Hilary Huang
Sofia Bowe
LinChun Peng
Universidad de Navarra
University of Glasgow
Isabel Rodriguez Tejedo
Paul Quigley
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To reduce textile waste and promote sustainable fashion, EVC Creations innovates by creating unique hand made pieces made of thrifted and upcycled materials. By promoting responsible production and consumption while stimulating young consumers' creativity and environmental consciousness, this strategy advances UN SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).
Eliana started her business in Chicago, Illinois, USA in the midst of covid. She was gifted a sewing machine by her parents, and quickly took to youtube where she taught herself how to sew. By August 2020, her friends started requesting personalized creations which led her to officially open her business. She started collecting fabrics from thrift stores and warehouses where the scraps would have been otherwise thrown away. She knew the impacts of fast fashion and was determined to carry out her work in a sustainable and eco-friendly manner.
Her first innovation was silk lined hats for her friends to take care of their hair, then came pleated skirts personalized to different colleges. Then she started taking special orders from tops to skirts. Her business grew fast due to appearances in fashion shows, one particularly important show was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art titled “Reworking Our World”, where artists under 21 got to share their sustainably made clothing. Here she sold out of all her pieces reaffirming her success.
Her business directly fulfills the SDG of responsible consumption and production as she creates clothing without creating any waste and carbon emissions. Through using recycled materials from thrift stores and scraps from warehouses no new fabric is produced and with all pieces being made by hand ethical production is ensured. Even when Eliana has leftover scraps from her work she donates them to her old high school so students can use the leftover materials for their creations. Furthermore, these hand crafted pieces directly combat the fast fashion practices of mass production. Overall, Eliana is combating climate change through her responsible production and consumption.
Eliana is a self taught designer and takes inspiration from her friends, family and internet trends. She grew up always sewing and watching Youtube videos, and when she got the opportunity to sell some of her items in high school, she realized there was a real demand for high school/university students looking for customized clothing. For example, her friends had told her about the struggles they have finding hats that weren’t made of polyester and wouldn’t mess up their hair. So she took it upon herself to learn how to create beanies and hoodies and line them with silk, and sold them to her friends.
Eliana tells us that she “really enjoyed the process of taking something apart and redoing it. I find it more thought provoking to redo something old”. She finds a lot of inspiration from browsing in thrift stores and challenging herself to see what fabrics she can collect to turn them into something brand new. For example, during her fashion show, she turned an old sleeping bag into a puffer coat.
Eliana has transformed her love of sewing into a successful small business that encourages others to reconsider fashion and consumption by integrating her own creativity with a strong emphasis on environmental responsibility. Her experience acts as a reminder of how meaningful innovation in sustainable design may be sparked by curiosity, creativity, and an ambition to solve actual challenges.
Eliana’s main impact has been bringing awareness about sustainable fashion and conscious consumerism in her community. She saw a large trend of students her age purchasing from fast fashion companies and felt it was important to encourage others to support smaller sustainable businesses instead of large corporations. Through online marketing and word of mouth, Eliana has been able to share her story and promote unique handmade designs that come from thrifted fabrics.
Most recently, Eliana was invited to be a part of a fashion show “Reworking Our World”. The theme of the show was sustainability and Eliana hand crafted each piece with only upcycled materials she found in thrift stores. In front of a crowd of 200+ attendees, Eliana gave a speech about sustainable fashion and the harms of large corporations, creating a lasting impact on the negative effects of fast fashion across her campus community and audience. She was also able to encourage other up and coming designers to create pieces by upcycling, she received messages from other designers on campus about her work.
Eliana's dedication to her community went beyond her business. The Chicago-based group Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) honoured her and nominated her as a young leader. In order to motivate others to upcycle and make their own clothes, she provided sewing lessons and gave presentations about the negative consequences of fast fashion. Eliana has demonstrated the larger social and environmental impact of her creation by inspiring a new generation to embrace creativity, sustainability, and ethical consumer behaviour.
EVC Creations benefits from cheaper production costs while creating unique, personalized products that stand out in the market since it uses repurposed and thrifted materials. Eliana offers unique clothing, particularly her college tapestry skirts, which appeal to students searching for customized things rather than competing with mass-produced quick fashion. Even in the lack of significant advertising or retail collaborations, this approach has contributed to the development of strong consumer loyalty and consistent sales through word-of-mouth.
Eliana's production expenses have also decreased because of her upcycling strategy. Her material expenses are much lower than purchasing new textiles because she gets the majority of her fabric from thrift stores or warehouse leftovers. Even with garments manufactured by hand, this maintains high profit margins. Customers are more inclined to support a small business that shares environmental principles, thus the element of sustainability has also turned into a selling factor for her brand, providing it a competitive edge.
Eliana's innovation of recycled clothing using scraps, producing no waste and no emissions directly benefits society and the environment. This innovation benefits society as consumers have the ability to request personalized creations that without being a product of fast fashion are in turn higher quality. The responsible production ensures fair pay to workers and high quality working conditions that fast fashion companies have been accused of depriving their workers. Furthermore, her business directly enforces ethical/conscientious consumption, promoting quality over the fast fashions industry push on quantity.
Eliana's business benefits the environment through sustainable creation with zero waste. No new fabrics are created as everything is bought from second hand stores/warehouses and no fabric is wasted as any leftovers are directly donated to her local high school community for future projects. These practices ensure essentially no waste, emission and a very limited carbon footprint. Furthermore, operating as a small business limits her resource consumption on energy and water. In all, her efforts work together in contrast to protect the environment and fight against climate change.
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Eliana Veronique Cano, Founder
Eliana started EVC Creations, a sustainable fashion company, in 2020. The company upcycles discarded and thrifted materials to create unique, custom-made apparel. Handmade satin-lined clothing and pleated skirts created from vintage college tapestries are among the collection's unique pieces. Every design by EVC Creations blends originality, creativity, and environmentally responsible methods.