Meet Gema Gomez | Founder and Executive Director at Slow Fashion Next

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gema Gomez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gema, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I was a Fashion Designer. I worked first in Paris at Trend Institutes for 6 years and then I worked in large companies for 18 years.

What I saw in these fashion chains when I traveled to Asia had nothing to do with my values.

For example, when a colleague told me not to go to a specific factory because he had seen kids working. My son was little and I thought that children don’t have to work, their place is the school.

Or for example, when I saw a polluted river in a region of textile factories, that could not come from anywhere other than those factories.

It was not from one day to the next, it was a process of returning from those trips and doing research on reference websites such as Greenpeace or Clean clothes camping.

When I decided to leave fast fashion and start my brand I realized that there was a lot of information missing and I thought I could help make the transition path shorter.

This is how I started my training, consulting, and networking project on fashion and sustainability “Slow Fashion Next”

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Starting a business is a tremendously creative act from your value proposition to the way you communicate and relate to your customer community.

At the same time, creating a business that does not exist (think that we are talking about 2011 when in Spanish you wrote sustainable fashion and nothing came up in the search) is also closely related to creativity because you have to imagine what may interest your potential client and how to reach hearts and heads.

As a designer, for me, creativity is very important in my life. In this phase of my professional career, creativity has become more ingrained in all areas of Slow Fashion Next, from the development and delivery of courses with dynamics, etc., to the way I communicate to reach my clients or the way I create a report.

It has been quite a challenge and at the same time tremendously fun so I feel very lucky.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
One of my favorite areas of Madrid is the JArdín Botánico because it has a special meaning for me both for what it represents as nature in the middle of the city as well as beauty and abundance different from the economic wealth that seems to always come first.

In the same area, there is also the Retiro to walk and have a drink watching the canoes on the lake, and opposite the other side of El Paseo de Recoletos we have, for example, the CaixaForum to see magnificent exhibitions, the Barrio de las Letras where there are also small shops that have their own identity, and many places to have a vermouth and an aperitif, which is something essential to do in Madrid in the sun even in winter.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Many people have inspired me, Vandana Shiva, Satish Kumar, and Gunter Pauli, for example.

Website: https://slowfashionnext.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slowfashionnext/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/slow-fashion-next/