RAORI in HELA STADEN UPPSALA

Hanna Westergren Gendebien is the fashion designer who had had enough of the unsustainable fashion industry and committed herself wholeheartedly to making it better.

Now she wants to bring slow fashion to Uppsala. “There are already several slow fashion businesses in Uppsala, so I’m trying to organise us so that together we can offer our products here,” says Hanna.

Twenty years ago, Hanna moved from Uppsala to London to study fashion. After completing her studies, she began working in the fashion industry but quickly became frustrated by its downsides – mass production, environmental destruction and appalling conditions for textile workers.

“I’d had enough of fashion. I felt that this wasn’t working out, I didn’t want to do this. It wasn’t what I’d planned,” says Hanna. Instead, she moved to Tokyo, studied Japanese and met her husband, who is from Belgium, where they eventually settled down and had children.

It was also there that the RAORI brand began to take shape. “I did it as a project so I could stay at home with my children in Brussels. They don’t have parental leave like we do,” explains Hanna. Inspired by Japanese street style and a sustainable approach to textiles, she wanted to try making fashion in a new way.

– I started sewing with recycled materials and sustainable fabrics on a small scale and in small batches. What began as a small project soon became a passion and a desire to change the fashion industry. Today, Hanna lives in Almunge with her family and designs clothes that she sews from recycled or natural fabrics.

– I usually say that I make high-quality fashion out of trash, says Hanna. The fashion industry’s mass production of clothing generates vast quantities of surplus textiles, which are incinerated or end up in huge warehouses and in the natural environment.

Every second, a lorry load of textiles is dumped in various places around the world. “And we’re not talking about good-quality fabrics, because it’s Shein and Temu that have accelerated this.” Every Swede buys around 14 kg of textiles per year, and half of that ends up in the bin. 60% of that material could have been reused.

– By ‘rescuing’ fabrics from recycling centres, I can sew clothes from them instead and give them a second chance. When Hanna creates her clothes, she always focuses on minimising waste as much as possible. – That’s the most important thing for me: not throwing fabric away.

Slow fashion can be described as everything that fast fashion isn’t. – Instead of mass production, I make one garment at a time. Instead of ready-made size ranges that women have to fit into, I make made-to-measure garments, says Hanna. At the heart of the clothing’s design are comfort, femininity, minimalism and quality. Many of the customers are regulars and usually find it difficult to find clothes that suit them.

– They buy a pair of trousers that don’t fit, fall apart or become too small as their bodies change, says Hanna. A visit to Hanna’s textile studio is a unique experience. – It’s often quite a cosy experience. We’re here at my home, we have a chat, I take their measurements and then make a perfect garment that fits them. That makes them happy and they come back.