VAYATELA: women’s textile cooperative that emerged during the pandemic

By our Spanish member, REAS RED DE REDES, 28 September 2020

VAYATELA a women’s textile cooperative where the people and the hands that sew are important

With the premise of producing with respect for the environment, the associated work cooperative Vayatela, integrated in Ucomur and made up solely of women, is dedicated to providing design, cutting and dressmaking services for textile products, specializing in sustainable fashion. This project was set up during the state of alarm, as a result of a solidarity initiative that brought together Paula Gorini, Irene Zaragoza, Plácida Orenes and Paqui Segura.

What is Vayatela and what does it do?

Vayatela is a Murcian cooperative made up of four women, which provides design, cutting and dressmaking services for textile products, specialising in sustainable fashion, with organic or recyclable fabrics. We like the final client, whether consumer or designer, to come to our workshop with the idea and leave with the product made. Our textile products range from handbags to sheets, including customized T-shirts for companies, any type of clothing or accessory.

Our textile products range from handbags to bed sheets, including custom T-shirts.

How did the cooperative come about?

We met as a result of a solidarity initiative to manufacture masks. From there we began to believe that it was necessary to create a company like ours. We believed that in Molina de Segura, where we are now, a textile tradition that used to be very strong was being lost, and we contributed to recovering it, fighting to create a fair, sustainable and supportive way of producing. It’s funny, but unlike other companies, the pandemic has brought us together and made us join forces with great enthusiasm to undertake a project that we consider very beautiful, although with its difficulties, since we are all mothers with school-age children and this has forced us to provide a space in our workshop for our children to enjoy and for work-life balance to become a reality.

The pandemic has brought us together and has made us unite with a lot of enthusiasm to undertake.

What role did Ucomur play in your project?

Ucomur helped us to start the project, with all the paperwork, requirements, and steps and schedule to follow. The truth is that it has made it easier for us to get started.

Why do you define yourselves as sustainable?

Because our company aims to produce with respect for the environment. The type of energy we use is solar and we try to make our impact on the environment as small as possible. This is one of the guarantees we offer our clients, as we have certificates and guarantees of sustainable products. We have a circular economy project within our project, and in this way the surplus receives a new use to minimise the impact on the planet. Our workshop is different from the rest because we take care of these aspects.

We use solar energy and try to make our impact on the environment as small as possible.

What are the expectations and future plans for your business?

Our expectations and future plans are exciting. We are very much looking forward to the textile sector at a national level to make a leap forward, and recover the level it had long ago with a great quality. We work with organisations such as REAS (Social and Solidarity Economy Network), and other sustainable fashion organisations, because we believe that synergies are very important, and by relying on other organisations with the same philosophy the sector can achieve a significant boom. We like networking very much and we don’t stay in the Region, but we establish links at national and international level, such as with clients in Germany and the United States with whom we work. We use solar energy and try to make our impact on the environment as small as possible.

We believe that the quality of the product and its finishes is essential for its sustainability. Nowadays it is difficult to compete with exporters like China in terms of costs. We try to reduce costs in aspects such as logistics by using national products, with suppliers we know, and by being very close to our customers, as we love them to visit our workshop and get to know our work.

We are a company with a marked social character, people are very important, the hands that sew, what is behind. All this makes us different.