockups and will only be produced if you or someone orders it. This allows us to offer you many colours and sizes possibilities so that you can buy something almost tailor made for you, while hopefully reducing the amount of items returned.
Also as they are handled, placed and printed individually, they’re actually unique original piecesOne of the few downsides of POD is the delivery time, when you submit an order, it can’t just be picked off the shelf and shipped to you, it must be printed first and printing takes time, and as we say “Time takes Time” and hence it’s called slow fashion.
We choose to use Print on Demand in our shop to help make a difference in the fashion industry, by creating an alternative to the mass production of clothes which is responsible for 5% to 10% of the global greenhouse gas emissions.
We believe that with this system, our creations aren’t generating as much waste or using as much unnecessary natural resources and as we source for responsible partners and eco-friendly products only, we trust we’re helping to spread a more conscious production & consumption systems while making an impact on changing our habits for more sustainable ones.
With print on demand, we also don’t need to own a warehouse or physical shop, manage inventory nor shipping, this reduces our expenses therefore allowing us to reduce the prices charged for our products. As the production and shipping process is taken care by our trusted partners, we have more time to share our passion for nature and art and focus on doing what we love and are best at 💚🌈 🌻🎨📷🌲✏️
