Dallas-primarily based garb and accessories line GAIA has announced it will close its doors this May. The emblem’s giftable items, from handbags and pillows to blouses and bows, have been featured regularly within the pages of D Home and D Magazine over its nearly decade-longer term. The line’s beautiful (shiny hues, punchy prints, and colorful leather-based) is as lovely as its impact—in almost ten years, GAIA has empowered refugee ladies through employment and sustainable earning.
Just final year, GAIA moved into a friendly Uptown carriage house. The first ground becomes dedicated to retail, but upstairs, founder Paula Minnis created a haven for her artisans, who are regarded as friends as much as they have been coworkers. GAIA plans to guide her personnel throughout the transition, putting them up for future success with resume workshops, mock interviews, advice letters, and more. Minnis is also exploring making a stitching co-op, wherein neighborhood indoor designers or brands should lease the artisans to complete projects on a freelance foundation.
In preserving the the logo’s advantageous ethos, GAIA is dubbing its previous few weeks “Project Farewell” to include gatherings and parties in the birthday celebration of what Minnis and her gifted team have executed.
Understandably, the selection to shut GAIA wasn’t clean (Minnis ultimately wants to consciousness her strength on her own family). We’ve protected a pattern of her declaration beneath. However, you can examine the whole, the heartfelt message here.
GAIA has been a real labor of affection and this supply of pleasure, meaning, and success in many lives, particularly mine! However, after nearly ten years of jogging and developing GAIA, I’ve decided that it is time for me to take a step back and redirect my electricity to my own family.
Over the years, we’ve grown organically and lightly, watching in awe as our Artisans have grown as correctly. And now, as I struggled with what my selection to take a step returned might mean for them, I’ve recognized that the time has come when they may not be refugees anymore. They are mothers, wives, artisans, homeowners… and Americans. These girls have converted their lives. The warm cocoon we created at GAIA has served its purpose, and the butterflies are equipped to emerge.
Our cognizance now could be to help release the Artisans into their subsequent bankruptcy as efficiently as possible to secure jobs before our goal closes at the quit of May. We’ll be running on résumés, references, mock interviews, etc. To assist in equipping them and setting them up for fulfillment. I hope the employment opportunities can bend via humans inside our community. The first-rate element is that we understand everyone among our Artisans in detail and can confidently advocate and vouch for them.
