Meet Assem Bektur-Giversen, Founder of SomeFancyName, a global online community for sustainable designers, a place to share, grow and develop your vision for a sustainable fashion industry

 

Assem Bektur-Giversen Founder of SomeFancyName

 

Why did you decide to specialise in sustainable fashion?

My journey to sustainability came gradually. I started working in one of the biggest Danish fast fashion companies. It gave me the possibility to get to know and understand the industry first-hand, so-to-speak. Slowly I realised the undeniable negative impact the Fashion Industry has on both people and the environment. Apparel and footwear industries are resource-intensive and are responsible for more than 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Around 75 million people work to make our clothes and 80% of them are women between the ages of 18 and 35 years. So, when Rana Plaza Garment factory collapsed in 2013 and killed 1,138 garment workers, many of whom were women, I decided that I would like to know more about the fashion industry impact.

Once you step on a journey of informing yourself and taking responsibility for your own actions, you will never be the same 🙂 You can’t stop! So, I started with consuming less and more responsibly, creating my own rules for how to buy clothes, gradually it went on to eating only organic and ecological food, and now – switching gradually to becoming a vegetarian.

So, it was only natural for me to start a company that strives to make a difference in this world. We are working on creating a community for sustainable designers that allows our end consumers to discover a great variety of unique, innovative and sustainably designed clothes; clothes that have a meaning, a purpose.

We ensure Responsible Production and Consumption, since our designers  are producing made-to-order, fair and ethical, unique and high quality clothes. We have designers focusing on innovation and sustainability who work with Econyl® (regenerated nylon), Pinatex (Ananas leaves), Seaqual, cork and other sustainable, innovative materials. At the same time, we empower our end consumers in their sustainable choices by creating a Sustainability Categorisation, which should be implemented on our website once we are ready.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are the main challenges you face?

One of the main challenges we face is our limited resources. We are a small startup with a big vision 🙂  We are a team of two persons, who have to do everything ourselves: content creation, operations, designers’ scouting, marketing, website developments, partnerships, sustainability categorisation in cooperation with local universities, talking to investors, etc. That requires a lot of focus and effort.

Being a digital startup means we don’t have any brand recognition, so we always need to think out of box on how to grow our traffic organically.

Last but not least, COVID-19 has directly affected our business. When it comes to work possibilities, the future looks more uncertain, hence people cannot afford discretionary spending, such as buying clothes. However, I do believe that long-term, something positive might come out of all of it. People have the time now to stop and question their consumption habits and priorities. Re-think. Perhaps the pandemic has put even more focus on sustainability, people in general become more and more aware of their own actions, and how they can impact a change, but at the same time there is also an element, of how we are used to doing things or buying things we already know, so there is also some work ahead to make it more mainstream and normal to wear sustainable clothes.

Why is CANUSSA at SOMEFANCYNAME?

We were proud to present Canussa to our customers at www.somefancyname.com. The main reason is that Canussa represents beautifully designed accessories without undermining the sustainable production process. You will find vegan totes, backpacks and purses that are locally produced by Spanish artisans, using high quality and ecological fabrics. For each bag, up to 7 plastic bottles have been recycled. And last, but not least, it is lead by a woman. Being a female entrepreneur in the field of fashion tech myself, supporting other female entrepreneurs is a core value of our community.