Fashion trades for all

Initially, Nadine Gonzalez created the ModaFusion brand by employing prostitutes and ex-prisoners to reintegrate Brazilian women into society. Subsequently, she turned to education and decided to build a free fashion school, Casa Geração, in the heart of the Vidigal favela in Rio de Janeiro. Then Nadine Gonzalez returned to France and exported her model from Casa Geração to Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris) to help disadvantaged young French youth.

Fashion, a closed and elite environment

With an unemployment rate of more than 25% among young people aged 15–24 and one in three people without a degree, integration into the professional world is difficult for youth in Seine-Saint-Denis. This is even more difficult if they want to join the fashion trades. Indeed, fashion schools are usually expensive, around 5000 euros.

“Young people in the suburbs are extremely talented. Only they do not have access to fashion training, often private and expensive,” says Ms Gonzalez.

Casa 93

The Casa 93 offers a free  15-month training of 15, divided into 3 modules. The first months are devoted to learning the basics, follow theoretical and technical courses. The last months open the way to professional integration. Twenty students each year are selected based on their motivations, not their schooling. They work together on projects, in collaboration with brands, as well as on their end-of-year collections which are sold thereafter.

This school allows young people to study in the fashion industry, most often leading to internships, other schools or jobs. Also, using a lot of fabric scraps for its creations, this school shows the way of eco-responsible fashion to its students.

Sources: Casa 93, Les Echos, Voyageurs du Monde, Observatoire départementale des données sociales

Crédits photos : Googles Images, Photo by Kris Atomic on Unsplash

High-quality writing is very important to members of the Global Goodness team. But no one’s perfect, so they always use Antidote to correct their texts.

Become an agent of change by contributing to the development of Global Goodness

Mobile Transfer