For several years now we have been talking about the impact of the fashion industry because according to the United Nations Environment Assembly, this industry is the second largest consumer of water and is responsible for 8% to 10% of global carbon emissions, more than all shipping and international flights combined. It is also worth recognizing the exploitation and conditions in which those who produce our clothes work, for example, one of the events that evidenced this was the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh where 1,134 workers died and 2,500 more were injured.
All this deeply marked Jimena Gárate's vision of fashion and what she wanted to do in this industry: a brand where her visual and conceptual proposal was also based on an ethical production, that is: to reduce its ecological footprint and create fair conditions for those who produce our clothes and accessories. Under these principles Veleta is born, a project where sustainability and design meet.
Thanks to a sailing camp in Catemaco Jimena learned to sail and recognized the connection between the wind, the water and the sailboat and wanted to transmit that through her first clothing collection, which was her thesis project for her fashion design career. And beyond taking nautical motifs as inspiration, the collection focused on the use of sail material as raw material, with this, Jimena had the opportunity to explore with reuse materials. The Veleta catalog currently consists of the Victoria bag and the Beneteau suitcase -made from paragliding-, the Nautilus case -made from a reused tent- and the Coordenadas bandana -made from leftover textile-.
Currently Veleta 's products are mainly made with paragliders, parachutes, kites, sailboat sails, tents, wetsuits, inner tubes or textile leftovers, among others. For Jimena it is important that we know the history of the material and the person who sewed it to appreciate and take better care of our clothes and accessories. For example, this way we know that the Victoria bag, before being in our hands, was a paraglider with 350 hours of flight time in Mexico, Canada and Colombia and that the people who sewed it live in Ecatepec.
In addition to Veleta's products, in 2023 Jimena had the opportunity to do a residency at Laguna, where she was able to collaborate with some of the projects found in this space. With Let yourself be lovedJimena created wool blocks with some of her leftovers, while, in collaboration with La Metropolitana they designed and produced several pieces, such as a stool woven from a bicycle tire inner tube, some paragliding puffs with sawdust filling, and a screen-our favorite-that joins La Metropolitana's leftover wood and paragliding fabric. What makes this piece special is the pleating, which is part of an exploratory exercise to find new ways to give paragliders a second sailing.
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