Choices matter so choose wisely.
If you first meet Vinita Turakhia, you would feel her passion to promote a cruelty free world. A vegan since her second child’s birth, Vinita is the founder of Genuinely Not Leather, a cruelty free accessories brand.
A little about Vinita Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Vinita had worked in the banking and finance industry for ten years. She moved to Hong Kong in 2012 and tried really hard to find a related job but was not successful. Around rounds of search, Vinita finally secured a job at the British Consulate General in Hong Kong where she worked for six years, during which she also became a mother of two. In 2020, she started her own business called Genuinely not Leather, a cruelty-free handbag and accessories brand on a mission to make sustainable fashion fashionable.
Photo source: gnlaccessories.com
Why GnL?
Vinita went vegan for the animals. When she read about the damaging environmental impact of animal farming, her decision to an eco-friendly business was reinforced. She wanted to create a brand that brought together the concepts of being cruelty-free, eco-friendly and caring for people together. However, Vinita found that most vegan fashion accessories are made of plastic which is not environmentally friendly. Then she started researching on alternatives to leather and all of her work led to the beginning to GnL.
What is sustainability? How to have eco-sustainability elements in your daily life? Sustainability is not to be viewed in isolation. You need to integrate it into every aspect of your everyday life. Then what is sustainability? The avoidance of depletion of natural resources in order to maintain ecological balance. The most important point here is that sustainability is relative, not absolute. During the journey of setting up GnL, Vinita has gone through a lot of learning. Most businesses are not set up overnight, nor do they get successful instantly . Before starting a business, one has to study the market and the target audience. More importantly, one has to know the target audience’s perception of the products one plans to produce. During the journey, Vinita learnt to invest wisely and to refine her strategy from time to time. At the beginning, she grew her personal brand within her own audience. People buy from people, not companies. Over time, she grew her business to a wider audience. Vinita’s mission is to create stylish handbags that cause no harms to the animals and be part of the solutions to climate change that is a threat to human wellbeing and health of planet Earth.
This article was written by Lena Wong. It was posted on youth publication: News for Kidz
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