EDITORIAL |

HISTORY OF A MANTRA

‘‘NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A T-SHIRT’’

A simple white T-shirt.
With a single word: hope. And so it all started…

This object appeared before me as a premonitory symbol to represent the hope of believing that new ways of doing things were possible and ended up becoming the main inspiration for this project, DRA.HÖPE’S.

I am the promoter of this project, the alter ego of DRA.HÖPE’S, among many other things. A Planner & Brand Strategist specialised in branding and planning of business, communication and advertising strategies for the fashion, beauty and lifestyle sector.

I have always had a profound admiration for the world of fashion, not so much for its relationship with aesthetics – although that too – but as the driving force and reflection of social development. And that is precisely what has led me here.

Time for reflection

I will not be telling you anything new if I talk about the power that fashion has had over society throughout its history. Nor if I tell you that many of the major social changes promoted by minority movements have found in it the best showcase for expressing themselves and becoming mainstream. Nor will it be a discovery to talk about fashion as a symbol of individual expression, for its ability to express the feeling or experience of each of us.

However, is the fashion industry representing the values that today’s customers pursue? Or in other words, do today’s customers find an offer that is able to satisfy their personal and social aspirations? Or has the industry lost, through low-cost empires, the intangible value of objects that was so relevant in the fashion culture that has preceded us?

When I decided to take action

I realised that the world was crying out for a change and that the sector was not responding to it as it was lost in the frenzy of low-cost and the constant changing trends. So I decided to act, combining my passion and my profession.

After more than 10 years working in the strategic communication of lifestyle and high commodity brands, I decided to focus all my energy only on projects that give value to me, as an individual, and to society; contributing to initiatives that are responsible, ethical, fair and inspirational. Projects that, through fashion, can pursue a change to the system to recover the industry’s real value: social, aesthetic, artistic, identity-related and hedonistic.

Bringing DRA.HÖPE’S to life

So you see, the power of our garments in transferring values to others, or to ourselves, is incredible

In that T-shirt – paradoxically, a low-cost T-shirt that my sister gave me -, were all the values I wanted to represent.

The excitement of creating something different, the hope that new ways of doing things were possible, and the certainty that if accessible, change was possible.

It could be called the T-shirt of hope, or the T-shirt of super powers, as in it were my moments of reflection, the driving force for change and the strength of my actions.

Today, DRA.HÖPE’S is a reality that works to bring the next generation brands of fashion, beauty and lifestyle into the arena, promoting their ability to transmit social, aesthetic, artistic and hedonistic values. All so that the hopes of today’s population continue to grow, and to recover the value of an industry that, if it does not regenerate, will become obsolete.

And so we have the moral of the story that became our mantra:

“Never underestimate the power of a T-shirt”.