Based in Brisbane, Ethical Gallery ships their completely Peta-Approved collection right around the globe.
Drieli launched Ethical Gallery back in 2017 and has gone from strength to strength. She’d spent close to a decade searching for vegan handbags for herself. But hit brick walls when it came to finding the style and quality she was looking for in Australia.
After importing ethical handbags for herself, following lengthy ‘hunting’ for the right materials… Drieli realised that there would be other conscious shoppers going through the exact same thing!
And, well… The rest is history.
EG’s mission? Encouraging women to seek alternatives to brands using animal products. And you know what? Their collections are freaking delightful. These pieces totally challenge the misconception that vegan = daggy hessian bags and patchouli. Instead, Ethical Gallery stocks some of the biggest brands in ethical fashion.
Here we chatted to Drieli about motivation, building brands and resilience.
“We curate the most desirable cruelty-free handbags from labels all over the globe and bring them under one ‘virtual roof’ so our customers can shop confidently, knowing that the search has been done for them.”
“It sounds cliché, but my advice is to be authentic. Know your brand’s purpose and don’t try to please everyone. Most importantly, don’t copy anyone either – you know you’re doing something right when your customers point out some other stores or brands copying your work.”
“My purpose is my main motivation. If I wasn’t passionate about the animal cause, I would have given up in the first 6 months. Because building a brand all alone is HARD work!
I celebrate each and every sale. Because I see this as one less person financing the horrors of the leather industry. Also seeing the customer’s positive comments and engagement is a great way to find inspiration.”
“Oh, there are always challenges! (laughs)
One of the challenges that bother me most is logistics. The fact that we receive all handbags wrapped in plastic. And there is absolutely nothing that I – as a retailer – can do to stop this. Because this is how manufacturers operate to maintain the handbags’ integrity as they travel from A to B. I’m always researching the topic and unfortunately, I can’t see the answer to this issue in the short term.
However, when it comes to our packaging, at Ethical Gallery we are careful not to add any more plastic to this problem, by consciously using biodegradable packaging in our orders. We also choose to offset the carbon emissions of our shipments – and between 85-95% of them are carbon-neutral, thanks to our partnership with Australia’s first 100% carbon-neutral delivery service.”
“This will be a great year for Ethical Gallery but I can’t say much more…”
Swoon over Ethical Gallery’s collections, keep up with the latest on socials and read up on some pretty little product descriptions we did for EG here.
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