Today we’d like to introduce you to Griffin Vanze.
Griffin, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The inspiration for AEON ROW stems from the idea that clothing essentials can make a statement about your style and your values.
I had been working on preventing ocean trash at a nonprofit called Ocean Conservancy. We did beach cleanups too, and I was inspired by how many people would come to volunteer – over 500,000 every year.
At the same time, I had always been into fashion, and I was looking to transition my wardrobe to be more sustainable. However, the sustainable clothing I found had no real personality to it. It didn’t speak to my aesthetics.
So I started researching eco-fabrics. I became captivated by how affordable revived fabric was in relation to other eco-fabrics, and I was getting all of these ideas in my head about looks that I could design using the revived fabrics to bring into existence basics that had unique style. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and a week later I was on the phone recruiting fashion industry insiders to help me make it come to life.
But coming from a nonprofit, I knew that I also wanted to empower individuals like those participating in beach cleanups. So I developed a strategy to let customers recycle old clothing every time they made a purchase, which would keep clothing from becoming trash and also be a material source for our future clothing.
Thus began AEON ROW, a clothing company dedicated to more style and less waste.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of the bigger challenges of working with revived fabrics is that some people are wary of it. And in many cases customers are right to be wary of products that they haven’t heard of before, considering the historical opaqueness of the fashion industry with respect to supply chains and quality. We were initially attracted to revived fabrics because of its near-zero footprint, but the quality is actually one of the benefits that we hear most consistently from our customers – they love how soft the fabric is and how comfortably is contours on their frames. Convincing potential customer of the quality of fabric remains a challenge, but the upside is that our current customers seem thoroughly convinced, which bodes well for loyalty down the road.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
What drives us at AEON ROW is the idea of transformation. Our timeless-with-a-twist looks are designed to help customers transcend the cat-and-mouse game of trends and express themselves in a way that’s more focused, but also more genuine to who they are as individuals. And our Alternate Endings program empowers our customers to hack the typical life cycle of clothing and give these items new purpose and meaning when they’re recycled. By combining these concepts, the ultimate goal is to transform how consumers shop but also how they see themselves and the world.
This fall we’re really excited about two sweaters we’re producing – it took a lot of R&D to source it all from 100% recycled materials, so it’s a very unique product that I haven’t seen anywhere else on the market.
What were you like growing up?
Both of my parents are architects, so I grew up learning a lot about aesthetics and architectural principals. My favorite architect is Mies van der Rohe, who adopted the terms “less is more” and “the devil is in the details,” which are inherent ideas to AEON ROW’s designs.
Simultaneously, I always knew I wanted to have a profession that contributed to society. After college I served in the Peace Corps in Namibia, and when I got back I transitioned to working in environmentalism at Ocean Conservancy. These experiences definitely influenced my desire to start a mission-driven company.
Pricing:
- We try to keep our prices reasonable – all of our current looks range from $20-80.
Contact Info:
- Address: 31 Fort Avenue #2
Boston, MA 02119 - Website: https://www.aeonrow.com
- Email: transform@aeonrow.com
- Instagram: @aeonrow
- Facebook: facebook.com/aeonrow
- Twitter: @aeonrow
- Other: https://www.aeonrow.com
Image Credit:
Karin Dailey
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