Attire is a high fashion sustainable brand created by German influencer and business school graduate, Xenia Adonts. Carmela Osorio Lugo, a 2016 Venezuelan SCAD grad, is the head of design and production.
I found out about the company and Osorio Lugo this past April when she was invited to one of my SCAD courses to talk about her journey and successes in the fashion industry. Osorio Lugo mentioned how Adonts contacted her through Instagram and offered her the job in design and production, an offer which Osorio Lugo declined at first, but then decided to give it a try.
This leap of faith really paid off, for Attire is one of this year’s top sustainable brands. What’s shocking is: it was created by an influencer. Throughout the Instagram world, it is very rare to see an influencer with a strong follower base to have declined business with fast fashion brands.
Adonts got inspiration to create an ethical brand from her previous experience of attending numerous fashion weeks and press events.
Her having to change into multiple looks in one day made her become interested in learning about the ethical aspect in the making of her outfits.
On the brand’s about page, Adonts states, “In the same period, I got approached by brands who wanted to do capsule collections with me. One of them, a huge retailer, offered me a lucrative six-figure fee plus percentages of the sales on top. I asked for details of the collaboration: Do I have creative freedom? Can I see the factories where it’s being produced? Can I decide what the materials consist of? The answers were no, no and not really. I received a sheet of ‘designs’ I could choose from, produced in factories I’d never be able to visit, made from low-quality materials. I started thinking: is this what I want to stand for? I declined the offer.”
Adonts was in awe of how multiple brands didn’t have their sustainability goals defined or having none at all.
She pointed out a fault in the industry and decided to give the concept of this brand a shot since she had a strong follower base, career and some savings in hand.
Attire’s first collection launched on November of last year, and it currently released its second collection featuring delicately detailed cardigans, sweaters, tops, suits and pants.
Aside from being sustainably created, from the looks of her instagram story and posts it seems like she works with an amazing team that owns the same values that Adonts does.
