Startup Story: Vogue Kala, ESG’s First Fashion Brand

Business: Vogue Kala is a slow-fashion e-commerce brand that takes an environmental-and-social-first perspective. The company’s mission is to provide fashionwear, source sustainably and ethically, and become the world’s first carbon negative fashion brand.

Founding father: Aditya Sinha 14

What was the moment when you had the idea for this startup?

Twenty-twenty is a year of transformation for the world and 2021 is no different for good and bad. We were stranded in Dubai last year due to COVID and have not been able to return to New York since. So when we accepted our new normal, my wife and I were forced to take an existential step back.

As I continue to work as a partner with the Mastercards Advisory Group in New York, I want to do more. The inspiration for Vogue Kala came from a harmless question posed by my five-year-old daughter: Dad, do our clothes help or harm the environment? Thanks to the school, they did their job, but apparently the fashion industry didn’t. It was this question, and the need to actually make a difference, that was the driving force behind the start of Vogue Kala.

What problem are you trying to solve or a gap you want to fill?

There are about 20 fast-fashion brands that dominate global fashion, not to mention the plethora of individual and corporate brands that are just starting out, given the low barriers to entry. However, the fashion industry continues to struggle to eliminate, or even reduce, the high environmental and social impact of its operations.

We see an opportunity here to actually create a company that doesn’t have a separate ESG strategy, because our business strategy is our ESG strategy. This is something we don’t see today, and it’s something that consumers increasingly expect and demand from brands.

But too many brands continue to prioritize profit while putting three key concerns behind: environmental impact, labor conditions, and traceability and transparency.

Here’s how we want to handle each of these three fields:

• Environmental impact: thoroughly inspect, test and certify fabrics to ensure that their production has the least environmental impact from agriculture to fabric. We have partnered with One Tree Planted as our reforestation partner, and we have committed to planting 10 trees for every garment purchased.
• Labor impact: all of our manufacturing and agricultural partners are certified by third-party institutions such as the Global Organic Textile Standards to ensure that farmers and garment workers are treated fairly and ethically while earning a living (and not the minimum wage). By 2023, our goal is to be able to evenly distribute up to 5% of our global sales to the farmers and garment workers involved in our supply chain.
• Traceability and transparency: This is by far the most important principle and underlies everything we do. In the next 6-12 months, we want to be able to provide complete traceability of a garment as it goes from agriculture to apparel, while providing information on impacts such as carbon emissions, water savings, waste prevention, etc. After all, what’s the point of being a sustainable and ethical business, if you don’t track and share your impact?

What are the most important resources Yale SOM contributes to your startup?

Networks, alumni, professors, classes are all important and contribute in one way, shape, or form. But the biggest contribution is the mindset. Prior to coming to Yale SOM, my worldview was quite capitalistic, and I couldn’t imagine business, government, and society co-exist in a meaningful way that actually provided value to each.

Yale SOM changes that thinking. It is evident in every class, every conversation, every project, that a business cannot exist in a vacuum, and that a business with the sole aim of profit, regardless of its surroundings, will ultimately fail.

What is the biggest milestone your startup has achieved?

Here are some famous ones:

• Resolving our manufacturing and fulfillment partners during the pandemic
• Reached 1,000 followers on Instagram and got thousands of requests for the product long before it was launched
• Making our recycled packaging designed and manufactured
• And last but not least, finally having website goes live on July 4th (Come visit! Offering 15% coupon code, SOM15, to all Yale friends and family SOM, forever.)