3 problemer der løses ved at tilbringe tid i naturen
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VAI-KØ Van Conversion: Interior Introduction
If simple living in a van facinates you after considering the pros and cons of the lifestyle, the next step is building a camper van. Many people live the vanlife during a certain season or on holidays, you won't have to fully move into it right away. In this article we'll share the inside of Urho the van and hope to give some inspiration on building and decorating a van to future and current vanlifers. ALL VAI-KØ BEANIES ON SALE only once a year! Shop here! Living the vanlife offers freedom that most of us dream of. But the cost of not having a steady home and often a steady income is something to consider before jumping into full-time vanlife. if you haven't yet red our previous blog post about the Henri and Maria's vanlife journey, check it our HERE! Shop here! Just like vanlife in general, building a camper van is all about prioritizing and figuring which things matter to you the most. Often only with try and error will you really know what stays and what goes. After their first long trip with Urho, Henri and Maria realized the original fridge was using a lot of power and was quite small. So this year they upgrated the fridge. But there was one but, it didn't fit in the custom kitchen cupboard, so the nice birch door had to go. A portable stove-top is also a new addition to the van, it replaces a camp cooker the couple cooked with on last year's trips. Talking about compromises, in the original building process a decision had to be made between warmth and legspace. Let me elaborate: having a well insulated van that keeps heat in and moisture out requires a quite thick layer of wood and thermal insulator. That means less space inside, and in Henri and Maria's van it all came down to less legspace and smaller bed size. The clothing rack on the wall is a new and well-liked addition. The open shelves allow you to get a good idea of which clothes are clean and usable, this means pieces are used more evenly and you'll know when the laundry situation gets critical. ALL VAI-KØ BEANIES ON SALE only once a year! Shop here! Henri & Maria's 4 tips on getting started with vanlife: 1 Figure out what freedom means to you in everyday life and what you are willing to compomise to achieve that. 2 First, try living in a station wagon during a weekend trip or rent a van or a mobile home for a longer road trip. You'll quickly find out your deal-breakers and must-haves for a van. 3 Ask for help.Building a camper van and moving in is a big project. Often help and know-how is closer than you think, if only you ask. 4 Search online. There's a lot of tips and tricks on converting a van into a camper and living the vanlife on social media. How'bout you, what are your thoughts on living in a van? What do you think you'd enjoy the most & what would you miss while being on the road? Writer RIINA, is the communications specialist at VAI-KØ, who is learning to include some of that Live Alternative -attitude in every area of her day-to-day life. Writer's weakness is watching too much YouTube.
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Hvordan føles det at forlade alt og flytte ind i en varevogn? VAI-KØ iværksættere Henri og Maria kender frihedens pris
Bilen har længe været et symbol på frihed i popkulturen, friheden til at køre hvorhen og hvornår man vil. Det er derfor ikke underligt, at vanlife er blevet særligt populært blandt unge voksne de seneste par år. Det urbane hverdagsliv og dets hektiske natur drev også VAI-KØs iværksættere, Henri og Maria, til at søge frihed i van-livsstilen. Det viser sig, at frihed ikke er gratis, og i denne artikel fortæller vores finske par om deres op- og nedture ved at bo i en varevogn. ""DU SKAL FINDE UD AF, HVAD FRIHED OG LYKKE BETYDER FOR DIG I HVERDAGEN, OG HVAD DU ER VILLIG TIL AT GÅ PÅ KOMPROMIS MED FOR AT OPNÅ DET."" - MARIA "Vi mærkede begge en længsel efter en mere enkel livsstil tæt på naturen. Vi havde begge tidligere boet i en campingbil i korte perioder, så den endelige beslutning om at købe en varevogn og flytte ind i den føltes ikke forhastet", siger Maria. Første gang Maria og Henri flyttede ind i en varevogn var på deres tur til New Zealand. Dengang sov de bagi en stationcar med surfbrætter på taget og en vilje til at fange de bedste bølger. Men allerførste gang de forelskede sig i vanlife var endnu tidligere: for Maria var det når hun kørte rundt med sin bedstefar i sin barndom, og for Henri kom øjeblikket omkring hans 18-års fødselsdag, hvor han kørte rundt, cyklede og sov i en bil med sine venner. ""Jeg husker, at jeg tænkte, dette kunne en dag blive en livsstil for mig"", mindes Henri. Det tog næsten ti år for denne drøm om at have deres egen campingbil at blive til virkelighed. Men endelig gjorde parrets anden drøm om at have deres eget tøjmærke det muligt for dem at springe ud i vanlife. Og så for to år siden købte VAI-kØ iværksætterne en gammel tysk postvogn og navngav den Urho. ""Urho fik sit navn på vores jomfrurejse til Lapland, da den til vores store overraskelse klatrede op ad en stejl og stenet bakke"", forklarer Maria. Udover at bo i en campingbil deler Henri og Maria en lejlighed med en ældre slægtning: ""Navnet Urho er også en hyldest til vores 91-årige bofælle, der har det samme navn og har rejst i over 50 lande med masser af historier at fortælle"", fortæller Maria. På seks måneder blev den gule 1995 Mercedes 308D varevogn forvandlet til en lyseblå skandinavisk stilet campingbil. Venner og familie gav en hånd med i byggeprocessen og i de sidste par måneder fik Henri og Maria ryddet deres gamle lejlighed, de fleste af deres ejendele og arbejdede på varevognen på fuld tid. Marias uddannelse i Industrielt Design var nyttig, og det var sociale medier også med gode instruktioner fra folk, der havde lavet deres egen van-ombygning. Alligevel tog arbejdet en del længere tid end planlagt. ""Vi har helt sikkert lært, at overraskelser er en del af vanlife, man ved aldrig, hvad man skal forvente"", siger Henri med et grin. Shop her! Hvis man søger på hashtag vanlife på Instagram, kommer der et stort udvalg af polerede billeder af solnedgange og fancy morgenmad. At opdatere sociale medier er en indtægtskilde for mange fuldtids-vanlifers, derfor er billederne, der repræsenterer dette fænomen, af professionel kvalitet. Kombineret med tendensen til kun at poste de visuelt smukke dele af livet er slutresultatet ofte en meget vildledende vision om realiteten ved at bo i en varevogn. ""Nogle gange regner det, og hele varevognen er fugtig, vi har ikke kunnet finde et offentligt toilet, og det er dage siden vores sidste bad. De øjeblikke vises sjældent på Instagram, men de er helt sikkert en del af almindelig vanlife"", opsummerer Henri. Stemningen kan gå fra euforisk til forfærdet på et øjeblik: for en uge siden havde parret været på klatring i den glitrende aftensol i Sydfrankrig og var på vej tilbage et par hundrede meter til varevognen. Snart opdagede de, at der var blevet brudt ind i varevognen: et kamera og nogle kontanter var væk, og tingene lå spredt overalt. På trods af modgang og kompromiser er Henri og Maria positive over, at vanlife giver mere end det tager. ""Vi får lov til at tilbringe meget tid i naturen med at gøre de ting, vi elsker, såsom vandring, klatring og surfing. Vi kan arbejde fra en hyggelig café eller stranden, mere på regnfulde dage og mindre når solen skinner. Bylivet og dets tidsplaner binder os ikke, når vi bor i vores varevogn"", opremser Henri. ""På vejen er livet spontant: vi er frie til at ændre vores planer efter vejret eller hvordan vi har det. Jeg nyder også virkelig at være fri for alt det ekstra stuff, at slippe af med det var fantastisk"", stråler Maria og tilføjer, ""For os betyder frihed at være fri til at tage af sted, men også at have et sted at vende tilbage til. Ikke alle vanlifers har et fast hjem at vende tilbage til, men efter min mening er det sundt at have en mental hjemby. For to år siden mødte vi en mand, der var blevet fanget i at rejse med en varevogn. Han sagde, at hvis du rejser uden et sted at vende tilbage til, er du ikke anderledes end en flygtning, og det tror jeg på."" Henri & Marias 4 tips til at komme i gang med Vanlife: 1 Find ud af hvad frihed betyder for dig i hverdagen, og hvad du er villig til at gå på kompromis med for at opnå det. 2 Prøv først at bo i en stationcar i en weekendtur eller lej en varevogn eller autocamper til en længere køretur. Du vil hurtigt finde ud af dine deal-breakers og must-haves til en varevogn. 3 Spørg om hjælp. At bygge en campingbil og flytte ind er et stort projekt. Ofte er hjælp og knowhow tættere på end du tror, hvis bare du spørger. 4 Søg online. Der er mange tips og tricks om at ombygge en varevogn til campingbil og leve vanlife på sociale medier. Forfatter RIINA, er kommunikationsansvarlig hos VAI-KØ, som lærer at inkludere noget af Live Alternative-attituden i alle områder af sin hverdag. Forfatterens svaghed er at se familievlogs på YouTube.
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Social Responsibility: Ethical Fashion has Everything to Do with Being Transparent
In this article, we talk about social responsibility in the fashion industry. What are the key issues, who's responsible for fixing them and how transparency is the way to ethical fashion. 1,134 fashion workers lost their lives and over 2,500 were left injured, when a building holding multiple clothing factories in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed on 24th of April in 2013. It was the dedliest garment-factory accident ever recorded. From that tragedy, Fashion Revolution was born to change the course of the fashion industry. What happened in Rana Plaza brought much needed attention to what had been going on in the fashion industry for decades: serious occupational health violations, wages that keep workers and their families in deep poverty and working conditions that in many cases would be considered modern slavery. But there's light at the end of the tunnel. Ethical fashion is on the rise and consumers are voicing their demands for better alternatives. On this year's Fashion Transparency Index 84% of the big fashion brands included increased their transparency score from last year. Still, 12% of the brands don't disclose any information about their production and even the highest scoring brands have a less than 60% transparency score. (Source: fashionrevolution.org) Transparency, What's so Difficult About it? In countries like Finland the law and officials protect the rights of workers, yet still annual labour trafficking convictions are given. So just think about the way things are in countries where labour laws are lacking or non-existent, standard of living is low and corruption is common. Poor circumstances make exploitation quite easy and wide-spread. And this is why transparency is the only way forward. Many times, when fashion brands are asked about social responsibility and how it's carried out, the bottom answer is 'we don't know'. So if the brand says they don't know, it's practically impossible for consumers to get any information about the working conditions of the people who make their clothes. So what's there to do & who should do it? Ethical Fashion, Who's Responsible? We believe corporate social responsibility means doing business the fair way or no way. The fair way is to consider and minimize all negative effects on nature and people, seeing the big picture. There's a lot of authority that comes with leading a fashion brand. But still... Consumers are the one's holding the money and with it the power. No company would keep producing products that didn't sell. Ethical fashion companies are able to offer sustainable, alternative clothing to consumers, but it can't be done without conscious consumers on their side. Transparency by Proximity We believe in proximity as a way to execute social responsibility and control the ethicality of our production. To us at VAI-KØ proximity means all our apparel and accessories are made in the EU. This means we are familiar with the status of worker's rights and the standards set by the EU and the coutry in question. Proximity also enables us to visit the factories and work closely with them to ensure sustainable production. Yet bringing all stages of the product cycle close is often not possible (for example merino sheep are not farmed in Europe). You could also argue that boycotting certain production countries or areas is not the way to change things or handle these ethical issues. That's where certificates come into play! Cerificates = Highway to Social Responsibility Certificates can be seen as your eyes and our eyes on the field. They offer a third party view to clothing production that is as close to objectivity as possible. Ofcourse, there's always a chance of abuse, but the chances are immensely higher if there's no supervision at all, don't you think? Certificates are a great way to advance worker's rights and influence the surrounding society. You know, certificates don’t only supervise and work with the collaborating factories but in many cases, the ethical and ecological standards work as an example for companies outside the certificates. These companies can then seek consultation on how to take charge of social and environmental responsibility. And that is how transparency changes the world! Read more about our certificates HERE, and about our materials & manufacturing HERE! Writer RIINA, is the communications dudette at VAI-KØ, who is learning to live with a Live Alternative -attitude in every area of her life. Writer's weakness is watching family vlogs on Youtube.
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