RAORI in the Hela Staden Uppsala Magazine

Hanna Westergren Gendebien is the fashion designer who had enough of the unsustainable fashion industry and devoted herself to making it better. Now she wants to bring Slow fashion to Uppsala.

– We are already several Slow fashion players in Uppsala, so I am trying to organize ourselves so that together we can offer our products here, says Hanna.

Twenty years ago, Hanna moved from Uppsala to London to study fashion. After graduating, she started working in the fashion industry but quickly became frustrated with its downsides – mass production, environmental destruction and poor conditions for textile workers.

– I had enough of fashion. I felt like this isn't possible, I don't want to do this. It wasn't what I had in mind, says Hanna.

Instead, she moved to Tokyo, studied Japanese, and met her husband, who is from Belgium, where they eventually settled and had children. It was also there that the RAORI brand began to take off.

– I did it as a project to be able to be at home with my children in Brussels. They don't have parental leave like we do, explains Hanna.

With inspiration from Japan's street style and sustainable thinking around textiles, she wanted to try making fashion in a new way.

– I started sewing in recycled materials and sustainable fabrics on a smaller scale and production.

What started 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 made out of trash, says Hanna.

The fashion industry's mass production of clothing generates copious amounts of leftover textiles, which are burned or end up in large warehouses and in nature. Every second, a truckload of textiles is dumped around the world.

– And we're not talking about good fabrics, because it's Shein and Temu that have accelerated this.

Every Swede buys about 14 kg of textiles per year and half of it ends up in the trash. 60% of that material could have been reused.
– By “rescuing” fabrics from recycling stations, I can sew clothes from them instead and thus give them a second chance.

When Hanna creates her clothes, she also always focuses on using as little waste as possible.

– That's the most important thing for me, that you don't throw away fabric.

Slow fashion can be described as everything that Fast fashion is not.

– Instead of mass production, I make one garment at a time. Instead of ready-made sizes that women have to fit into, I make custom-made garments, says Hanna.

Comfort, femininity, minimalism and quality are at the heart of the clothing design. Many of the customers are repeat customers and usually have difficulty finding clothes that fit them.

“They buy a pair of pants that don't fit, break or become too small when their body changes,” says Hanna.

A visit to Hanna's textile studio is a different experience.

– It's often a pretty cozy experience. We're here at my house, we talk a little, I take measurements and then make a perfect garment that fits them. Then they're happy and come back.