ADIFF

Photo by Jess Richmond

As a student at the Parsons New School for Design, designer Angela Luna was impacted by the images and stories of the Syrian Refugee Crisis and used her senior thesis to develop utilitarian items which would support displaced people. Her signature item was an award winning waterproof jacket which also can configure into a tent. Since then she launched her brand ADIFF with outerwear and accessories made from up-cycled life vests and UNHCR tents, among other materials. ADIFF aims to use no virgin materials and makes everything in their manufacturing facility that ethically employs resettled refugees in Athens, Greece.

Angela says “Our goal is to build a scalable model for upcycling and empowerment-based manufacturing, that we can prove works within our field of design, as well as with other brands.”

Recently, Angela also created The Open Source Fashion Cookbook which has detailed “recipes," and step-by-step illustrations from fashion brands including Raeburn and Chromat, to empower you to make your unique and creative clothing from readily available items. The Cookbook serves as an instructional handbook with downloadable patterns and essays from industry leaders who paint a clearer picture of sustainable fashion.

Q & A with ADIFF Founder and Designer Angela Luna

If you were given $100,000 right now to spend on your business, what would you do with it? 

“We would scale our production operations in Greece with higher quality  machines and hire people so we can take on more collaborations there. Oh and I would finally pay myself!”

What is the most important thing that drives your sales?  

"Email marketing - 100%. We expand reach on social and get new followers, but every time we send an email we gets sales.”

How do you define success?  

“Doing well and doing good”