There is something romantic about receiving a package at home, we know. It is a 19th-century memory. Movo takes the mood to its limits: it invites you to fold the envelope like our grandmothers did, who didn't throw anything away and were much more sustainable, and to post it.

To avoid misunderstandings with the younger ones, who often wonder what those red boxes along the city streets are, on the site you can find a map to identify the letterbox closest to you.

A very organic approach to the project, which goes into detail to resolve critical issues, in Movo's idea. And it is a typically "young" approach, which distinguishes a different way of being a designer.

First of all, the intelligence of founding a company: inventing an envelope would have been too small a step. Then the simplicity that is the basis of the return process: prepaid label, pocket to hide it when not needed and make it appear when needed.

Instructions for folding the packaging, the possibility of returning the products to the supplier, and beautiful customizations of envelopes and packages. And then there is honesty: Movo declares transparently that the envelopes are reusable up to twenty times. Then they are recycled. It is not THE solution, but it is a step forward.

Endelea, a project for an ethical fashion brand

Endelea in Swahili means “to move forward without giving up in the face of difficulties”. Many Swahili words translate a complex and motivated action, the kind of action useful in times of crisis. Francesca De Gottardo chose this word as the name for her business. She is a fashion designer with a background in archaeology.

How design is sometimes a sudden illumination is the subject of another story. De Gottardo founded the ethical fashion brand, between Tanzania and Italy, in 2018 with a self-produced and self-financed collection. The goal is to work with local fabrics and local artisans on a fashion line suitable for the Western market.

The company grows rapidly, also thanks to the incubation in 2020 within the B4i program of Bocconi University. In the meantime, collaborations begin with the University of Dar Es Salaam, where the first course in fashion design is established shortly thereafter. And the visit to the Endelea Instagram account and website becomes a regular appointment for many women looking for original garments produced on the other side of the world but in a transparent and fair way.

Francesca De Gottardo really wants to work in a sustainable way, from every point of view.

A decision that means making the right choices at every moment of the business process, from the choice of raw materials to respect for the production and identity culture of Tanzanians. Endelea does not limit itself to describing the products, but rather explains every step, every choice, however complex and difficult to communicate. For Endelea, he chooses the B Corp path and carries out research on the cultural connections expressed by African prints and dyes.

It puts everything into numbers and thus demonstrates that transparency is an engine of exceptional improvement: 3% of the budget is reinvested in local projects, 116% the difference between the salary guaranteed by Endelea and the average Tanzanian salary, 5 years the duration of the partnership with the local university, 0% the salary difference between men and women, 360 kilos of waste fabric recovered, 45% certified sustainable suppliers. Annual reports on environmental, social and human sustainability are published on the brand's channels.

And then comes the decision to close. entrepreneurial sustainability supported by the will and planning ability of a person and his team are still not enough for an ethical fashion business.

“The problem was, obviously, economic. But it has roots in many systemic factors. The requests that allow access to government funds are unsuitable for an ethical business that lives in an economic system substantially alien to traditional entrepreneurial culture. In addition, the crisis in the fashion market has manifested itself”. Finally, there is a cultural issue.

“A fairly produced garment has a completely different cost and revenue from the traditional one based on the labor of underpaid and unprotected workers. We are all aware of this. But we are not yet ready to pay the right price for a product made respecting the dignity of local micro and macro economies”.