We were lucky to catch up with ATHINA GARCIA recently and have shared our conversation below.

ATHINA, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I am originally from Colombia. I have always been close to artisanal and indigenous communities since I have been seeing them everywhere in Colombia since my childhood. As I grew up it was inevitable to see the conditions many of this artisans lived. They were usually women , children and even entire families living and selling their products on the streets. Many of them were displaced from their territories due to violence and poverty.

I was always drawn to the idea of helping people. it is something that has moved me always. I decided tu pursue a degree in Government and international affairs since I wanted to dedicate myself to the non profit world.

The more I studied and started to get involved with non profits and with the government organizations I started to realize I had a creative soul and that I enjoyed working in dynamic and creative environments, at the same time I started to realize the jobs in this ” industry” were very dull, lacked creativity and dynamism. I knew I was never going to enjoy working in this environment were jobs were the typical 9-5 or even longer hours locked up in an office.

Also as I explored the traditional non profit system I realized the model was not sustainable ( giving people money is not the answer to their problems , it just create the conditions to make them dependent on consistent donations which in the long term are not going to break the cycles of poverty.

This realizations somehow led me to feel stuck. I didn’t know which way to go in my career. I started taking jobs in art fairs, galleries and places were I could feel more connected with my creative side but always remembering my mission to help others.

One day I received and invitation in my email from a non profit organization which I had write some articles for . ASCOA in NYC they work to promote relations between the United States and Latin America. The conference was by a women working with artisans in Guatemala.

After this conference I was so inspired I realized I could create a disruption in the traditional non profit world and in the traditional way of approaching politics. I decided I was going to bring together the things I loved. Art, craftmanship , culture and politics.

This is how NO NAME JUST PEOPLE was born. as an initiative that bring together fashion and social entrepeneurship. A project that uses fashion as an empowerment tool to work with this communities and offer them a platform to develop properly.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I believe the most special part of our project is that it revolves around the people. There are many other amazing artisanal brands out there however we see the focus tends to be around the designer and not the people. We at no name just people not only understand but we want to emphasize that the true artists are the artisans involved in the project. without their input our project would simply not exist.

I also believe coming from a background in politics and now working with the fashion industry really helps our project have a more profound mission. our mission has always been to help the communities develop, our focus is and will aways be to address the social problems we see in this communities and use fashion as an empowerment tool to break the cycles of poverty that have installed themselves in so many communities in Colombia.

Our pieces vary depending on the community we are collaborating with. In San jacinto Bolivar we developed a project which main focus is help the artisans innovate while preserving tradition. We are teaching them to work with the same technique they have been working for years and that have made them so well known for their hammocks and transforming that fabric into one of a kind wearable pieces that speak to the contemporary woman and that find themselves some place in bigger markets.

We also have iraca palm bags which we developed with Usiacuri community. With the ember chamí people , famous for their beadwork and necklaces we are adapting the technique into creating tops and other ready to wear pieces that also speak to the contemporary women.

We are very proud of the work we do with this communities, how we are showing them how valuable their work is. We are extremely proud that over 2 years we have managed to expand from 1 community to 5 of them., positively impacting the lives of around 80 women across them all.

I recently read in a book by wade Davis that culture is not static. that it is always adapting itself and I love that. ! because that is precisely what we are trying to do. we are doing our best to help this communities to maintain and keep their valuable traditions while at the same time adapting themselves into the modern world and therefore benefit from the modern economies.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Definitely the Pandemic was a turning point for our project. When the pandemic hit we had only been in business for over a year and a half and as many other start ups a lot of questions came rushing into our minds. I have to say I was never worried I knew somehow the project was going to sustain itself and it did! As a matter of fact the pandemic ended up being the year were we really developed our identity and a year that truly set the bases for many important decisions that ended up shifting the future of the company for good.

During the pandemic I was forced to stay at home for 6 entire months since I was in colombia at the time. This really allowed me to slow down and take a moment to re connect back with my country were at the end of the day is where all of our pieces are made. it is not the same being in Miami and creating a collection remotely than actually being in Colombia fully while it happens.

Also it was During the pandemic our most special project until know took place “faces for the people”. The lockdown impacted all artisanal communities and informal workers in Colombia. over 80% of the workforce in colombia is informal, I was in my house when I literally started hearing my doorbell rang every day with about 2 / 3 families per day asking for food. I had all the fabrics we were going to use for our spring collection so I decided instead of producing new pieces we were going to ask the artisans to develop face masks for us, using their traditional crafts. Giving them back 50% of the profits plus the regular demand for face masks allowed the communties to receive a steady pay during the pandemic and it also helped us kept the business afloat. we raised over 10,000 dollars for the artisans. We were able to buy food for informal workers which we donated weekly for over 6 months. when I came back to Miami I would literally get stopped on the street asking me if I was the founder for no name just people. we were featured in Forbes, la vanguardia and some other well known platforms because of this project, people started to get to know no name just people better because of this initiative.

We also created ” wakaya” our most special collection since we began. Wakaya means “trueque” or exchange, This is the way indigenous communities have lived for years, by exchanging goods. We made a deal with the artisans. They would develop pieces for us , in return we would take care of sending food for their entire families every month and once we were able to actually sell the pieces we would start paying them back. The collection was a success , it was sold out during the first month of launching and the artisans end up receiving their pay in less time than we thought.

I know the pandemic was a very hard time for the entire world. For me personally it was a time to reconnect with my roots, to slow down and really dive in and appreciate the creative process. It moved me to think outside of the box. It allowed me to see that the magic of our pieces is really in allowing them to evolve slowly. My artisans always tried to explain to me that artisanal craftsmanship is all about the rhythms of nature. if it rains you can not dye or weave the palm or even the textiles for the fabrics. You need to wait and see if its going to be a sunny day or not. you literally depend on nature’s will. I never really understood this way of working until the time to literally STOP came. And just like that our most beautiful collection was born and the course of no name just people changed forever.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Working with artisanal communities have forced me to unlearn literally everything you learn in business school or in any school really. I think the most important thing to understand is that in this type of work you are dealing directly with PEOPLE. Sensible people who are not used to have a system. Artisanal work is something that is not produced in a fabric with strict standards of how the process is supposed to work its not a linear process. You can’t just throw in a deadline and expect production to be ready on that day.

I had to learn about co-creation. I had to learn how to transmit my message and what I am looking to achieve in a collection in a way that they can understand and embrace. We are bringing in contemporary designs to communities that have been working on the same traditional craft for years and years. it is not easy for them as it is not easy for any one to adapt to change.

I had to unlearn everything about how a production chain should look like and build one that adapted itself to the artisans way of working.

But the biggest lesson I had to unlearn was around humility. As I mentioned before since the beginning I really wanted to help the people from this communties. I wanted to Impact their lives in a positive way. Bring in more job opportunities, help them grow and develop.

With the first community I ever worked with ( Usiacuri) I came in with my very city girl /college graduate mentality of I AM GOING TO DEVELOP A BIG ARTISANAL CENTER FOR THIS COMMUNITY SO THAT ALL ARTISANS CAN COME WEAVE HERE AND MAKE PRODUCTION MORE EFFICIENT. I laugh now at myself.

I went back and forth to meetings with the artisans, discuss about this center, gather them together over and over, met with government officials from the community and somehow the center never seemed to come to live. Until one day while having coffee at the house of one of the artisans and watching them weave I finally UNDERSTOOD.

Weaving for them is not a job. Weaving for them is part of their lives. They will start weaving your bag and then they will stop and go make lunch for their kids. They will start weaving your bag and then stop to receive a neighbor who stopped by and came in to say hi and have a coffee. Weaving is weaved into their days and lives and that is why they like to do it at home.

Because weaving is not like leaving for your job in the morning at 9 AM and coming back at 6. Its nothing like that and that Is precisely why this pieces are so unique and special, they carry stories.

When I finally understood this it was like magic. I started to notice that instead of building a weaving center I could focus my efforts in slowly rebuilding a space in the artisans houses where they could have better conditions to dry and wash the palm , to store it and to just make their spaces more comfortable.

It is no secret that many of this communities are affected by poor living conditions and therefore any help they can receive to make their homes a little better is very special for them. This was my biggest lesson and at the moment we are working in re building the yard for 2 of our artisans in this community.

true Change is not something that comes in big dramatic ways it is something that is created one step at a time , one person at a time. This has been my biggest lesson to unlearn.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nonamejustpeople.com
• Instagram: @nonamejustpeople
• Facebook: no name just people