Generation Generous*
There is a saying that “travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer”. In that respect, I felt like a billionaire returning to London after a life-changing trip to India back in 2011. Less than 48 hours after landing at Heathrow Airport, I was standing on one of the busiest streets in central London: Oxford Street. It was just a couple of weeks before Christmas and everyone was rushing to get their shopping done. For a moment, I felt lost and I sat on the bench of a bus stop just looking at people rushing around carrying hundreds, if not thousands, of paper shopping bags.
For me, that was my ”aha” moment. It was at that split second that I felt the great power we have as consumers and that I dared to imagine the world if we used it only to do good.
Just 48 hours before, I had been standing in a large garment-producing unit in the outskirts of Mumbai, documenting processes and feeling overwhelmed with a desire to change how things happen in fast fashion. And a few hours before that, I had visited an orphanage caring for street children in the Indian slums. Seeing children without parents, without food, without a home, made me feel both sad and determined to make a difference. I decided that “consumer power” would be my solution and the “Generous Shopper” bag would be my tool. I felt sure that many of us would want to help make a positive change, so I named my brand Generation Generous*.
After two emotionally-rewarding years, the “Generous Shopper” bag became the brand’s first signature product. Inspired by the paper shopping bags I had seen that day on Oxford Street, this fashionable bag harnesses consumer power to help people in need and at the same time maintain a strong ethos towards working conditions, care for the environment and unique style. I used all my fabrics sourcing experience and knowledge, as well as my love for Asia, to design the simple and functional bag structure that instead of paper uses a custom-made, sustainable faux-leather fabric made from recycling 25 small plastic water bottles. In a small village near to where our bottles were transformed into yarn, we found five amazing female bag artisans to make our bags ethically under fair working conditions. And taking my non-negotiable list of the five basic life needs that I wanted to find a way to help, we then partnered with amazing non-profit organisations in different parts of the world to fund specific sustainable projects that would help people gain access to clean water, food, shelter, health and empowerment.
In this way, every bag carries a unique ethical, sustainable and generous story. From the raw materials to its makers to its impact to the environment and to the different people it helps after its sale. A story to be carried proudly by the new generation of consumers who feel that change is possible and that the time to start is now. For all of us who BELIEVE that generosity is the new luxury, who DREAM to save the world and who CARE for people wherever they are.
Generation Generous* is now on a journey to change the social and environmental impact of the bags we carry in a transparent, honest, kind, loving and generous way. Bag-by-Bag.
I hope everybody joins us!
