MEET CAVIA W/ MARTINA

Cavia is an upcycling and eco-friendly clothing brand, founded and made in Italy since 2020. Cavia believe that our world is full of things we produced in past, that we must transform with our creativity. We chatted to founder Martina about her vision for the brand, future projects and, of course, knitting.

"Our world is full of things we produced in past, we just need to transform it with our creativity."

 

What 2 words best describe CAVIA?

Zero waste

 

When did you start CAVIA, and what inspired you to?

I started my project during the quarantine in March 2020. I always loved to develop a knit project and for once I had the time for really think about it, so I took my knitting needles and I started play with it.

I had a lot of old yarns in my attic and I started thinking about using only wasted fabrics and yarns for create my project, and for that I chose the name Cavia, because every item is a one of a kind experimentation.

 

Tell us about the team behind the brand.

We are a small team, I’m Martina the founder and the creative director. And I have two girls, Cecilia and Tosca, who help me with the develop of the collection, and Jessica is in charge of the sales.

 

What’s playing on the office / studio stereo?

The Horrors- Sea within a sea

 

We define good design as ‘making positive impact on people and the planet a key input in the design stage’. How do you approach this at CAVIA?

In Cavia our mission is to not produce anything from zero, all the items we develop are made with 100% upcycled materials. Our world is full of things we produced in past, we just need to transform it with our creativity. We don’t believe in seasons and gender, we love to take time for create collections. We work as made to order because our goal is to don’t do overproductions, as this is one of the key for the sustainability.

 

Where do you source the materials that you up-cycle for your collections? And how does this process work; do you let the materials you find lead your designs, or do you go seeking specific materials based on your designs..?

I’m a vintage lover, I always go see the vintage markets and I take a lot of materials from them. I always have in my mind what I have to look for.

Also, I work with some stockist who sell me the excess productions materials.

 

To champion transparency, we always ask designers - what would you like to do better, or are you working on improving?

We love to create conscious collections. We are going to work for the Cavia production with a foundation who supports social integration. 

The things we produced and we not upcycled are the labels, but the jacquard label is made with 100% regenerated polyester and the dust bags are made from recycled cotton.

 

Where is CAVIA going in the future?

Our next challenge is to combine ethical and sustainability, that’s why we are planning a special project with the foundation ‘La grande casa’ that always has the aim of favoring and promoting rights, supporting and respecting every single life project, promoting the social integration and work objective of the most vulnerable people. 

 

As we all know, the fashion industry as a whole is responsible for huge environmental and social issues. How would you like to see the industry change and progress?

The key is to produce less and promote a made to order business, which can drastically reduce the excess and change the way we live.

 

What advice would you give to people who want to be more responsible when they’re shopping?

We need to buy less and better.

 

Thanks Martina!

Explore Cavia and take a look at the collection here.