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RAKAU

Benjamín Infante Cruz - Founder

17th September 2024

R4: Who is Rakau, and what's your story?

Rakau: Rakau began in 2015 as a childhood dream, the desire of a recent graduate who wanted to launch his own clothing brand, motivated by the idea that sustainability always had to be at the center of the message.

 

Rakau means tree in Maori, the language of the indigenous people of Polynesia, who reached places hundreds of miles away from their homes to expand their borders. Rakau, in turn, manages to encompass a concept of nature: we put down roots, nurture our trunk and when we mature we give shape and distinction to our "crown".

 

Rakau is an exclusive brand, in which the garments are not replicated more than 30 times. It is immersed in the world of art, music, and embraces the corners of Santiago. Rakau is a partner, with whom you can collaborate and expect transparency. The central focus of the brand is to be a contribution, to trust in the nobility of the processes, to be able to contribute talent and knowledge to local development. Wanting to do something of quality, from Chile to the rest of the world.

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The Story of Benjamín, A Chilean Entrepreneur

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R4: What does sustainability and ethics mean to you, and to the brand?

Rakau: I think that in the catastrophic natural moment we are living in, being sustainable and ethical is an "anomaly" in the aesthetic sense. There is a lot of talk about caring for nature and using recycled materials in production, especially in the clothing industry, which is the second most polluting industry after the oil industry.

 

The main question is whether these attempts to be more "eco" is for greenwashing or is there really a commitment to the cause? Here in Chile there are brands that claim to be sustainable, making things with recycled polyester, but at the end of the day they have all their production in China. In other words, you may be polluting less in production, but with the shipping you have already achieved more than the pollution of someone who makes things in Chile without green and certified materials. In addition, you buy a t-shirt of an "eco" brand and it arrives wrapped in a plastic bag and 4 paper labels, I think you have to make a cultural switch, and that the only way to be sustainable is to consolidate a proposal, which over the years, tends to zero emissions.

 

Regarding ethics, it is reflected in the way I deal with the people I live with, how I greet the person who sweeps the street, when I say thank you when I get off public transport, when I hug the lady who made my clothes. It is to be a little more human, like nature itself, to understand that we live in an environment where we receive what we give.

 

From Rakau, we are committed to planting trees every 10 products sold. We have planted 83 trees in different places in Chile and Argentina, with the geolocated references. We believe that slow fashion, or "timeless fashion" as we call it, is one of the least invasive forms of sustainable production; ensuring quality products. It is a pleasure to see that people who purchased our first 100% made in Chile products in 2017, are still using them. I'm not interested that the buyer comes back a year later to buy a shirt because the previous one broke, I'm interested that he comes back because he loved the durability and the cut, besides wanting to give one to his brother/friend/dad - that makes us a little bit right in our philosophy.

 

Today our packaging is a water-soluble bag that comes with a biodegradable paper, which can be planted and can bear fruit or flowers. I think this also demonstrates our idea of wanting to create a shopping experience that is groundbreaking and positive.

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R4: It seems that you value the cultural diversity and life of Chile, how do you integrate that within Rakau?

Rakau:
There are two central elements that Rakau has sought to "pursue" in this search for local identity.

 

Firstly, we live in a country that has all the possible climates of the planet - in the north the driest desert in the world, in the south the second largest fresh water reserve in the world, and in Antarctica there are ice sheets. If you see our illustrated collections on our Instagram, you can perceive a bit of this. You find a guanaco with glasses for example, an animal of the pampas that lives in the Andean zone and that surely has never visited a beach. You have T-shirts with pictures of the desert as well as glaciers. We have tried to inspire our aesthetics and colors based on what we have in our beautiful and beloved Chile. Our isotype is an R-shaped flower, which at the same time is a puzzle composed of a wild chilco (national endemic flower), the fish against the current (the salmon) and the bird in flight - all elements that are recognized as part of the local culture.

 

On the other hand, we have sought to interact with Chilean art and its different manifestations, we have worked with illustrators, painters, draftsmen, photographers, tattoo artists, singers, musicians, a whole scene that also reflects a bit what happens here in Chile. It's a country of spontaneity, where sometimes there are natural disasters, where people lose their homes, but for those magic arts, a guitar and a fire appears and manages to detach itself from the present moment. I also believe in the magic of creativity, in the common space of interaction around colors, I think it is very much our own.

 

Finally, perhaps a criticism of our work, is still not knowing how to interact with the Chilean indigenous peoples. In particular the Mapuche, the only people that were not conquered by the Spanish, an ancient people who live around the social decentralization and that are working with Mother Earth. I believe that at a national level we have not been able to value and respect the tradition of these peoples.

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R4: How does the future of Rakau look like?

Rakau: I think we have been doing things right, we are consolidating a concept that we have been talking about since our origin.

 

Rakau has tended more towards fashion than towards retail, focusing more on the cut of the clothes, the materiality of the garments, the aesthetic concept that we manage to transmit. Rakau is a cool brand and the people who wear it value it. We don't refer to buyers as "consumers", but rather as our friends, people who have paid a little more for a different t-shirt and who respond well to the passage of time.

 

The other day I was talking to the designer of the three Rakau logos, an old school friend, and we were in the backyard of my house where there is a tangerine tree about a meter and a half tall. He looked at me and said: "that's Rakau, it's that tangerine tree that has already taken root but that we all know will grow into a leafy tree that will bear fruit".

 

I believe that the next steps are to consolidate ourselves in the local environment with a physical store, in an environment that coordinates with our ideals, and to start exporting our products on a small scale. We have to show our products to the world, and say proudly: Made in Chile.

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“We're thrilled to be in connection with R4, a brand which shares similar values and helps us to be in touch with Mother Earth.”

Benjamín, Founder

RAKAU

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