IGIGI Celebrates 20 Years of Iconic Style.
IGIGI was founded by Yuliya Raquel in February of 2000.
At IGIGI we believe in a partnership between the designer brand, customers and our planet. We create custom plus size fashion just the way you love it, in your unique size, style variation and color, while minimizing waste and providing fair compensation and great working conditions to our amazing seamstresses in Europe.
While, in the past 19 years IGIGI was a ready-to-wear fashion brand, after almost two decades of business, the true costs of ready-to-wear were too great to ignore. The fashion industry's production of off-the-rack garments ranks in the top 3 largest sources of pollution on the planet, which is also devastating to our fresh water supplies.
That is why at IGIGI we are committed to practicing sustainable and ethical manufacturing, and that is why all of our garments are customized and Made to Order.
Offering our garments custom made-to-order is the one sure way to ensure that minimal waste is created during manufacturing of our dresses, while providing curvy fashionistas their own unique styles, created just the way they love it, customized to their unique size and height.
We also offer all of our styles made to measure, which ensures a perfect fit every time.
We believe it is a WIN-WIN-WIN for our customers, our planet and our brand.
Our Story
After 13 years of being the sole Fashion Designer, Visionary and Creative Director of IGIGI, Yuliya Raquel left IGIGI to pursue her vision of building revolutionary technologies for the fashion industry, to empower sustainability and ethical manufacturing.
IGIGI since then has been acquired and under different management and supervision, years 2013 - 2019.
On April 1st, 2019, IGIGI brand has been re-acquired by Yuliya Raquel's new startup, backed by Y Combinator, COUTURME ( http://couturme.com).
Environmental Impact
All the environmental experts agree that on-demand, made to order clothing is the way of the future - minimizing waste, saving water, our land and resources from wasteful textile production, reducing the amount of fabric and materials used, and preventing excess stock from being disposed of or burned after the retail season is over.
What is not a widely known fact is when ready-to-wear clothes are manufactured in volume 15-20% of fabric used in cutting of the garments, ends up going to waste and is dumped in the landfill. Mass production causes billions of pounds of textile waste to be disposed onto our landfills worldwide every single day by the factories, before the garments are even sewn. Moreover each season hundreds of millions of product samples, off-quality production and unsold inventory ( please read an article here), which are unsellable, also often end up in the landfill or are burned. The waste and damage that mass production of off-the-rack clothing is causing our environment is unfathomable.
We believe that off-the-rack clothing is an archaic way to sell fashion, dictated by a single designer's view and one-style-fits-all attitude, while hurting our environment in an unimaginable way.
We work with customers to co-create IGIGI designs and hand-sew extremely high quality perfectly-fitting garments that will be your favorites for many years to come.
We believe in a partnership between the designer brand, customers and our planet. We make IGIGI dresses to order, using highest quality luxury fabrics that we save from being disposed of after the production season is over, offering a sustainable alternative to the manufacturing practices. We also print our fabrics on demand, thus causing less waste.
Our Technology
From 2013 - 2019 Yuliya Raquel and her team have been developing patent-pending 3D automation fashion design technology to assist us in delivering designer clothes that fit and flatter and made on demand at scale.
We preview each design on the 3D model to see the fit and possible adjustments that we may need to make for a perfect fit. The more accurate the measurements, the better the fit of the final garment. We also offer our standard range of sizes, customized to your height! So no more need for the alterations and no more settling for the poor fit. This means that the entire pattern is adjusted, not just the length of the skirt.
You can now choose and customize any design and size dimensions to accommodate each unique body, shape and style. At the moment, it takes 4-6 weeks for delivery of IGIGI made to order styles, but in the near future, we will be able to offer 2–3 week delivery.
Ethical Manufacturing
All our garments are skillfully sewn by hand in beautiful European cities, Kiev and Kharkiv in Ukraine. We pay fair wages, 35% more than average local seamstress's salaries and only allow 8-hour workday and 5-day workweek. In contrast, local seamstresses often have to work 12-hours a day and 6 to 7 days per week to be able to make enough money to make a livable wage. We are committed to bringing prosperity and a great lifestyle to all who are a part of our project and elevate quality of life for our wonderful workers, seamstresses and tailors.
We believe that together in partnership we can all make a difference for our future and the future of our children.
Informed and educated consumers are the most powerful force to cause positive change in the world. Numerous educational films have been created to bring awareness to the fashion pollution and lack of ethical practices. We recommend the following films and documentaries to increase your awareness, and thus your power. We are not affiliated with any of the organizations below, however we are taking a stand with their mission:
The True Cost (also available on Netflix)
River Blue Udita (Arise)
Unravel
From Sex Worker to Seamstress: The High Cost of Cheap Clothes
Please stay tuned while we re-build IGIGI and create a bright new future, where all women are celebrated with style, while we create a WIN-WIN-WIN eco-system for all.
IGIGI designs luxury contemporary women’s plus size clothing in San Francisco Bay Area, using cutting edge revolutionary technology, powered by COUTURME.
Named after an ancient goddess embodying vitality, charm, and intelligence, IGIGI creates smart, stylish and sophisticated collections for women with curves that accentuate and celebrate their bodies.
Our clothing features amazing fit, beautiful fabrics and brilliant patterns. We proudly provide our unique ShapeStylistTM tool to help customers find the right fit for their body shape.
Join our global community of fierce, fashion-forward women!
