Aims of the Alora project

Over the holiday, Chit had the opportunity to meet with tailors from two different tailoring cooperatives in her hometown, Hanoi.  Read more here about the background of these cooperatives and how Alora aims to support them with its profits.

The first cooperative is comprised of tailors with disadvantaged backgrounds who either suffer from HIV/AIDS, abuse or difficult economic circumstances. This group was established by Ms. Huong and Ms. Hoa, two cousins who had previously worked in factories making clothes for export. After Hoa discovered she had HIV, she could no longer work in the factory and decided to team up with Huong to establish a tailoring cooperative for women with disadvantaged backgrounds. They wanted to teach women tailoring skills in order to create opportunities for the women to support themselves and their family.  In order to protect these women from the stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV, Hoa and Huong keep information about the circumstances of each woman who comes to the cooperative confidential. The cooperative has only been operating for over 2 years and currently only caters to bulk orders of maternity clothing for distribution within Vietnam. They work together in a small room with very few machinery and poor working conditions. Many women in the cooperative also work from home in order to balance their domestic responsibilities.

The other tailoring cooperative Alora aims to work with is made up of women who have physical disabilities or special needs and younger girls who suffer from Agent Orange. Agent Orange is a chemical defoliant spread across the forests of Vietnam during the Vietnam-American War. Those who were exposed to this toxic chemical subsequently suffered various diseases and disabilities that were also passed on to their children. Victims of Agent Orange and women with disabilities are still, to a certain extent, ostracised from society and have few opportunities to find employment or education. Vocational and skills training have been the main solutions to enable them to sustain themselves and their families. The women in this cooperative have different skill levels, many have only begun to learn tailoring skills whilst others are producing clothes for factories and other outlets.

While both these cooperatives are currently not involved in producing the types of higher-end, custom-made clothing that Alora currently markets, we hope that through Alora’s capacity building program and the support of Ms Yen – Alora’s tailor, these cooperatives can eventually receive the support they need in order to raise their skill levels and open new markets through which their products can be sold.  

Where the fabric comes from

Alora dresses use four main types of fabrics: silk, chiffon, taffeta and satin.  The silk used by Alora is Vietnamese handmade silk. Handmade silk is softer than factory produced silk, however more expensive as it is very labour-intensive. Currently, the majority of silk from Vietnam is handmade by various silk villages throughout the country as the technology and capital needed for factory-produced silk is still not yet available. Where possible, Alora’s tailor will try to source silk directly from silk villages in order to ensure silk producers receive as much of the proceeds as possible. Chiffon, taffeta and satin are imported from China. 

Distribution of Alora’s profits

Alora aims to make a 25% profit that will be used to:

-Sponsor classes for women in the cooperatives who need additional tailoring skills training

-Buy machinery and equipment for the cooperatives

-Invest in branding and marketing strategies that might help to open up new markets for the cooperatives

-Support training of new tailors joining the cooperatives