From Fast Fashion-Obsessed to Ethical Fashion Founders: Project Cece's Story

The more people we reach with Project Cece, the more we get asked about what motivated us to create this platform bringing hundreds of sustainable brands in one place.

So, I thought I’d share our story with everyone, especially to spread one key message: that change is possible. 

In fact, even though I’m now in the sustainable clothing space… I used to be a huge shopaholic and fast fashion consumer!

Project Cece’s story: how we went from fast fashion overconsumption to supporting slow brands and helping consumers shop mindfully

This is us, by the way. I’m Melissa (on the left), sitting next to our co-founder Noor, and the one on the right is my sister Marcella.

My fashion lifestyle before Project Cece

I used to have a flawed belief: that everyone was trying to be as good as possible and cared about how their actions impacted the world, myself included (after all, I did become vegetarian when I was eight).

I didn’t know the grim reality behind the fashion industry’s flashy facade, though. So, for years, I was a compulsive buyer. 

In fact, when the first Primark opened a branch here in the Netherlands, I even took a train there just to shop my heart out. As a student on a budget, those mountains of cheap clothes felt like a gift from heaven. What could be wrong about it?

Discovering the truth about fast fashion

In 2015, a friend brought me to a screening of The True Cost, one of the most eye-opening fast fashion documentaries. And I was shocked.

I realised that the cheap clothes I loved so much hid an expensive cost: a dreadful environmental impact, child labour, garment workers kept in modern slavery conditions, and unsustainable quantities of waste.

Trying to do better (and getting burnt)

I was heartbroken. So, at first, I went cold turkey and stopped shopping for a whole year. 

Then, I popped into my local H&M after hearing about their conscious collection. Walking to their fitting rooms, I saw reassuring and empowering messages like “We encourage our workers to unite in unions”. So, I felt better and bought loads of clothes.

It was only later that I learned about greenwashing (of which H&M and many high street brands got accused of multiple times): companies making misleading or straight-up fake claims regarding their production practices, falsely describing them as sustainable to appeal to eco-conscious consumers.

I felt tricked and didn’t know what to trust anymore.

Looking for sustainable clothing brands 

Since my high street was full of fast fashion stores, I went online to scout for sustainable alternatives.

Many open tabs later, I was surprised to find just how many ethical brands there were (even for my budget), except they were:

• Tricky to find, if you didn’t know their names 
• Spread out everywhere, which made it harder to browse their collections and find what I needed

The idea: helping eco-conscious consumers find ethical brands (and vice versa)

I talked about my shopping experience with my sister, Marcella, who had just finished her minor in programming. 

That’s when we had our epiphany: what if we built a platform to bring these small brands in one place and make it easier for consumers to shop their collections, from filters to narrow down their choices to simple information on what makes them sustainable?

Marcella spoke about it with her roommate, Noor, and she was just as excited as we were.

That’s when Project Cece was born.

Bringing Project Cece into the world 

After a year of building it behind the scenes, we went live.

It took a lot of effort to help our new platform gain traction, but when a Dutch newspaper gave us 5-stars, our servers exploded. 

Our idea was to create a fair affiliate model (so, if someone discovered a brand and bought their items through our website, the company would pay a small percentage at no extra cost for the consumer). However, we realised that most of those small brands couldn’t afford to subscribe to existing affiliate platforms. So, we built our own tech inhouse to create something that worked well for everyone.

Now, we helped hundreds of fair trade brands reach millions of eco-conscious consumers!

Why are we telling you this?

First things first, to say that we get it. We’ve been in your (fast fashion) shoes, and we know it’s not easy to ditch it. Plus, most people aren’t even aware of how bad that industry is or the impact their clothes have, and that’s why we never preach or judge. At the same time, though, we don’t sugarcoat things easier. 

I’m glad my friend opened my eyes by showing me The True Cost, and I now want to do the same for more consumers (you don’t want to be tricked like I was when I walked into that H&M store, right?)

So, from our blog to our Instagram and the info we add to each product and brand, we also use our platform to help eco-conscious consumers make better choices.

Most importantly, we’re telling you our story to share an important message: that change is possible, and your wardrobe has more of an impact than you think, but you can make it a positive one.

Take it from someone who went from getting a train to do a Primark haul to co-founding a fair fashion platform.