This year, the theme of International Women’s Day is #choosetochallenge — an action that couldn’t be more fitting for what we’re doing here at Factory45.
So, to celebrate, I’m featuring five Factory45 Alumni who are choosing to challenge through the sustainable fashion brands they’ve built.
Keep reading to get to know these women and make sure to check out Instagram Stories for more.
Selah Rhodes
DARITY | @darity.co
With DARITY, we choose to challenge for stronger and more sustainable support of mothers.
We advocate for a quality national paid leave program for mothers to recover and transition into motherhood. We use our content to hold space for more inclusive and transparent conversations about the journey to and through motherhood without judgment.
We push to provide quality, eco-conscious, and ethically-made products that mothers can rely on day in and day out.
Emily Soloby
Juno Jones | @junojonesshoes
By working in nontraditional industries, women are choosing to challenge every day, just by doing their jobs.
As a woman in the transportation industry, one thing that bothered me was never being able to find the safety footwear that I needed. There were so few options out there for professional women. A lack of properly sized gear and equipment for women in these fields is a pervasive problem.
I #choosetochallenge by tackling the footwear issue, and started my company Juno Jones, creating stylish ASTM certified safety footwear for women. By creating awareness, inspiration, and of course amazing safety boots, Juno Jones seeks to inspire women to enter nontraditional industries and rise to the top.
Hannah McDermott
Santos Swim | @santos_swim
As a swimwear designer with a deep connection to the ocean, I choose to challenge marine pollution and raise awareness about the issue.
Over 640,000 tons of fishing gear alone is lost or abandoned in the oceans every year, killing millions of marine animals and damaging fragile marine ecosystems.
By choosing fabric made primarily from regenerated materials including recovered fishing nets, we are helping to repurpose what was once harmful waste into beautiful, wearable swim pieces. When paired with organized beach + neighborhood cleanups, people can see the problem firsthand and are inspired to take action!
Oriana Turley
Medicine Mountain Scrubs | @medicinemtnscrubs
The medical workwear industry has a fast fashion problem.
Mass produced scrubs, with poor function, new styles released as fast as possible, created by non-medical designers with little regard to function, sustainability or ethics.
Medicine Mountain Scrubs offers an alternative to fast fashion in medical workwear. With function, sustainability and ethics at the core of our business, we offer scrubs with feminine lines, designed by women in medicine, focused on full coverage and function.
Made from recycled materials, by women standing in their own power, we are focused on creating a better world for people and the planet.
Lottie Bertello
LOTI | @shoploti_
We live in a world where clothing has become a disposable good, thus creating thousands of pounds of waste per year — less than 15 percent is recycled.
LOTI challenges waste culture by upcycling the material from discarded men’s dress shirts into elevated everyday wear.
I was personally inspired by the challenge of designing an aesthetic that celebrates the beauty of reusing textiles while making the actual garments feel fresh and easy to wear. LOTI is built on the pillars of creative reuse and textile waste reduction, and we cannot wait to share this with the world.
At Factory45, we #choosetochallenge fast fashion by helping to launch sustainable fashion brands.
I’m so proud to work with countless entrepreneurs who are choosing to challenge for a more sustainable world.
Learn more about how you can get involved here.
And to all of the women out there, here’s to you,
All photo credit goes to the respective brands.
