SI’LO — Circular Fashion Collective

By Shiela Mae Fuentes

The Founder

I’m Sheila Fuentes, the CEO & Co-Founder of SI’LO, and a mom of twin girls :) I actually graduated with a degree in Economics and my professional background was in Banking. However, I realized that my heart belongs to entrepreneurship and fashion.

I have loved dressing up since I was a teenager (influenced by my stylish mom), because it boosts my confidence and lightens up my mood. I’m sure a lot of women can relate to me, that we feel so empowered when we are all dolled up and wearing the clothes we love.

With this, I have invited two of my friends 4 years ago to start an online clothing business. We were selling clothes and bags from Bangkok, Thailand before until I learned about “Sustainable Fashion” and its importance. Since then, I’ve been advocating for Sustainable Fashion as I believe this is an urgent issue that we need to address immediately to provide a better future for our children.

What is your change story?

As a former “shopaholic”, I felt so guilty when I learned about the negative impacts of the Fashion industry’s current practices back then through Fashion Revolution. I was not aware that there were issues about modern slavery, child labour, environmental degradation and health & safety risks in garment factories (mostly in developing countries) who are making the clothes we wear from big fast fashion brands.

I got really curious when I first read about the said sustainability issues so I did my own research — I have read different articles, books and watched different documentary films to educate myself. After that, I said we need to do something about this. I was not aware that I am contributing to those problems by shopping a lot of clothes just to satisfy my “wants”. I immediately shared about what I learned with my friends and we decided to stop operating the clothing line right away — so we can shift the brand to a sustainable fashion brand.

We then however saw the need for more active involvement on this issue here in the Philippines because of lack of awareness about the problems. So we thought of building the platform where consumers can find, support and shop from sustainable fashion brands in the country. SI’LO started as an e-commerce platform for sustainable fashion but because of the Pandemic, we decided to change our business model to further provide support to these brands, and other industry players through the community support, education and other necessary resources that we can provide through the collective — with an overall goal to transform the fashion industry in to a more responsible industry and close the loop.

What is systems change?

System change for us is being able to bring together the key players of the fashion industry’s supply chain — raw materials suppliers, manufacturers, brands, marketers, consumers; and the government to work together through collaborative actions.

With us, we started by building the community of sustainable fashion advocates in the country by raising the awareness about it and educating them through different events — online & offline. We believe that in order to build a responsible fashion ecosystem, we need to influence other key players to address this and engage with them through collaboration.

We need to educate people and inspire them to take action NOW.

What is your systems action plan?

We are now working on shifting our business model to a “membership” platform where we gather individuals and businesses to connect, collaborate and co-innovate to achieve our goal.

In this platform, we will be providing free resources (i.e. educational, brands directory, sustainable fashion guide) that the community can use and making it easier for them to shift to sustainable fashion.

We will also launch a program to provide high level support to the sustainable fashion brands — supporting their growth through mentorship, masterclasses, digital marketing education & done for you services.

Overall, our aim is to create this “safe space” for us to connect and collaborate with the community. We will be reaching out to other organizations and the government for partnership which shall benefit the collective.

What is your greatest takeaway from the HiFi Future Shapers Program?

Aside from the strategic learnings, I love how the HiFi Future Shapers program reminded me to focus also on doing the inner work. I remember that during our 1st exploration, we were able to face our shadow, look back and see how our past experiences influenced our behaviour and thinking now. I was able to connect my personal values to SI’LO, and build that strong foundation. I truly value this because for me, the best asset we can have in our startups — is ourselves, the founders. We need to work on ourselves and improve daily — so that we can be the empowered leaders we need to be, who can make our vision into reality.

How might we support the organization?

Join our community by following us on Instagram or joining our Facebook group. We will be announcing more details about the upcoming launch of SI’LO Circular Fashion Collective here.