Shop SA VA Now!
Our Customers
Our customers are smart and savvy. They have their own individual take on fashion and on the world. This is why we believe in our unique relationship that we have with the SA VA woman. At SA VA, we are passionate about our customers, our environment, and our community. We have made a conscious effort to produce stylish clothes that women will love and feel good about wearing. We want to create a new partnership with our customer. Here, are just a few ways:
- We regularly feature videos of our SA VA staff and partners and on our website, so there is an honesty and clarity with our production process.
- We promote interactive, collaborative design with our design staff.
- In Philadelphia, we are partnering with the People's Emergency Center (PEC) and The Career Wardrobe by providing volunteer opportunities for our staff and our customers with food, clothing and fund-raising drives. As we grow, we will enlarge our scope to include other local or regional not-for-profit organizations that promote early childhood development.
Effortless Style
You don't have to work hard to look great and feel good about yourself. If you're doing it right, style is effortless and personal. Our design team will help the customer make her personal imprint. Our clothes make this easy because the collections are eclectic, well made, and flatter all shapes. We help our customers create this sense of effortless style through our in-store and online workshops held by our Design Teams and our customers' posted suggestions that may be found on our in-store Idea Wall or on our website.
Self-expression
We work everyday to design, manufacture, and create distinctive and irresistible clothing with varying styles that allow each client to discover who she wants to be and what makes her happy. Fashion is a primal form of self-expression. We join together with our customers to celebrate the expression of the Self through our clothing. It's not about our designer point of view. It's about our customers' visions of themselves. We do this, for example, by providing six fits of pants---from a pencil leg to a palazzo---in unique fabrics. SA VA fits varying body styles with different waistlines and lengths. We offer a mix of styles to the customer---modern, vintage, trendy, and classic---that the SA VA woman can incorporate into her existing wardrobe.
We design and allow our customers to shop by event or product type. And we encourage feedback both in our Studios and online about how our customers are wearing our clothes, where they are wearing them, and how they are putting their own personal imprint on them.
Play
Fashion gives us a great opportunity to play. It also gives us the chance to break a few rules. That is why we encourage our in-store and online Stylists to offer suggestions about the different ways a piece of clothing might be worn. We want our customers to feel welcome and free to experiment in a supportive, non-judgmental store environment. That is why we carefully select and train our SA VA Stylists to provide a personal, playful, and engaging shopping experience.
Balance & Sustainability
We believe that life is a balance. The styles of clothing we offer are fun, carefree and sensual. We believe that customers have a right to understand how, why and where their garments are manufactured. At SA VA, we are attempting to reduce our carbon footprint at every opportunity and manufacture locally wherever possible, often using organic or recycled products. We employ workers to prep, cut, sew and construct our labeled products at a fair wage, and we participate actively in the communities where we do business. Other products we sell are always fair trade and usually made in the USA, often with organic or recycled products. We only work with companies that treat their employees fairly and responsibly. We hope that a SA VA purchase will make our customers feel that they are supporting their community and a sustainable environment.
Quality and Value
We understand that our customers want quality and style. We spend countless hours fitting garments to perfection and sourcing the highest quality fabrics. SA VA garments are made in Philadelphia. Our garments are then hand delivered to our store. We provide beautiful clothing that will last with the finest materials we can find at a reasonable price. Our prices, for example, will always represent fair value. We will not overcharge our customers when we receive a good price on the cost of materials. We try to pass that savings on.
Our Philadelphia Garment Center feeds our regional stores and website. As SA VA grows, our goal is to replicate this community approach in other regions in the country where we will also develop partnerships with local not-for-profit organizations, create both manufacturing and service jobs, and support the local economy. Our vertical structure allows us quick production time and the ability to get the goods into the store faster so that we may better provide for our customers, but it also enables us to be a responsible citizen in the communities we serve.
Purposeful Design
Our designs express our intent; every detail has a purpose.
We collaborate with our customers in creating a vision---a vision about the global community, the environment, how we relate to and treat one another. Each product we make or sell reflects our beliefs as well as our sense of style. Each possesses inherent worthiness.
The design itself is purposeful. A beautifully illustrated design only turns into a beautiful fitting and flattering garment through intention. In the fit process, we create garments that will give the dramatic effect we are looking for while maintaining a fit on the real woman's body. We do this through intentional waistlines, seams, construction detail and hem lengths. We push the design and protect the form.
Creating Community
SA VA Studios, our website and blog are meeting places for fashion, new ideas, and an open dialog for strengthening community ties and building new friendships.
We help build networks that promote a sense of belonging, drive purpose beyond clothing, and provide an outlet for creativity. Our community consists of our customers who shop in our store and on our website, the employees and members of the organizations that we partner with, our team of staff and the communities where we well our clothing.
Through our on line SA VA blog, we are creating a portal in which our far-reaching community members can interact with us and with each other. The conversation there is about fashion advice and wish lists, community concerns and involvement, ideas and innovation. Our internal company blogs and events assist in supporting our wider goals.
Philanthropy
We are building a new platform for retailing by creating stores that sell clothing, but also have a social and community purpose.
In Philadelphia, we have created an initial partnership with the People's Emergency Center (PEC) and The Career Wardrobe. Here, a few ways we are giving back to our community:
- Volunteerism. We will provide incentives for our staff to volunteer and act as a clearing board to communicate volunteer opportunities to our community through our website and store. We will concentrate on opportunities that do not require long-term commitment and update the times PEC needs help each week.
- Food drives, clothing drives and fundraising. At our fashion shows and events, we will have food drives to bring in food donations for PEC. We will also offer access to donating to the center. We will also design select SA VA specialty products to support PEC. A portion of each sale will benefit PEC.
- Mentorship. Sarah Van Aken and other staff teach classes at the center and continue our tradition of sponsoring meaningful internships.
As we grow, we plan to expand these commitments to other organizations.
We have also made these commitments:
- Job creation and skills development. With the help of Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation we will have expert assistance in hiring and training a workforce that will then earn living wages in our garment assembly facility(s). Through this comprehensive program we create manufacturing jobs in our own community. Our goal is to provide educational opportunities and skills training that will enhance an individual's ability to earn higher wages and to create the spaces to provide jobs.
- Local Production and conservation. By manufacturing at regional Garment Centers, we will be reducing our carbon footprint by 75%. Like other apparel companies, we used to buy fabric that is purchased in Europe or Asia and then ship this fabric to a garment facility in Bangladesh. The finished goods would be shipped from Bangladesh to the United States. Then the goods would be shipped from the port of entry by truck to our warehouse facility and then from our warehouse to our retail location. By working out of regional Garment Centers, we eliminate the majority of our carbon footprint because textiles are shipped directly to our garment assembly facility and from this facility to the store. As we grow, we hope to use rail to transport goods regionally. Additionally, we are using 100% recycled and recyclable hangers, natural fiber packaging, and other recyclable or natural materials in our stores. Wherever possible, we strive to salvage interiors of the existing retail store. Our office furniture is often salvaged from vacant offices, and we, of course, recycle at all of our facilities.
Being Responsible
We believe that being responsible, as well as taking responsibility, allow us to build authenticity into everything we do. And, we believe that leading an authentic life leads to happiness and a sense of well-being. Transparent business practices, responsible trade, and social awareness---all are ways that we at SA VA take our mission to serve our customers and our community. As we grow, our goal is to replicate our business model locally in communities around the country.
We would like to make retailing as much about community, collaboration, and social responsibility as it is about making a profit, providing employment, and selling goods.
We will show you how and why we designed it, where and how it was made, and who it benefited. By shifting our manufacturing from off-shore to domestic production, we are creating jobs locally while cutting down on unnecessary transportation, waste, and time.
We believe not only in sharing details about basic business practices, we also are willing to disclose some basic financial information and strategic initiatives. Far from exposing us, we believe that transparency helps us in the long run by producing better quality, more innovative products, managing costs, improving business performance---all of which result in improved corporate governance.
Your Privacy
We respect our customer's privacy. While we will use aggregate information about customers to develop better products, we will always ask our customers if we can use any general information about them so that we can market to them more precisely as a means of reducing waste and duplicating efforts. Our customer privacy beliefs are stated on our website at www.savafashion.com/privacy.
