Inviting & Equipping Consumers to Co-Create a Circular Fashion Economy in Spain & beyond

The Social Innovation

Magnitude of the Problem, and its Root Causes

The global fashion industry is one of the world's largest drivers of environmental degradation and social injustice — and Spain is no exception. "Fast fashion" has normalized unsustainable consumption, exploitative labor, and massive textile waste. Yet most production facilities lack the know-how or resources to change course, and consumers face real barriers to making responsible choices.

During their participation in the Dela Program, co-created by Ashoka and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship in 2021, the Latitude team identified three structural factors that sustain the problem:

• Lack of accessible, transparent infrastructure for repair and recycling
• Weak consumer incentives and awareness for sustainable choices
• Industry fragmentation and resistance to collaborative change

Based on their systems change analysis, Maria and her team made it their mission to change the behaviour of consumers to become co-creators of sustainable fashion in the textile & fashion industries in Spain.

"Participating in the program has been an extremely valuable experience for me and for the development of Vivi. It provided a unique space to reflect on the growth of the initiative, to connect with an extraordinary community of social entrepreneurs, and to receive strategic input from experienced professionals.

One of the most important aspects of the program was the opportunity to step back and look at the project with a broader perspective — something that is often difficult when you are deeply involved in building a venture.

At the same time, the experience also highlighted how important it is for the companies participating in the program to deepen their level of engagement with the ventures they support. When this commitment is strong and sustained, the potential for real collaboration and impact becomes much greater.

Overall, the program has been a meaningful learning journey, and it has given me a wonderful gift: the opportunity to build an impact project not only in collaboration with people, but with people who have become friends." 

Strategy to Catalyze a Network of Changemakers towards the Targeted Mission

The core of María's strategy is a deceptively simple idea: make repair and recycling as easy — and as social — as buying something new. This means changing the narrative around sustainable fashion and building a bridge between the industry and everyday consumers, so that circular behaviours become natural, not burdensome.

Some of the tactics deployed towards the mission as part of the strategy include:

1. Driving Collaboration between Consumers and Repair & Recycle Facilities by Creating the Vivi App with Allies

A pivotal tactic was the creation of the Vivi app — developed in collaboration with 15 impact investors and a major organization in the Spanish textile sector — designed to make sustainable fashion practices accessible and actionable for everyone in Spain.

The journey to Vivi began with a different vision. Initially, the team explored establishing physical fab labs — community-based spaces equipped with tools and expertise for garment repair, upcycling, and hands-on experimentation with sustainable materials. Through experience and reflection, however, they realised that scaling impact required a digital-first approach that could reach people where they already are.

The shift was also driven by empathy. As María observed: "People are tired, you know, they're like, it's so difficult. Everything is so difficult. I cannot do more."

Vivi's answer to that fatigue is a comprehensive platform that removes friction at every step:

• An AI-powered chat that guides users through repair options
• DIY video tutorials sourced directly from brands' own repair content
• A garment scoring tool — upload a photo to assess the sustainability of any item of clothing
• A repair and recycling map covering all facilities across Spain — a "Google Maps for textile sustainability" where users can find nearby shops, recycling points, and social projects by zip code, complete with reviews and transparent information

By weaving these features together, Vivi doesn't just empower individuals — it builds trust and community. The app's transparency and practical guidance are designed to make sustainable action feel rewarding, not overwhelming.

2. Collaborating with the Most Important Fashion Association in Spain to Involve Big Brands and SMEs

Securing the buy-in and infrastructure of the textile and fashion industry is key for successful adoption of the Vivi app.

Re-Viste — the most important association of fashion brands in Spain, whose members include Inditex, Ikea, Mango, and Tendam — recognised the urgency of adapting to new regulations around repair and recycling and became a key advocate and collaborator for the Vivi app. Their active involvement brought both credibility and reach and opened doors to government engagement at a pivotal moment: Spain is among the first countries in Europe to legislate repair and recycling in fashion.

By aligning with industry and policy simultaneously, Vivi is being positioned as the go-to tool for compliance and innovation alike.  

Onboarding companies was not always straightforward. The process of bringing companies on board was built on two things in equal parts: the reputation Latitude had earned over years of work, and the quality of Vivi offers to deliver.

3. Deploying a Plan for Influencing and Involving Consumers

Changing consumer behaviour at scale requires more than a great app — it requires a compelling story. They have developed an ambitious marketing plan led by a former top executive from one of Spain's largest banks, who became personally invested in the project.

The plan leverages media, social campaigns, and community features within the app to build excitement and drive adoption. Vivi is set to launch in April with a communications strategy designed to engage key voices from the fashion and sustainability ecosystem — and to demonstrate to impact investors and the broader financial community that demand for this kind of tool is real and growing.

Beyond the launch, the app itself is built for ongoing engagement: reading clubs, gamified sustainability incentives, and user reviews are all designed to make sustainable living feel like a lifestyle, not a sacrifice. "We would like people to understand that doing this kind of way of living is so much better than the other."  

4. Co-creating a Transdisciplinary Research Framework — and Putting the Social Dimension of Circularity on the Global Policy Agenda by Consulting Stakeholders across Sectors

Given the global nature of supply change, systems change interventions to improve the fashion industry can't happen in one country alone.  

Together with Ashoka Fellows Anita Ahuja (India) and Dr. Liz Suarez Visbal (Canada), the three identified a set of shared blind spots in the global circular economy agenda: the missing social dimension of circularity, the disconnect between local practice and global value chains, and the absence of gender equity in circular frameworks. Together, they secured joint funding to address them, and it was connected to the PhD research led by Lis Suarez Visbal at Utrecht University.

The result is a four-year transdisciplinary research project — "Towards an Inclusive and Just Circular Economy Transition in the Textile & Apparel Value Chain" — bringing together researchers, industry actors, and civil society in India, Spain, and the Netherlands to co-create future scenarios for a more inclusive fashion system.

Within this project, María played a key role in Spain: connecting brands, SMEs, researchers, and civil society to the global research process. The collaboration demonstrated what systemic change in fashion actually requires — global vision combined with deep local knowledge, and academic rigour grounded in real-world practice.