Our vision

Émilie-Rose wants to make people aware of the importance of their consumption and its value by sharing her experience in the textile industry in complete transparency, over the last two years. Some may say that buying local is expensive. Certainly, yes. However, have you ever thought about the real value of the things you buy?

For example, your $5 sweater that you buy in a supermarket, what would its true value be if it were made fairly? I am going to tell you. The price for the fabric (front and back) for a medium adult size cotton t-shirt would be around $3, if purchased in Quebec. Already there, you encourage local business by purchasing your fabric locally. Then the time for cutting would be around 15-20 minutes. Ultimately, the time for assembly and finishing stitching would be around 30 minutes. Knowing that the minimum wage in Quebec is $12.50 per hour, the value of the time spent making this sweater would be $10.42. Now let's add the price of the fabric, for a total of $13.42. That's the cost if the person is paid minimum wage . Now if you want to sell it and make a profit, multiply at least by 2.5 for an amount of $33.55. With that margin, you have plenty of options. You can offer free shipping (or take part of it at your expense), you can reinvest in your business to make another sweater and increase the value of your business, you can develop other products, you can pay your local or your web host, you can pay yourself a small salary, etc.

Now, back to the sweater sold for $5 in a supermarket. If the company that sells it has a profit margin of 60%, how much does the person who makes it get paid? Let us remember the horror story of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, a building collapsing due to its poor condition where six textile factories producing for multinationals were installed, which occurred in 2013, causing the death of 1,138 workers including the situation was miserable. This is the type of industry I don't want to encourage, but I know how hard it is to resist the tempting prices of these stores. I'm thinking to myself, "Oh my God, the sweater is so cheap, I have to buy it, it's only $5 anyway!" We ourselves devalue our consumption . How did we get there? It's completely crazy when you think about it. I'm trying to remember a material purchase I made that made me proud. I think it was every time I paid a lot of money for something, I told myself that I worked hard to get it and I paid attention to it because of its value.

For example, I recently bought five dresses for $80 each from an online store that makes their products by hand. Previously, I paid a maximum of $30 for a dress, and that was in supermarkets. So it was more expensive than I was used to paying, but I already had a dress from this store and loved the quality. I wore it so much that my purchase was profitable. Anyway, I've worn all of the dresses several times since I received them, over a month ago, and I really care about them. I wash them on a delicate cycle, I don't put them in the dryer so as not to damage them and I iron them. I told myself that these would be my only new dresses for the summer, which is already a challenge for me since I'm used to buying clothes online a lot. It is therefore with small challenges of this type that I improve my consumption. By buying less, but buying better.

Since I got Mimz, I think twice before making a purchase. I am much more aware of the work behind each product. This is why I absolutely want to share my vision of responsible consumption. I must first of all say that this must be done in small doses to remain healthy and sustainable in the long term , just like a vegan diet or a training program.

I have to admit that I had an addiction to ordering clothes online. I used to order clothes on the Internet every week, so in order not to deprive myself and feel a possible lack, I reduced my frequency by starting by shopping online once every two weeks. Then, I managed to reduce this consumption every three weeks. Now I'm making orders every month and I'm going to continue to slowly reduce them. If I had stopped suddenly, I know myself, I would have emptied my bank account because I would have deprived myself too much. Now I'm trying to consume better. First of all, I won't be buying any other dresses for this summer, which is an achievement for me. If you've read this far, I'm offering you ten dollars off with promo code sale10.

Another area where I apply the principle of buying local is in food. When I go to the grocery store, I try to buy fruits and vegetables from Quebec. Obviously, if I want to have a pineapple, I won't deprive myself since it's not made in Quebec. I'm talking about tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, strawberries, etc. It's a small gesture that makes a difference for local farmers. It's the same with swimsuits. If what you want is not available among Quebec companies, buy one from another company, but if it is available, it's a small gesture that will make a difference for those here!

In conclusion, it is the consumer who has the most power in the economy and he must become aware of this in order to have more sustainable and sustainable consumption in the long term.