Article by Allie Dalola, intern at the US State Department, currently studying Business Administration and Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill.
| AWE Alumna Grace Achieng founded her sustainable fashion brand, Gracelandic, in 2020. |
[Reykjavik, January 2023] Academy for Women Entrepreneurs alum Grace Achieng is helping to transform the fashion industry’s impact on the environment through her company, Gracelandic.
“When fashion is done right,” says Achieng, “it can be transformative for the people wearing the clothes and the environment.”
As a “slow fashion” brand, Gracelandic stands in stark contrast to large-scale “fast fashion” manufacturers whose main objective is mass production at high speed. The slow fashion movement promotes greater sustainability by producing higher quality, environmentally friendly clothing that will last longer. As such, Gracelandic uses a more holistic, socially conscious production model that prioritizes a triple bottom line: people, profit and planet.
| Achieng’s business prioritizes a triple bottom line: people, profit and planet. |
For example, Achieng has partnered with an ethical manufacturer to supply all of Gracelandic’s fabric. By intentionally producing ethically produced clothing, her company limits overstock and recycles all of its fabric scraps to be remade into accessories.
Achieng also uses her business to promote the philosophy of slow fashion to the public, regularly posting on the company’s blog and Instagram account to educate customers about the influences of the fast fashion industry. Even the clothes she sells are designed to reduce consumer waste.
“Our clothes are of high quality and will last a long time,” says Achieng. “The styles are timeless, versatile and easy to style.”
Achieng says many people don’t realize how quickly fashion has a devastating impact on climate change and water waste—something she’s passionate about because she’s seen it since childhood. She explains how the fast fashion industry disproportionately affects developing countries like Kenya, where she grew up.
| Achieng is passionate about empowering women through her designs. |
“Products and materials that we have in the West are sent to Africa,” she explains. “It kills independent businesses and ninety percent of these clothes end up in African landfills.”
Her childhood in Kenya began from what she herself describes as “humble beginnings” and led Achieng to design clothing that promotes sustainability and empowers its wearer.
In fact, Achieng experienced the power of fashion from a young age and it marked her path as an entrepreneur. She remembers as a child in Kenya how she felt when she wore a new dress she received as a gift from her aunt.
“When I put on this dress, I felt so empowered,” Achieng describes. “That’s the kind of feeling I want to sell.”
In 2010, Achieng moved to Iceland, where she pursued her dream of a career in the world of fashion. After struggling to find a job in fashion, Achieng decided to take matters into her own hands. In 2020, she bought a sewing machine and went into business for herself in hopes of designing beautiful clothes that give voice to the women who wear them.
| AWE’s extensive network helped set Gracelandic up for success. |
“I feel like it’s my life’s mission to help women feel visible and invincible through fashion,” says Achieng.
Two years after opening Gracelandic, Achieng attended the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) through the US Embassy in Reykjavik, in which she was equipped with the necessary tools to succeed. For example, Achieng learned the financial skills needed to run her own business and secure funding.
“When I started my business, I just went blindly into my dream,” says Achieng. “AWE helped me understand my business in a much deeper way.”
Beyond practical business skills, Achieng was able to use AWE’s extensive network to connect with other women entrepreneurs, learn from talented mentors, and share her story on a larger platform.
“I felt a lot of support,” Achieng says. “I never knew women could be so supportive of each other.”
Since its inception, Gracelandic has grown tremendously, which Achieng recently spoke about at the Women’s Impact Summit 2022, a global conference for future women entrepreneurs. And her models have appeared in British Vogue three times in 2022.
| Icelandic Foreign Minister Thordis Kolbrun (pictured center) wears Gracelandic couture during a meeting between President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at the UNGA in |
Achieng’s personal mission to empower women through what they wear also seems to be gaining traction on the global political stage. When Iceland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjörd Gylfadóttir met US President Joe Biden during the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2022, she wore nothing but a Gracelandic design.
Icelandic Foreign Minister Thordis Kolbrun (pictured center) wears Gracelandic couture during a meeting between President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at the UNGA in
The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs is a women’s empowerment initiative launched by the US State Department in 2019. Using the DreamBuilder learning platform developed by Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management, AWE has empowered more than 25,000 women in 100 countries with the knowledge, networks, and access they need to start and scale successful businesses, including 60 women entrepreneurs in Iceland.
For more information about AWE, visit: https://eca.state.gov/awe.
