Onesta: A Year to Reflect On
We here at Onesta have had a pretty great year and would like to share with you some of the things we’re most proud of…
1. Giving Back
We've donated 20% of our revenue to a number of charities such as Annie's Trust, Surfers Against Sewage and Fashion Revolution who are working tirelessly to protect animals, people and our planet.
2. Award Winning
We were honoured to have won the Marie Claire Sustainability Award for Best Sustainable Small Brand 2021. As huge fans of Marie Claire and what they have achieved, winning this award meant so much to us and really pushed us to keep doing our part for both the environment and the fashion industry. Other awards we have won are the Wales Start Up Rising Star Award, UnLtd Social Entrepreneur Award, and were a finalist in the Cardiff Life Awards 2021 and in the GBEA Awards 2021.
3. Speaking Out
We attended incredible events such as COP26 where we had the honour of featuring in a panel discussion with influential figureheads from around the country, as well as being named a Hero of Net Zero from the SME Climate Hub!
4. Showcasing Us
We launched a new section of our blog called Off the Record (where you are reading this now). It is sharing our more personal stories and adventures like trips, challenges and anything else we fancy chatting to you about. This section will be growing in the coming year with more interesting stuff so be on the lookout.
5. Event Debut
We attended the Spirit of Christmas Fair! This was our first big fair and it really put us through our paces. SO much hard work goes into something like this so we were incredibly happy with how it went and are really thankful to those of you that we met there. See you next year!
6. Working Together
We launched our first collaborative product, Reusable Makeup Pads, with Surfers Against Sewage. These are made from our own fabric scraps with 50% of profits going straight to SAS! If you'd like to contribute and be apart of this amazing collaboration, we still have some makeup pads in stock now!
7. Growing Pains
Our studio in Llanelli is getting an upgrade! We were able to start building an extension near the end of this year to increase our production capabilities and allow us to keep making our garments in Wales. This is the first step in expanding Onesta further, and we are so thankful that you helped to make it possible! With a growing team this was such a necessary step.
8. Walk in Style
We held our own catwalk event for Sustainable Fashion Week! It was so fun and exciting and we got to show off our fabulous collections. It was such a good experience for us those who got a sneak peek at the clothes.
Not everything always goes according to plan though, so to keep us honest here are some of the challenges we faced…
1. Packaging mayhem
You were very close to not getting your candles! We had them all ready and made and the labels and the jars looked so cute (just check out the page on the website) and then all of a sudden, the launch came around and we realised...how are we shipping these? At the very last moment we found sustainable packaging that fit the candles inside. Surprisingly, it’s hard to find large candle boxes!
2. Sizing mix-up
Just before the shoot for our Autumn/Winter collection we found a sizing issue with some of the items. Luckily, our incredible intern Rachel stepped in as a living mannequin and stood in the Hazel jumpsuit and Grace trousers to be pinned and snipped by our production team. She did say though that it was possibly the best part of the trip, seeing the studio and participating in the shoot!
3. U-turn Journey
If you are on an internship, you are likely to make the odd mistake here or there, it’s part of learning. On shoot day though our interns wanted to be on time so after dropping off props at the studio the night before they went back to their Air BnB for an early night. Rachel, Ellen and Jenny set off with plenty of time to get to the shoot location (even with traffic) but about 40 mins (half way!) into their journey I had to give them a call… they had to turn back. Turned out the props they had dropped off the night before didn’t all fit into my car! After a long detour and a long drive back, they did make it to the shoot an hour and a half late...whoops! Safe to say we won’t be making that mistake again.
A small business is not as straight forward and simple as our Instagram makes it look but we live and we learn and we try again!
We hope your year has been productive and exciting but, in all likelihood, like ours, it will have had some mishaps along the way… so here is to a better 2022!
- Gaby