Bastet Noir

This Entry has been submitted.

Bastet Noir

Ohrid, MacedoniaOhrid, Macedonia
Year Founded:
2013
Organization type: 
for profit
Project Stage:
Start-Up
Budget: 
$1,000 - $10,000
Website:
https://www.bastetnoir.com/en/
Share page with AddThis
Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

BastetNoir.com's ultimate goal is to give a helping hand to young and promising fashion talents coming from the Balkan region to showcase and sell their designs.We are trying to develop a sustainable business by offering hip and trendy clothes made from fair traded, natural and recycled materials

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

What if the Balkan region was more than just a fashion destination for low paid labor?
About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

We are coming from a region where unemployment rate is very high. Most of the people working within the textile industry are low paid and work for more than 15 hours a day. They are working under the most gruesome circumstances, with no pauses, no day lights. The things they are sewing are all made of synthetic materials and the leftovers are simply thrown away in the illegal landfills around Macedonia or very often they end up in rivers.

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

What we are hoping to do is to start employing people and eventually build up a community where low paid labor is not an option. We want to empower the people working within the textile industry without using them. We want to bring back the lost splendor of the Macedonian tradition by employing craftsman from the villages by paying them fair wages and honoring their hard work. When it comes to the leftover materials we are determined to recycle them all. So far we're always using natural materials, fair traded and recycled ones. We're hoping to continue using them in the future as well.
Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

We are working with designers who are always using fair traded, natural and recycling materials. We're always using organic color and never throw away the leftover materials. We are always paying fair wages and we're always on time with the payments. This helps the craftsman and enable them to work in the privacy of their homes all the while being fairly paid for their services. In fact we are creating a community where the individual is all that matters. In this way we are helping the unemployed craftsmen to get recognized for the work they are doing all the while not harming the environment we are living in.

Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.

So far we've been able to achieve a strong brand awareness being supported by some of the industry's leading eco fashion platforms and people. All of the designers and craftsmen we are supporting have managed to sell their designs in Europe, Australia and the USA, for which we are really proud of. Working with fair traded, natural materials, we're always trying to make the most of them. We've managed so create a whole collection of bags and accessories out of these materials, which to our surprise quickly sold out. We've been able to give the designers and craftsmen the recognition they deserve and hopefully we'll continue to do so in the future. Some of our projected future impact would be to bring transparency to the shop and reveal every detail about an the manufacturing, the business and the origin of the materials used.
Sustainability

Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?

We would need to advertise the website and include more eco fashion designers on our platform. By offering unique designs, we are confident that our financial sustainability will depend on word of mouth strategy as well as on well crafted and unique pieces. By adding the transparency model to the website we'll definitely gain the trust from our customers and provide them with a very strong reason to buy with us rather than our competitors.

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

So far, nobody is working on promoting eco fashion from the Balkan region. Apart from few independent designers who are eco fashion oriented, there isn't any platform other than ours that support these eco fashion designers. There aren't actually online shops from this region that are working on fashion in general. That's where we have the advantage, being one of the few online shops who offer fashion and the only one that offers eco fashion
Team

Founding Story

Started in 2012, the founder of the company had one thing in mind, to support young fashion struggling designers from the Balkan region whose creative spirit is something to be marveled at and whose designs leave much to be desired for. But, there is something much more important than just supporting these artists and that's running fair and sustainable fashion business with undeniable respect to the environment.