We have entered into an exciting partnership with Parisian fashion house Chloé, led by purpose pioneer Gabriela Hearst. As the fashion house's newly appointed Creative Director, she is prioritizing environmental and social impact in an effort to address a much larger global issue - along with Sheltersuit.
This is part of Chloé's mission: to weave purpose into business efforts in a post-pandemic world to help recognize and alleviate the hardships of others. A luxury brand has a duty to do this.
Gabriela Hearst, Creative Director of Chloé
Like any fashion brand, Parisian fashion house Chloé has a lot of leftover materials from previous collections. In their mission to become a more sustainable brand, Chloé knocked on the door of Sheltersuit.
Together we came up with the plan to create sustainable and impactful fashion from surplus materials with the goal of ensuring the continuity of our impact and sharing custom designed products for people experiencing homelessness.
After weeks of co-creation in Paris and Enschede, the new fashion pieces were shown for the first time at the Chloé runway show at Paris Fashion Week in early 2021.
The runway show did not go unnoticed in the fashion world, resulting in media coverage in magazines such as Vogue, Haper’s Bazaars, Elle and Business of Fashion.
The production of the coats and backpacks took place in our social factory in the Netherlands. A total of 550 jackets and 550 backpacks were produced.
This supports our mission to close the gap for people with a distance to the workforce by creating more jobs. For newcomers, people who have overcome hardship or people with disabilities, we feel privileged to be able to create employment opportunities.
Both the jackets and backpacks premiered at the French department store Printemps Femmes in Paris.
By purchasing the item, consumers get a beautiful fashion piece and support the Sheltersuit Foundation at the same time.
No one experiencing homelessness should feel unseen. Sheltersuit & Chloé believe in being there for people who cannot afford products to protect themselves from the elements.
From the donation of the jacket and backpack sale, we were able to produce and distribute 1,100 Sheltersuits. For this distribution, we partnered with the French NGOs Agir Pour La Santé Des Femmes, Utopia 56 and Samusocial de Paris.
The distribution of the 1,100 Sheltersuits will start in November 2021.
With this collaboration, there is a chance that we can disrupt the fashion industry a little bit, even the non-profit industry. If Chloé takes this step, we can inspire more brands.
Bas Timmer, founder of the Sheltersuit Foundation
Meet Alexandre. For the past four years, Alexandre has been homeless on the streets of Paris. For a while, he found safety and security in a social housing estate, but after the building was sold, he had nowhere else to turn.
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We joined a night shift at Samusocial de Paris. Their mobile assistance teams – made up of a social worker, a nurse, and a driver – go out day and night to meet homeless people on the streets throughout Paris.
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