INTERVIEW #174 CICI VOISE

Name: Cici Voise

Occupation: Founder and Designer of Blue District

Based in: Dallas Texas currently (started in Los Angeles)

Website: shopbluedistrict.com

Instagram: @cobaltandsalt

Hi Cici! Welcome to A Sustainable Closet! Can you please tell us more about yourself and your relationship with clothes?

I am a clothing designer and I created a brand with sustainability in mind. It started with a conscious want for no animal cruelty in my designs and has evolved to be more and more proactive in adopting an ethical and sustainable approach to every aspect of production. We are now proud to work with certified manufacturing that ensures good quality of work to their workers and fair wages, using non-toxic dyes and sourcing recycled fabrics or ecologically grown natural ones. 

It started in my childhood, I’ve always wanted to dress myself depending on my mood resulting in me having 5/6 outfits change a day! My grandpa used to tell stories about how I used accessories from his closet and my grandma to make an outfit complete, so I’d say I’ve always been into styling and fashion. I understood that the way you present yourself is an extension of who you feel you are or who you want to be. In that sense, I always felt like clothes have a magic purpose as they can transcend words and make you into who you dream to be.

How would you describe your style?

My style is changing every day, just like when I was a kid I dress depending on my mood or occasion. Some days I wanna feel like a businesswoman and wear blazers with everything and some days I wanna be a trendy fashionista with unpractical clothes that, I believe, look cool on. As far as my style as a designer, I wanted to cater the the everyday life and offer staples with a little designer twist. Each piece is either of a luxury feel fabric if it’s basic or looks more like a designer piece that you could wear without a really special occasion. I wanted for everyone to find something they can enjoy.

When did you get into sustainability? 

It is safe to say that, like most people, I never knew the horrors and environmental impact the fashion industry had until I decided to design my first collection and dove deep into it. At the time, information wasn’t like it is now and practices were very much hidden as they still are today. When I became vegan (12 years ago), I knew I didn’t want to kill animals for food and even less to be worn on me. Yuck! How disgusting! Once I made that connection I couldn’t believe we were still behaving like cavemen and it was clear that I wanted to create a fully vegan boutique of my designs. I attended the first vegan fashion week and press from all over the world came and interviewed me. I was bombarded with questions in regards to how was I sustainable and my carbon footprint and do I know who makes my clothes that was the tipping point which made me wanna do even better and get a step further in creating a brand as sustainable as possible.

Can you tell us more about Blue District, why did you find the brand?

I founded the brand originally because of the lack of cruelty-free options in stores back then (2017). I worked on a musical project with a very prominent stylist and I couldn’t get options of clothes that looked cool in faux leather or faux fur, so I decided to create my own.

Who are your typical customers?

Customers range from an aware young fashionista looking for transparent and ethical brands to the vegan fashion lover looking for wearable pieces and also just plain trend-oriented individuals looking for a unique designer piece at an affordable price and the sustainability aspect is the cherry on top for them as it wasn’t their main requirement.

For anyone else seeking to start their brand, what is your best advice?

I would say, look at your competitors. What are they doing that is working, what can you bring that is a bonus and how can you make your customer’s life better with your brand? Also, take time to learn about the industry and sourcing the best manufacturers and fabrics as they will make or break your brand. Also, be aware of what direction the world is moving towards and be a step ahead with offerings that will be needed!

Your brand is vegan, what is your take on sustainability, does it have to be vegan and why?

Being a vegan brand is necessary if you want to claim to be sustainable or at least try to be sustainable as much as you can. (I wanna emphasize that being sustainable is impossible in the world we live in, but we can always try to do our best and limit the impact we produce). Generally speaking, mass raising any animals to slaughter, regardless of the purpose of that slaughter, creates an incredible amount of damage to our lands. From the destruction of forests for crops to polluting rivers with waste and creating an imbalance in natural our ecosystem, the process will never be sustainable.

The argument that leather is more sustainable because it is biodegradable because it’s natural is not valid in fashion. For leather to be wearable, it is heavily processed and coated with layers of chemicals that are not only polluting but also highly dangerous to the workers tanning it. For brands saying they use recycled leather or wool and claiming sustainability, I do feel like it’s a step up as it’s not creating more damage to what’s already been done but ultimately we should just get used to the habit of not wearing animal products. In a world where AI is going to take over, we need to find ways to integrate more technological solutions to fashion and not rely on old barbaric ways that are not only not cool anymore but not trendy either.

What do you think is needed to make the fashion industry more sustainable?

I think it takes changes from both the brands and the consumers. We need to be made more aware of what happens when we discard our clothes. Where they end up and in that way, for brands to offer solutions to make sure we can all work together in creating a more sustainable loop where we can still create new but with old. Without adding to the existing waste. Like previously mentioned I believe for a real change to happen we will have to use technology to create new ways of creating and making pieces we wear on our bodies.

Anything else you want to share?

Thank you for bringing awareness and a platform where people can get educated on the fashion industry practices. Only when we open the dialogue and questions are honestly answered can we make a difference.