Summer season is travel season! As a global company operating in 72 countries, we take pride in working alongside our local communities as we fulfill our founder’s philosophy of The Cycle of Goodness™. In this series, we thought we’d give you a behind the scenes look at some of the most impressive YKK facilities around the world and how they are creating a positive impact in their communities.
Our second stop is Trend Cafe – located in the port city of A Coruña in Spain. Trend Café is a space built to connect the emerging fashion community in the region. A place where creatives and industry leaders can come together to share and celebrate all things fashion while enjoying a good cup of coffee.
We asked Luis Mota, key account manager at YKK’s Global Marketing Group EMEA to share some insight about this incredible project. Luis has been working at YKK and in the fashion industry for several years. He started his career at YKK Portugal in 1994 and has worked in other YKK offices around Europe.
Luis tell us, what is your favorite part of working at Trend Cafe?
The Educational Workshop is my favorite activity; it reinforces YKK’s Philosophy of the Cycle of Goodness™: “No one prospers without rendering benefits to others.”
Students are very curious to learn about YKK as a company. Most of them have very limited access to wider zipper qualities in street shops. You can see an explosive enthusiasm when they enter our showroom and start grabbing our products.
Since you’re working closely with young designers, what are some of the latest trends or issues that they are concerned about?
Undoubtedly, sustainability is one of the key words for this new designer’s generation. And, the best part of it is that they don’t take it simply as a marketing and communication issue. They take it seriously. All these millennials are quite aware of the urgent need of moving in a different direction.
Another quite interesting trend I’ve noticed and it’s also connected to sustainability is the durability of the materials and products that are being used. Despite the success of fast fashion in past years, this new generation is quite interested in the durability and the quality of the materials they use.
Can you share some of the major projects/ exhibits that you were involved with since the opening of Trend Cafe?
Trend Cafe opened in April 2017 and since then we’ve exhibited many collections from several Galician young designers.
As YKK is sponsoring the two main fashion schools in A Coruña and since each school has a design competition, the winners have the unique opportunity to showcase their creations at YKK Trend Cafe. It’s really rewarding! We are proud of it and they feel very proud of this achievement.
Since the opening, we’ve welcomed 238 fashion students to our showroom for Educational Programs, where we talk about YKK products and YKK as a company. These students are the future and we want to teach them about our products, quality and company.
Throughout the months of June and July, we had 20 sessions of “Thematic Breakfast about CSR” organized by a specialist from a sustainable fashion organization. We had the chance to use one of these sessions and talk about YKK. It was great to host the best specialists on sustainability from A Coruña to our premises.
As you may know, we have an artist-in-residence program. A Coruña, influenced by the thousands of designers working in Inditex (Spanish multinational clothing company headquartered in Galicia), creates a premium atmosphere for creative people.
Apart from creating new puller designs every month, Maria Blanco is also sharing those along with latest trends to our colleagues overseas. This is also very important for our company and colleagues’ development.
How does the mission of the Trend Cafe align with YKK’s company values?
Trend Cafe is an evident result of our philosophy “No one prospers, without rendering benefit to others.” At Trend Cafe and YKK A Coruña Showroom, we are working together with the community of A Coruña with trust, transparency and respect.
A Coruña is also known for being a pet friendly city where 70% of its residents have pets. So we couldn’t miss the opportunity to introduce Trend Café’s pet-in-residence, Tutu! Throughout the day you will find Tutu posing for photos with Trend Café’s customers and designers or exploring the beautiful city of A Coruña. Make sure to follow his adventures on Instagram at @tutu_trend.
Follow Trend Cafe on Instagram at @trendcafe.es
