R
epresentnation is a brand new clothes label ticking all the boxes for a 21st century ethical label. We chat with the founder Shashi Kala, about the label, what it means to her and how she went about creating this striking, dynamic and exciting new collection.
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF, AND HOW YOU CAME TO BE VEGAN I’ve been vegetarian my whole life, but vegan for about 6 years. I was raised as a very strict vegetarian, and where I grew up in Trinidad, cheese
and milk were luxuries, so I fall squarely into the category of ‘Why didn’t I do this sooner?’. I actually credit my lifestyle change to my son who was on a special diet, so I had everything in my fridge already. It got to 2014, five years after I started my first vegan business, and cheese was the only thing left to ditch, so I did and started 2015 completely differently. One particular night I went to bed after spending the day watching loads of documentaries, and I literally woke up vegan. I couldn’t stomach anything that wasn’t vegan. Once I made the change in my heart and mind, that was it.
WHAT HAD YOU BEEN DOING UP UNTIL THE NEW PROJECT? I left my business, and was actually unemployed for a bit, just finding my bearings. Universal Credit is no joke! I actually started working in the charity sector again, through an intro from Farrah at Life After Hummus. To be honest, without her I would have stayed unemployed longer, so she was a blessing. Ba82
FORCA VEGAN
