On 7 July Atelier Riforma launched its first “reward-based” crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, setting € 8000 as the final goal. Less than a month after the launch, the amount raised is more than 5000 euros, about 64% of the final target.

Atelier Riforma is an innovative startup for social good, which aims to reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry through circular economy principles and tailoring creativity.

For Atelier Riforma, second-hand clothes, which are no longer worn and would be thrown away, are a resource!

What do they do in practice? They collect used clothes from those who want to get rid of them and give them to their network of tailoring realities which, through a tailoring process of transformation (called “upcycling”), gives them a new value. Once transformed, the garments are sold by Atelier Riforma and can thus have a second life.

Atelier Riforma wants to represent all the people who look for environmentally friendly and ethical clothes.

The upcycling of used clothes is also a means to create job opportunities, growth and inclusion: in other words, they want their startup to connect, through the upcycling of used clothes, all the tailoring realities who want to commit themselves in the environmental protection and in building a more equal society.

The idea of ​​Atelier Riforma was born during CRT Foundation’s project “Talenti per l’Impresa”, an advanced training course aiming at training young people on entrepreneurship. After one year they turned a simple idea into a startup. They have collected over 1500 garments and created a network of nine realities, including designers, tailors, sustainable brands and social tailorings where people from conditions of fragility find a job. They have also established a partnership with two fashion schools so that students, tomorrow’s professionals, approach sustainable fashion and learn the art of upcycling. They also collaborate with two non-profit associations, donating them clothes that can be useful for people in social-economic difficulties.

A few weeks ago they started to sell their clothes on their e-commerce website, but they are just getting started!

They want to do more. They want to create a traceability system which guarantees transparency about the destination of the clothes people give them. At the same time, they want to allow those who buy to find out who made the tailoring work on the garment they purchased and understand their positive impact on the environment, generated by buying a reformed item.

To achieve all this, they need more human and financial resources: going on at the current rhythm, next year they will need at least two people dedicated to working on the traceability and measurement of environmental impact systems. In addition, an investment in digital labels and IT devices will be needed (they estimate an amount for the whole investment of 30.000 €).

These are ambitious goals, so they decided to proceed step by step and to ask the people who believe in their values to support them.

With this campaign, they aim to reach the goal of 8.000 euro, which will enable them to start investing in the traceability system. Thanks to your support, they will give the opportunity to people who donated them their clothes to find out their destination by entering a code on Atelier Riforma’s website.

If you want to help them to take this first step, take part in this campaign!

As a reward for your donation, based on your contribution, you will receive one of these products in preview:

• a bracelet realized from old t-shirts by the tailors of our network:
• a pochette made from recycled jeans and wax fabric by our social tailoring “Il Filo d’Alga”
• a backpack realized from recycled jeans and wax fabric by the social tailoring “Il Filo d’Alga”
• a multicolor t-shirt made from second-hand shirts by the social tailoring “Il Gelso”
• a sweater of regenerated yarn realized by our knitter Sonia Oberto.

If you embrace Atelier Riforma’s mission, but you do not have the possibility to donate, you can still help them by sharing this campaign with your contacts! Every small action is important.

P.S. by choosing to receive these products derived from the upcycling of old clothing, you are already contributing to making fashion a bit more sustainable!