Dive Organic
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
Fashion has never been done like this before. Production: 100% local and handmade by demand. Fabrics: 100% organic, toxins and pesticides free. Business: 100% sustainable, no child labour, transparent. Design: 100% original and affordable. Dive Organic is 100% love, devotion, hard work and innovation. We are creating a community that supports small, local, slow production, that focuses on sustainable future, ecological fashion and healthy living.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Dive Organic started as an idea two years ago, slowly with a lot of planning, we researched the fashion market, fabrics manufacturers, labour requirements and how to run a fashion business. We should say we are two sisters from Croatia that grew up in a family of tailors therefore clothes and fashion were a familiar subject. However, we had a mission of creating a sustainable business, using only organic fabrics and producing slowly minimising the waste. Therefore it took us a long time and we are still learning how to manage our brand to be successful yet stay sustainable, respecting our moral code. Back in January, we started small, with only a few garments, testing the market. Over time we managed to reach a wider audience that was not only interested in style but also quality, durability and purity of fashion. Now six mother later we have broadened our offer yet we have managed to keep our production in its original state, by demand. The most challenging part of our project was incorporating our designs with a stingy market of organic fabrics. We had to modify our ideas and unfortunately give up on certain designs as the market of organic fabrics is not yet equipped for a larger, more demanding production market. However, we were fortunate enough to find suppliers from the EU that have all the required certifications and standards for organic fabrics. All of our production is handmade by an outsourcer with whom we have build mutually respectable and successful business relationship. In the next five years, we plan to grow our business, and we understand in order to do that and stay sustainable, slow and organic we will have to make adjustments and revolutionise the way business is done in big companies. We plan to do that by extensive research, consulting with professionals in the field and introducing new ways of constructing a fashion brand and business so it stays sustainable, reliable, transparent and eco-friendly.
Key objectives for sustainability
Sustainability was a key initiator of our business, it was also the biggest challenger in performing our everyday business duties. We set a goal that we will not go into debt while starting our business, we invested a small amount of savings and we would work with that in ways and until it circled back, then we would invest that into more business expansion. After testing the market for interest in organic and handmade fashion we roughly knew how much fabrics needed for our initial designs. As our production is by demand we only had to provide designs, fabrics and initial sample clothing for marketing purposes. After receiving orders we start our production process. We have discovered that this way we can control the use of fabrics and expenses much more clearly. When demand is higher than our stock of fabrics we analyse the market and demand in pursuit of the most economical and waste managed way of business. If unfortunately, the demand is lower than our stock we invest the money that would be used for production, into marketing to increase demand and avoid stock waste. However, the stock waste is unlikely to happen as we only stock materials that can always be used for different designs and products, therefore our possibilities are endless regarding production growth and evolution. We make sure that all our business ventures are complementing each other, growing from one another as a natural consequence.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The key objective of our brand is organic and handmade products. Word organic is a part of the name so it reminds us and our customers what the brand stands for and always will. We accomplish quality by sourcing our fabrics from established and trusted manufacturer that leads transparent business. At any moment we can check where the materials are coming from, what factories made certain fabric and where the cotton is coming from. GOTS certificate is another reassurance that our fabrics come from reliable sources. It tells us and our customers that the whole process of manufacturing fabrics was sustainable, organic, ecological, fair trade and in respect of workers rights. Slow production, no use of toxins, no pesticides and no chemical colours guarantees the high quality of all the fabrics we use. It is not only healthy for our environment but also our skin. What we put on our skin is as important as what we put in our bodies, and chemical-free clothes should become a staple of healthy living. Our design is original, we wanted to show our potential customers the organic clothes does not have to mean overly simple, ordinary and boring. We wanted to make our clothes desirable, colourful and diverse. We knew our clothes will have to be different but also somewhat commercial so it would convert potential customers from buying from fast fashion brands. Fast fashion offers them diversity at a very low price. A sustainable business like ours cannot offers that at the same level. So we offer as much diversity as possible, in terms of prices and designs.
Key objectives for inclusion
Inclusion is very important when running a sustainable business. We try to be as accessible as we can in terms of our offer and the price of our products. Currently, we sell our products through a webshop, and we advertise through social media. Every business should take advantage of social media as it is a leading marketing tool today. Webshop enabled us to reach a wide audience and potential customers outside of our local community. That way we connected with other businesses practising sustainability and learned a lot from them and we tested our knowledge and ideas. As organic fashion is still a rising initiative in the fashion industry we have to look long and hard for potential customers. Small groups of people recognise the importance of organic and sustainable business today despite the growing popularity of talking about the importance of saving and preserving our environment. The online shop helps us reach those people and spread the message of our work. In the future, we would love to have a studio where potential customers and those interested in being a part of clean and healthy living could come and learn more about what sustainability is and how it can be practised in our everyday lives as well. When it comes to setting the price of our products we take into account materials, production, and marketing cost. We then double that amount and that is the price of our products. We cover the costs and we make sure we can use the profit for materials, production and marketing for another product. That way our business is constantly circling and feeding itself. We researched that if our potential customer works a full-time job, paying from 6 euros per hour can buy at least one of our products a month. We also took into consideration that that person shops from a fast-fashion brand and spends more than they can afford simply because the prices of a single product are lower. That way creating more waste and financial deficit.
Results in relation to category
We applied for category number five, products and lifestyle, as we believe our sustainability and focus to build an organic fashion brand represents an attractive and inclusive lifestyle. As we mentioned before we accomplished sustainability by using organic materials and having an on-demand production that minimises waste of materials and money. Over the last six months, we have seen significant waste management and control that we believe would not have been possible with ought our way of business. By demand production allowed us to control our fabrics supplies and we managed money and expenses much more tightly. Keeping all ends of the business open for change we were able to invest money into what was needed not what we planned we would need it for. In a sustainable business, plans change all the time as we are listening to our market. The money we were planing for production might be used for marketing instead as that is where it is needed. That way we cut expenses and waste at every corner. With sustainability come attractive and quality products. We can assure our potential customers that our production is slow and fabrics are organic. Those variables set our product on a higher level of quality and durability than an average fashion product on the market. In terms of inclusiveness, we aim to display our products on as many platforms as possible to make them available for a wider audience. Also, slower production, organic fabrics and sustainability all take more time, effort and cost therefore the final product carries a higher price than the similar fast fashion product on the market. However, we strive to keep our prices on a reasonable level so it is affordable to a majority of our potential customers.
How Citizens benefit
Civil society had a major role in creating our project from the very beginning. We tested the fashion market and on grounds of those results, we build our initial plans and structure of our business. Social media was a great gateway to civil society that provided us with information we would not be able to get otherwise. Social media is an unofficial way of gathering information from people that will as a consequence of that research become our potential customers. We often carry out unofficial testing of people's opinions on certain matters, we question what they like and do not like. With that information, we provide them with the best experience on our social media pages and eventually on our webshop page. Over time those potential customers became a part of a community and felt like they had the power to change, modify and affect what our brand will make and present to them next. When their wishes become reality they feel validated and heard and they convert into customers much more easily as now they are emotionally involved with the brand. We believe our project had a great impact on civil society and the local community. We supported local businesses and artists as a consequence of our work. We searched for talent among our community as we wanted to build our brand on solid ground and with people and organisations that can benefit from our business the most. The introduction of our brand started a lot of conversation about what it means to be sustainable, affordable and inclusive in today's fashion industry. We are grateful for being able to be a part of something great and important that will potentially change our local community for the better.
Innovative character
The innovative character of our project would have to be our production system. We looked long and hard for a talented and experienced tailor in our local community that could take on a project like ours. Finally, we found a family business lead by mother and daughter, they are a perfect combination of experience and innovation. Our relationship works in a way that we have meetings and discuss our designs and fabrics we would like to use. They offer us their professional opinion on how that could work and how it can be done. Then we do samples and fittings and over time come up with a design that fits our brand's image and that has functionality and quality. When the products are finalised and launched on our webshop it becomes a part of our current catalogue. That means we have cuts and fabrics of those designs ready is it can be made at any moment the order comes through. As we said before this way of production allows us to manage our waste and expenses easier, and it ensures our business stay sustainable. It also gives our customers a sense of intimacy and personal relationship between us and them. They know that the product was made especially for them, at their request. Not only is every piece of our clothing unique and special, but it also creates a bond between the brand and the customers that ensures they will be loyal to the brand and advocates of its products and missions.
