About colors, culture and coats – the story of ZAZI Vintage

Since the mission behind our Green Fashion Tours is to create a world of more awareness and sustainability when it comes to the way we consume fashion, we love to work with brands that represent these values.

There are so many beautiful labels with even more beautiful stories behind them. We want to use our platform and share these with you. Today we share the story of Jeanne de Kroon and how she founded her ethical luxury label with only 500€ and a dream of add colorful It-Pieces full of love and magic to the fashion industry she wanted to turn upside down.

So what is the first thought coming to your mind when thinking of Afghanistan and India? Do you directly build a connection to poverty, escape and war? You wouldn’t be the only one.

The way these nations are presented in our western civilization is often limited to topics like these. ZAZI Vintage wants to change that. Here the focus is set on the culture, the traditional handcraft and the potential of the country going along to this. By designing Coats and Dresses out of the high-quality vintage material, produced under safe and fair conditions, they build a connection between this culture and their customers.

Before she founded ZAZI, Jeanne de Kroon tired out a lot. After realizing that going to law school is not going to make her happy, she left her home country in the Netherlands and found herself playing music in the streets of Paris to being a model in New York. Here she got in touch with the dark side of the fashion industry for the very first time. She decided to not being a part of this and discovered her true love in 2014: Traveling the world while taking part in social projects.

While staying in India she meets Madhu Vaishnav, who is the founder of the Institute of Philanthropy and Humanitarian Development (IPHD), an NGO that supports women and their families in Rajasthan. They decided to team up and wrap the fashion industry into magical colors, eastern culture, and fair working conditions. It is 2016 and under the budget of 500€, ZAZI Vintage is born.

And that is what ZAZI is all about. Telling a story about the love of our nature, the culture born out of that and the true art as a beautiful result.

The secret of success for ZAZI Vintage is seeing sustainability as true success. One of their most famous pieces, the colorful winter coat, is produced out of vintage Suzanis. Suzanis are deep-seated in the culture of the east and were originally a hand made gift from the family of the bride, while celebrating a wedding. The symbols stitched into them represent all of the wishes they had for the fresh married couple. What was back then used as a bedcover or wall hanging, is now spreading the culture of Uzbekistan and Tadschikistan to customers all over the world.

So using these vintage textiles is not only saving resources but telling a story as well. And that is what ZAZI is all about. Telling a story about the love of our nature, the culture born out of that and the true art as a beautiful result.

But besides all of that, the most important element of ZAZI magic is the people behind the brand. If it is the small team working at the headquarter in Berlin, the amazing women of IHPD or their operatives in Afghanistan. By taking care of safe and fair work conditions including a guaranteed income, ZAZI helps these women to emancipate themselves from their husbands and the government as much as possible.

Today the label is an irreplaceable part of the fair fashion scene. Next to their summer and winter collections, in which one was a collaboration with the UN and the Ethical Fashion Initiative, ZAZI also hosts multiple Pop up Events in Fashion metropolia like London, Paris or New York.

To work with ZAZI Vintage during our Green Fashion Tours is not only a pleasure because they produce beautiful one-of-a-kind coats and dresses but because their brand philosophy of maybe having fewer pieces hanging in your closet, but wearing those filled by love and history, for a lifetime is exactly the way to fight against the fast fashion industry we want to take down.

The main mission of the Green Fashion Tours is to open you the doors to these treasures and guide you the way into consuming fashion that is not only beautiful and special but also providing a planet to wear it on.

For more information visit zazi​-vintage​.com or visit their Showroom in Berlin-Mitte: Max-Beer-Straße 31, 10119 Berlin