KOUA-STUDIO: A Mexican brand that aspires to add value to the current ‘circularfashion’ trend in the UK.

Written By Sha Hakimi

Founder at PS21 Art and Sustainable Strategies

What is Koua Studio?

Koua Studio is  a London based company which provides creativity, innovation and sustainable solutions to both fashion and interior designers through a wide range of textiles made by indigenous people from local towns in Mexico. Koua Studio’s aim is to improve the livelihoods of these artisans. The company is currently helping them to create and grow their family businesses as well as preserving the handmade textile technique that has been passed down from generation to generation. Koua Studio has three core values: handmade and locally sourced materials, sustainable development, and premium quality products worth the UK’s strict markets. Its DNA, created by Koua’s CEO, Erika Alvarez is focused on empowering and supporting Mexican communities and their families worldwide. All fabrics are bought at a fair price and sourced from some of Mexico’s developing states, such as Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero. These communities are often located in small rural communities that are often economically marginalised. Its inhabitants struggle frequently with deep rooted socio-economic challenges such as lack of education, opportunities, women violence, crime and inequality. According to Levy, Dan et al. from the Center for International Development at Harvard University, the economic challenges that are being faced by some of these communities are beyond its inhabitants control. Quotem “No matter which way you look at it, Chiapas is the most backward of any state in Mexico. Its per capita income is the lowest of the 32 federal entities, at barely 40% of the national median.”

Meet Koua’s CEO: Erika Alvarez

Erika is a strong-minded, hard-working and resilient woman that we, as PS21 Art & Sustainability Strategists, have the pleasure to meet, mentor and support. Erika was born and raised in Mexico City. Her family heritage comes from Guerrero, a beautiful Mexican state that is currently facing deep rooted innequality and systemic violence. A couple of years ago, Erika’s career path led her to London. A multi-cultural city where she has been innovating, studying and working hard for many years. Erika is a talented and lively woman that brings homemade Mexican food to the table for her friends and family, both in Mexico and in the UK. Her dream is to bring back fair-trade job opportunities for her Mexicans fellow citizens both in Mexican and UK marketplaces.

Erika’s purpose

To support the sustainable development goals of her home country: Mexico while contributing to slow down the fast fashion wave in the industry that is heavily polluting the planet.

Erika’s vision

Her vision is embedded in three key insights. First, to lead an ambitious project that empowers Mexican women in different markets. Second, to offer them the right price for their handmade textiles. And, third, Erika’s aim is to have a positive influence among different brands around the UK, Mexico and globally. The latter while helping to tackle pressing issues such as women rights and education.

Erika’s challenges: 

To grow her company in a highly competitive market while facing the fast changing context faced currently by the UK-Mexico trade exchange. Another key challenge for her is to support the “Sustainable Development Goals” towards the 2030 UN agenda by providing access to further education, mentoring and women’s rights defense in her community, both in her home country and her new home, London.

What is the difference between a Social Brand and a Circular Brand?

A Social Brand, such as Koua Studio, is a brand that inspires its consumers and competitors to set an ambitious milestone: sustainable and social-oriented positive change. Throughout the years, Koua has been recognised, by its British and European customers for its fair-trade and sustainable business practices. Koua Studio is also following one of the biggest macro-trends within the entrepreneurship global scene: the Circular Economy. Erika and her team spotted this trend a few years ago. Sideways, she has been using her Digital Marketing experience to align her brand values to “the internet of things”, another macro-trend offered over the last two decades of smartphone boom and the ravaging economic context brought by the Global Pandemic of COVID19. 

According to experts, within the Online Marketing Community, consumer’s choices are ruling the markets nowadays. Yet, consumers and brand ambassadors are also assessing more what exactly those brands are offering, and demanding more customer service, loyalty plans, quality and fair-trade products than ever before in the history of fashion and many other industries. “More than two-thirds (70%) of consumers say their use of social media as a whole has increased since the onset of the pandemic, with 58% suggesting they now communicate with brands more frequently via social platforms.” 

A Circular Brand, on the other hand, aims to target key aspects of the Circular Economy. According to the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, “The Circular Economy gives us the tools to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss together, while addressing important social needs.” Erika is currently following the advice of some green marketing and circular economy experts to take her brand to a new level: circularity in fashion. It will be a big challenge for both Erika and her international team of experts. At PS21 Art and Sustainable Strategies, we are deeply convinced that she will be outstanding at this task and she will also offer its consumers and colleagues considerable shared value throughout the years.

Source: WDO, World Design Organisation

In our next article, we are going to address Erika some key questions in order to keep assessing her leadership skills as well as how she projects her business to grow over the next couple of months. Many companies like Erika’s are working hard to cope with the challenges that the “New Normal” economy has offered to many small companies and entrepreneurs. Our aim with this project is to empower more people such as Erika to believe in themselves, co-create opportunities for her home country and to do the green thing, in Mexico, the UK and worldwide.

Works Cited

Circular. “Sustainable Fashion and Lifestyle.” Who's live, Thebrandshow.tv, 2021, https://www.circular.live/en/. Accessed 4th october, 2021 October 2021.

Gov.UK. Part of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Business support, GOV.UK, 2021, https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support.

Levy, Dan, et al. “Why is Chiapas Poor?” Faculty Research Working Paper Series, vol. 1, no. December 2016, 2016, p. 24. https://research.hks.harvard.edu/, https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/getFile.aspx?Id=1456. Accessed 4th Oct. 2021 October 2021.

Marketing Week Reporters. Job vacancies, brand value, social: 5 interesting stats to start your week, Marketing week, https://www.marketingweek.com/job-vacancies-brand-value-social-5-interesting-stats-to-start-your-week/.