Rags2Riches: Interweaving High-End Fashion, Justice, and Social Entrepreneurship

A group of young professionals and alumni of the Philippines’ Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University wove together the social enterprise Rags2Riches after they witnessed injustice in the Payatas region in the Philippines’ capital, Manila. Not only did the group discover Payatas mothers crafting beautiful handmade rugs that netted marginal profits, but they also discovered middlemen exploiting the mothers. The middleman sold the mothers scrap materials at inflated prices, marked up the sale price of their rugs at department stores, and pocketed the bulk of their profits. Seeing the powerlessness of the mothers, Rags2Riches amassed donations to abolish the unscrupulous middlemen and facilitate the wares’ direct sales at markets. When the rugs became popular items at the bazaars, Rags2Riches invited designer Rajo Laurel to help the mothers diversify their products. With Laurel, the Rags2Riches team developed 12 high-end designs—from handbags to wine bottle holders—that were unveiled to an elite audience at the posh EDSA Shangri-La Plaza ballroom.

The mothers and Rags2Riches soon met with greater empowerment: the enterprise was the first Philippine team crowned with the Social Enterprise Award at the University of San Francisco’s 2008 International Business Plan Competition, beating out a global pool of competitors from prestigious universities. Rags2Riches continues to help the Payatas mothers with product development, quality control, distribution, and public relations, with the mothers taking home 75% of the profits, the rest to run Rags2Riches. The enterprise plans to expand operations in the Payatas area and to extend the project into other communities around the world with of aim of evolving into a global brand for fair trade, environmental conversation, and justice—all through the medium of high-end fashion. Read more.