Global Fashion Mission Founder Malyneath Vong Visits LA Campus To Speak About Fair Trade and Sustainability

Through her industry connections, FIDM Instructor Mona Eisman has become acquainted with fashion entrepreneur Malyneath Vong of Global Fashion Mission, and this week invited her to the Los Angeles campus as a guest speaker in the Entrepreneurship and Global Supply Chain classes. She spoke on the challenges and opportunities of designing, sourcing, and managing a sustainable, fair labor supply chain.

Malyneath has made it her mission to fight human trafficking in Camodia, while at the same time making fair labor products out of upcycled materials. For many years she worked as a staffing manager but as she progressed in her career, her wish to make a larger impact on the world grew. She’d always wanted her own business, and she’d always had a great desire to give back. In April 2016, she made her goals a reality and launched Global Fashion Mission.

Using upcycled materials such as discarded industrial cement bags and fish feed bags, Malyneath has diverted over 5,000 pounds of industrial plastic bags from going into landfills. She has built a business model around Cambodian women working out of their homes, thereby  being able to look after their children and not leave them to become vulnerable to human traffickers. 

“Global Fashion Mission vision is a real example of someone in our community working hard to start a fashion business with the goals of sustainability and helping women around the world, beginning in Cambodia,” said Mona. “Malyneath is doing every day what we talk about in so many of our classes.”

She shared with the students the lessons she’s learned along the way, as an entrepreneur, tackling challenges such as driving sales to her site, effective merchandising, mastering social media, creating strategic email marketing plans, and providing superior customer service.

Her newest marketing strategy involves a collaboration with the American Music Awards. “It takes doing it all to make it happen,” said Malyneath.

“I especially love working in Los Angeles. The level of cultural diversity and social consciousness that is found here cannot be matched anywhere else. People here really share in my passion in wanting to bring about change in the world.”

Learn more about her business at globalfashionmission.com.

Categories:  Merchandising & Marketing