AWE Alumna Creates Sustainable Model in Iceland

Article by Allie Dalola, intern with the U.S. Division of State, at present finding out Enterprise Administration and Economics on the College of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill.

AWE Alumna Grace Achieng based her sustainable trend model, Gracelandic, in 2020.

[Reykjavik, January 2023] Academy for Women Entrepreneurs alum Grace Achieng helps to remodel the style trade’s influence on the atmosphere by her firm, Gracelandic.

“When trend is completed proper,” Achieng says, “it may be transformative for the individuals carrying the garments and the atmosphere.”

As a “gradual trend” model, Gracelandic drastically contrasts with large-scale “quick trend” producers whose major goal is mass, high-speed manufacturing. The gradual trend motion promotes better sustainability by producing higher-quality, eco-friendly clothes that may last more.  As such, Gracelandic employs a extra holistic, socially aware manufacturing mannequin that prioritizes a triple backside line: individuals, revenue, and planet.

Achieng’s enterprise prioritizes a triple backside line: individuals, revenue, and planet.

For instance, Achieng has established a partnership with an moral producer to produce all of Gracelandic’s material. By deliberately manufacturing ethically-produced clothes, her firm limits overstock and recycles all of its material scraps to be remade into equipment. 

Achieng additionally makes use of her enterprise to advertise the gradual trend philosophy to the general public, often posting on the company’s blog and Instagram account to teach prospects in regards to the impacts of the fast-fashion trade. Even the clothes she sells are designed to scale back waste amongst customers. 

“Our clothes is top of the range and goes to final a very long time,” Achieng says.  “The types are timeless, versatile, and straightforward to model.”

Achieng says that many individuals don’t notice how briskly trend has a devastating influence on local weather change and water waste – one thing she is enthusiastic about as a result of she noticed it firsthand as a baby. She explains how the fast-fashion trade disproportionately impacts creating international locations like Kenya, the place she grew up.

Achieng is enthusiastic about empowering girls by her designs.

“The merchandise and supplies we get rid of within the West are despatched to Africa,” she explains. “This kills unbiased companies, and ninety p.c of those garments find yourself in African landfills.”

Her childhood in Kenya began from what she herself describes as “humble beginnings” and drove Achieng to design clothes that promotes sustainability and empowers its wearers.

Actually, Achieng skilled the ability of trend from an early age and it marked her path as an entrepreneur. She recollects as a baby in Kenya how she felt when she placed on a brand new costume she acquired as a present from her aunt. 

“After I wore this costume, I felt so empowered,” Achieng describes. “That is the form of feeling that I wish to promote.”

In 2010, Achieng moved to Iceland, the place she pursued her dream of a profession within the trend world. After a lot issue discovering a trend job, Achieng determined to take issues into her personal arms. In 2020, she bought a stitching machine and went into enterprise for herself with the hopes of designing lovely clothes that give a voice to the ladies who put on them. 

AWE’s in depth community helped set Gracelandic up for fulfillment.

“I really feel like it’s my life’s mission to assist girls really feel seen and invincible by trend,” Achieng says. 

Two years after opening Gracelandic, Achieng participated within the Academy for Ladies Entrepreneurs (AWE) by U.S. Embassy Reykjavik by which she was geared up with the instruments wanted to attain success. For instance, Achieng realized the monetary expertise essential to run her enterprise and procure funding.

“After I began my enterprise, I simply blindly walked into my dream,”  Achieng says. “AWE helped me to know my enterprise in a a lot deeper method.” 

Past sensible enterprise expertise, Achieng was in a position to make the most of AWE’s in depth community to attach with different girls entrepreneurs, be taught from proficient mentors, and share her story on a bigger platform. 

“I’ve felt a lot help,” Achieng says. “I by no means knew that girls may very well be this supportive of each other.”

Since its launch, Gracelandic has grown enormously, which Achieng spoke about not too long ago on the 2022 Woman Impact Summit, a worldwide convention for up-and-coming girls entrepreneurs. And her designs have been featured in British Vogue 3 times in 2022.

Iceland’s Minister for Overseas Affairs, Thordis Kolbrun (pictured middle), wears Gracelandic couture whereas assembly President Joe Biden and First Woman Jill Biden at UNGA in 2022.

Achieng’s private mission to empower girls by what they put on additionally seems to be gaining traction on the worldwide political stage.  When Iceland’s Minister for Overseas Affairs Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjörd Gylfadóttir met with U.S. President Joe Biden throughout the U.N. Normal Meeting in New York in September 2022, she wore none aside from a Gracelandic design. 

Iceland’s Minister for Overseas Affairs, Thordis Kolbrun (pictured middle), wears Gracelandic couture whereas assembly President Joe Biden and First Woman Jill Biden at UNGA in 2022.

The Academy for Ladies Entrepreneurs is a girls’s empowerment initiative launched by the U.S. Division of State in 2019.  Utilizing the DreamBuilder studying platform developed by Arizona State College’s Thunderbird College of International Administration AWE has empowered greater than 25,000 girls in 100 international locations with the information, networks, and entry they should launch and scale profitable companies, together with 60 girls entrepreneurs in Iceland.

For extra details about AWE, go to: https://eca.state.gov/awe.