The People Behind #MadebyVOZ

Today, on Fashion Revolution Day, we remember those killed and injured the in the Rana Plaza catastrophe. Two years ago today, 1133 people were killed and over 2500 were injured when the Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Globalization has created a toxic and unjust production chain to make fashion worldwide.

At VOZ, we exist to oppose this paradigm, and join with our ethical fashion peers to make clothes in a humane manner. It is our mission to make things slowly and by hand, paying ethical wages to our production partners, paying design royalties to artisans for their creative contributions, providing technical education programs, and using production methods that support healthy lifestyles for our makers.

 VOZ means voice, because we exist to highlight and celebrate the creative voices and technical mastery of our artisan partners. VOZ pays ethical wages to our artisan partners for each piece they make, and we work in intimate collaboration to design collections that feature traditional Mapuche artistry. VOZ is thirty weavers, five knitters, two silversmiths, and a team of sewers in New York. On this Fashion Revolution Day, we would like to introduce you to some of our team. 

Sylvia Aniao

Slyvia is pictured here next to her loom, weaving one of our Diagonal Wraps. In addition to being a skilled artisan weaver, she is also an expert gardener.  She grows delicious strawberries, the sweetest you'll ever taste, some say. She travels from outside Padre Las Casas to Temuco to sell the berries. 

 

Pascuala Leal

Pascuala is one of the cofounding artisan directors of VOZ and first knitwear designer. She's always innovating. She brings by new sweaters and hats that she knits in her spare time. She’s a fierce woman who will walk for hours to bring her work to our VOZ headquarters when her rural buses are frequently shut down, and always takes the time to generously train her peers new techniques she’s invented.

 

Blanca Poblete

Blanca buys raw wool and hand-spins it. She is an expert at her craft and is very warm and open hearted She loves to share with others how she spins raw wool. She is a family woman and works hard to provide for them by spinning wool an working on the farm. We're lucky to have her as part of the VOZ Team.