AWE Alumna creates lasting style in Iceland

Article by Ali Dallola, an intern at the US State Department, currently studying business administration and economics at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

[Reykjavik, January 2023] Women Entrepreneurs Academy alum Grace Aching is helping to change the fashion industry’s impact on the environment through her company GraceLadic.

Aching says: “If fashion is done right, it makes a difference to the wearer and their environment.

As a “slow fashion” brand, Gracelandic stands in stark contrast to the larger “fast fashion” manufacturers whose main goal is mass and high-speed production. The slow fashion movement promotes greater sustainability by producing high-quality, eco-friendly clothing. Likewise, Gracelandic uses a more holistic, socially conscious production model that prioritizes the triple bottom line: people, profit and planet.

For example, Aching has partnered with an ethical manufacturer to supply all of Graceland’s fabrics. Her company intentionally produces ethically sourced clothing, limiting overstocking and repurposing all fabric scraps into accessories.

Achieng also uses her business venture to educate consumers about the impact of the fast fashion industry by regularly posting on her company’s blog and Instagram account to promote the slow fashion philosophy. Even the clothes you sell are designed to reduce waste between consumers.

“Our clothes are high quality and durable,” says Aching. “The styles are timeless, versatile and simple.”

Aching says many people don’t realize how fast fashion can affect climate change and water waste — something she’s passionate about as she witnessed it firsthand as a child. She describes how the fast fashion industry disproportionately affects developing countries like Kenya, where she grew up.

“Products and materials that we avoid in the West are sent to Africa,” she says. “This kills independent businesses, and ninety percent of these clothes end up in African landfills.”

Her childhood in Kenya began with what she describes as “humble beginnings” and led Achieng to design clothing that promotes sustainability and empowers the wearer.

In fact, Aching experienced the power of fashion from a young age and it marked her path as an entrepreneur. As a child in Kenya, she remembers the feeling of wearing a new dress she received as a gift from her aunt.

“That’s the kind of feeling I want to sell,” Aching says.

In the year In 2010, Aching moved to Iceland, where she pursued her dream of a career in the fashion world. After much trouble finding a job in fashion, Aching decided to take matters into her own hands. In the year In 2020, she bought a sewing machine and went into business for herself, hoping to design beautiful clothes that give voice to the women who wear them.

“I feel like it’s my life’s mission to help women be visible and invincible in fashion,” says Aching.

Two years after opening Graceland, Aching participated in an academy for women entrepreneurs through the US Embassy in Reykjavík. For example, Aching learned the financial skills needed to run her business and obtain funding.

“When I started my business, I went blindly into my dream,” says Aching. “AWE has helped me understand my business in depth.”

Beyond practical business skills, Aching was able to use AWE’s extensive network to meet other female entrepreneurs, learn from talented mentors, and share her story on a larger platform.

“I felt very supported,” Aching said. “I never knew women could support each other.”

Since its inception, Gracelandic has grown exponentially, which Aching said recently at the 2022 Women’s Impact Summit, an international conference for up-and-coming female entrepreneurs. And her designs were featured three times in British Vogue in 2022.

The personal mission of empowering women through the clothes they wear seems to be gaining attention on the international political stage as well. When Iceland’s Foreign Minister Tordis Kólbrún Reykfjörður Jílfádóttir met with US President Joe Biden at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2022, she wore none other than a Graceland design.

Iceland’s Foreign Minister Tordis Kolbrun (pictured center) wears a Graceland coat during a meeting between President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at UNGA.

The Women Entrepreneurs Academy is a women’s empowerment initiative launched by the US Department of State in 2019. It has empowered more than 25,000 women in 100 countries with knowledge, networks, and learning using the Dreambiller learning platform developed by Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management. Including 60 women entrepreneurs in Iceland who need access to start and grow successful businesses.

For more information about AWE, visit: https://eca.state.gov/awe.