I am a writer and executive administrator for Trusted Clothes, which is an ethical and sustainable fashion organization. The following is a series devoted in honor of the work done in collaboration with the Schroeckers and the Trusted Clothes team. Part 1 of an interview with Andrea Sanabria.
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Would you tell us a little about your familial and personal background, as well as provide some educational background?
I spent most of my life in Peru, but I finished my high school in the U.S. I lived in Minnesota for a year and went back several times after that and I did all of my university in Lima because after high school, I went back to Peru. Though I am not originally from Lima, I’ve lived there for, maybe, 10 years. Finally, I stayed working there in advertising and marketing. After a few years of work, I felt the need to change industries because fashion was actually moving in Peru. Before, the industry wasn’t much in terms of creative fashion – it relied more on manufacture and production. I wouldn’t have really called it a fashion industry, more like industry-suppliers. But at that time, the creative industry was already moving, though in a slow pace.
So, I decided to travel to see what the fashion industry was actually like around the world because I knew we were in a very early phase. I decided to move to France to do my Masters in fashion management, with thoughts of moving back to Peru right afterwards to help develop the industry there and build a bridge between the Peruvian industry with the rest of the industry abroad. While I was here in France, I discovered sustainable fashion – which in Peru we didn’t know about.
Now, there is a little bit of it. In Latin America in general, there is a little bit of sustainable knowledge, but people talk about it and don’t really know about it. Here, even though French people consider it not that important or developed, to me, it was like, “Wow!” It’s been eye-opening. So, I decided to stay here to learn more about it.
You are a freelance writer and activist for better practices in the fashion business. How does this play out in personal and professional life at the present?
To be honest, until maybe, two years ago, I was really the regular professional person. When I was in Peru, I would work for several companies in marketing. On the side, I would always do freelance design just for the fun of it. When I moved to France, after school I started working for fashion companies. I was on the regular path I guess. But ever since I decided to fully commit to sustainable fashion and the promotion of sustainable fashion in Latin America, starting my own company of course, I quit any possibilities of a full-time job and have been doing freelance ever since. I have been freelancing for fashion showrooms, for sales, and everything that has to do with writing. Everything that aligns with fashion and sustainable fashion. I do that nowadays. I am an entrepreneur and freelancer. It’s a mess sometimes (laughs).
You have experience in the international market and a specialty for Latin America, and you are a featured author for Trusted Clothes. How does your expertise influence chosen article topics?
I’ve been checking a lot of blogs and writers that are contributing. They write about their own personal experience, which I think is important to start. I also started to write what it is like to start your own business, and I think it is the first step because you are connecting people that are thinking, “Maybe, I should be more interested in this, than that.” But in the articles that I’ve been doing afterwards, I’ve been trying to look at it more from a commercial point of view. At how sustainable fashion and practices is something that you can make profit off. Little businesses, and major brands, are looking into it and developing. I cannot not see that with my background.
I’ve studied marketing strategies, green-washing cases, and successful online startups. So when I see it happening, I immediately do a little research and write about it. The last article, which I wrote for Trusted Clothes, and hasn’t been published yet, is about the shared economy and how it applies to fashion, because it’s a big thing right now.
It has taken longer for fashion. So, I wrote a little bit about my thoughts on it, and at the end I always end up mentioning, based on personal observations on the international scene – why it’s happening or not happening in Latin America – how it applies there. Because being from Latin America, and going there once a year, I get to see how the market changes, and then I get to compare it with the rest of the world because I want to say the US and Europe are somewhat aligned. However, I feel Latin America is behind. And I try to state why it is we’re behind or in different states.
I mix my professional background with my cultural background every day (laughs).
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Original publication on www.trustedclothes.com.
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Image Credit: Getty Images.