Monoa, the brand that dresses peasant women

Sònia Morell Bernadí had to experience firsthand the discomfort of having to go to the bathroom in overalls to believe in the need to design one specifically for women, as her friend Montserrat Cardona had been urging her for years. “Montse always told me, but I didn't listen, until during COVID I put on the overalls to help out on my father's farm, who was in poor health,” Morell recalls. “It really angered me that there has been so much progress in the world but nothing has evolved in something so basic, so I called Montse to get us started,” adds the entrepreneur, who for a time owned a personal image consulting company.

“The overalls are great because, being a single piece, you don't get as dusty or cold, but when it's time to go to the bathroom, women are left naked from the waist up; plus, they don't fit the female body,” explains Cardona, who works in agriculture and livestock farming and serves as a representative of the Rural Women's Association.

Morell's bad experience led the friends to design jumpsuits that, thanks to a horizontal zipper at the waist, allow them to go to the bathroom without undressing. However, once the solution was found, "the headaches began," in Cardona's words. "We had to patent the design, create the company, make the prototypes, and find a factory. It was extremely difficult for us to find a factory in Catalonia. Everyone told us to manufacture in China or India. It took us a year to find the current factory in Les Masies de Voltregà," Cardona admits. Furthermore, the entrepreneurs wanted "the manufacturing and all the processes to be linked to the world of women," adds the co-founder. Finally, the two friends began marketing their Monoa jumpsuits in June 2022.

The garments from this Solsona-based brand can be purchased through the company's website. Their customers are primarily women, but also men who work in the fields, boys and girls, and groups that use overalls, such as fire gangs. "Women really appreciate it," says Morell, who emphasizes the quality of the garments. Another distinguishing feature of Monoa is that they make sizes from XS to XXL. "We also accept custom orders because our goal is to ensure that every woman who wants to wear a Monoa overall doesn't go without one," Morell also states.