Veja x STILY
Back in January we met with cult French sneaker brand Veja, and an idea followed…
On Friday 1 November we opened Veja’s first ever Australian pop-up at Westfield Sydney.
Veja’s ethos is ‘to stand up with one foot in design and the other in social responsibility.’ Made in Brazil with values like fairtrade, transparency, upcycling and no advertising, Veja’s goal is to create sneakers that will quite literally stand the test of time.
That means working with small farming cooperatives in Brazil, and companies like Ateliers Sans Frontières – an organisation that helps provides work as rehabilitation for the impoverished and disadvantaged – to manage inventory and logistics.
It also means using materials like recycled plastic bottles, and organic fair trade cotton, and developing brand new technology to transform rice waste and banana oil into running shoes - all in an effort to preserve the environment.
It’s not easy to physically articulate Veja’s unwavering commitment to sustainability and the environment in the middle of one of the country’s busiest retail developments. But to bring this collaboration to life, that’s exactly what we challenged one of our local partner florists, Jane Lampe from Floreat, to do.
Our goal: create a living garden in the middle of Westfield Sydney that tells Veja’s story - a miniature ecosystem that will thrive on its own in man-made light, with no irrigation, all whilst withstanding a barrage of sneaker-loving visitors.
Using rocks scrounged from Narrabri, ferns, peperomia, spongy moss and other native flora, Jane has achieved just this. Our miniature living ecosystem is currently relishing its position in Westfield’s designer gallery on Level 4, just next door to Christian Laboutin.
The Veja X Sorry Thanks I Love You project will run for the entire month of November and sees a specially curated range of Veja’s newest and most exclusive styles brought to Australia. Among the 20+ sneaker options are the ‘V-Knit’ made in collaboration with Rick Owens, Veja’s first ever ‘post-petroleum’ biomimetic running shoe, made from 53% natural-based and recycled materials, and a host of new styles never before available in Australia.
At Sorry Thanks I Love You our focus is on the community, quality and the unexpected. And there’s even more to come.
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The Veja x Sorry Thanks I Love You project will run from 1 – 30 November at Sorry Thanks I Love You, Level 4, Westfield Sydney, 100 Market Street, Sydney. Stock is limited. Sign up for first dibs here.