EFW Trade Show + larry. & The Battalion
What a gorgeous day for a trade show! If only it were summer and it wasn’t still freezing in the Salt Building! While I wished I could stop and speak to every vendor and designer that was there, today was still a work day, but I saw some great stuff. I have even more high hopes for Eco Fashion becoming mainstream. You can see the list of exhibitors here and check out all of their websites.
First stop was The Art Institute. I’ve wanted to attend AI’s fashion shows but they don’t really have a list you can sign up for on the website. Jennifer Campbell, the Business Development Representative for AI, is going to hook me up, and also explained how they are in the process of accrediting a Fashion Degree in addition to their Diploma programs. They have a Green Graphic Design program and will be incorporating curriculum on Eco Fashion practices. I got to take home the souvenir book of the 2010 show, SCENA, and was blown away by some of the work.
Random fact: Dmitri Litvinov, Editor-in-Chief of Afoot Magazine, is an alum of AI’s fashion program.
CHI’s creations – chiscreations.com
I spoke a bit with Chi Lee about her jewellery designs. Chi uses sterling silver, pearls, silver, diamond, gold, and recycled materials whenever possible. She’ll also be using copper soon. This collection is for Summer 2011, and features some beautiful flowers, lilypads, and butterflies very reminiscent of Chinese art – Chi explained that her inspiration was her father’s watercolour paintings.
I had a chat with Denise Wilson of Bronsino Designs (bronsino.com), whose bags and belts made cameos in some of the previous EFW runway shows. Like Chi, Denise has been using recycled material for a long time and was only recently labelled “eco-friendly.” You can see some of her stuff at The Velvet Room Boutique in Kerrisdale, which also carries her gorgeous wallets not seen here.
I was dying to learn about this shoe line – Neuaura. Forget that you can’t pronounce the name properly. These babies are 100% vegan, containing no leather, fur, silk, wool, shell, pearls, or by-products. Whether snakeskin, cork, or ugg, these materials are all natural or recycled. The factory is in Brazil which isn’t exactly closeby, but they explain how the manufacturing process is less harmful to the environment.
The shoes are designed by Arti Upadhyay of NYC, and are getting popular in Europe and Asia. They’ll be available at Nice Shoes, which will be Vancouver’s first vegan shoe store, reported in the Georgia Straight to open on March 1st at 3568 Fraser Street (my backyard!). Rumour is that they may be available at a very big designer department store here as well. Shopping vegan is becoming so much easier!
Neuaura Shoes - Neuaurashoes.com
Continuing with the shoe theme is Colourful Grass (colourfulgrass.com) by Angele Miller of Victoria. Colourful Grass has the fringe, grassy look that looks super comfortable to wear and walk in. Using organic materials and recycled rubber, Colourful Grass is looking to take Vancouver by storm, in addition to the other cities they’re already in.
At a glance, Keep (keepcompany.com) looks like a men’s shoe line, but up close, they’ve got adorable baby shoes I want to model my new niece in, and even if they were all men’s on display, they looked really comfortable to walk in. Mitch of Take Five Trading, Keep’s distributor located in East Van, had me feel the terry cloth on the sole. Super soft. You can find these shoes at Umeboshi, One of A Few, or Livestock. But don’t take the paisley-patterned one on the middle left rack, ’cause I’m gonna rock it soon.
Pure Magnolia – puremagnolia.ca
It was hard not to look at Pure Magnolia’s bridal gowns. I’m a sucker for the Say Yes to the Dress TV show, and I love laughing at women fussing and then crying over their $2500+ gowns. But there is something ethereal about a bridal gown and I can’t help but look at them. And I told myself, if I were to get married, I’d want my dress to be green. Not green green. You know what I mean.
Patty designs all of the gowns herself, and said that 50% of her clientele aren’t even women looking to go green – just wanting an original design. Which is awesome. You can find them in North Van, and prices start at $1200. Contact them at least 4 months in advance of your big day!
Lastly I had a chat with Terri Potratz, the creator of larry. (wearelarry.com) and blogger for The Conveyor Belt, and then Linda Wong of The Battalion (thebattalion.us), based out of LA.
larry. designs scarves
larry. is a line of handmade scarves that Terri started designing three years ago.
Middle Child Reviews: So when did you start the whole idea of Larry?
Terri Potratz: This is my third season. It sort of came about… I was doing a lot of fashion writing at the time, freelancing… and I kind of got it in my head this massive, oversized scarf, and I couldn’t find one in the local shops. I tried to find one locally and I couldn’t. So, I went to my mom and said “I want this scarf” and she taught me the basics of knitting, and the first scarf I made was about 16 feet long and a foot and a half wide. It’s a monster.
MCR: How long did that take you to make?
TP: Oh, it took me months. ‘Cause I’d pick it up and put it down, pick it up and put it down. It’s much finer knit than this (she shows me a scarf). It takes a lot longer. But once it was finished, I had so many people stopping me on the street and asking me where to get one, and I was kind of like, “hm..” and me and my family vacation up at 100 Mile House every summer, and the summer prior to that, I had met a woman who owns an alpaca farm, so I was sort of like, well if I want to make more things, maybe I could use the alpaca fibre from her, and see if there’s anywhere that can spin it for me, and sure enough, there was a little co-op on Salt Spring Island that does small orders, and they process all of the fibres naturally. So I started out with a really small order just to get a feel for it. We refined it over the years to get a really thick soft spun, and also things like playing around with different colours without dyeing it, so blending brown or black with cream to get that heathered look. But none of it’s dyed, it’s all naturally processed. And it’s all from here. <Shows me photos of the alpaca farm from her laptop> [The alpacas] get shorn once a year, every Spring, and that’s it. They get shorn once a year, and they just eat grass for the rest of it.
MCR: So you don’t really handmake stuff yourself.
TP: I make it all myself. The only thing that’s outsourced at all is the silverwork. I met a jeweller, so I design these (shows me the earrings, below) and she just makes me the sterling silver pieces. These horsehair necklaces (left): A friend of mine’s a rider, so whenever her horses get their hair trimmed, she saves it for me, so that’s all local, well cared for horses.
MCR: I guess the branding and the motif that you have on your website, with the antlers and everything – that also comes from where this material comes from?
TP: Yeah. Going away, and the location of where I’m designing this is such a big part of the process for me. So, for the first season it was being up there, and that was my main source of inspiration. Last year, I was up in a cabin in the Yukon. And, secluding myself and being away, it was what I really need.
MCR: What boutiques are carrying your stuff?
TP: I’m kind of out of season right now. I’m keeping stuff at the Kdon studios, and also I’ll be doing a show at Verve Hair Salon for the month of March.
MCR: So maybe looking into Fall you’ll get back…
TP: Yeah. I’m doing the jewellery now, so I think the hair salon will be really good for that and some of the smaller pieces. I’ll probably just keep the larger ones at Kim [Cathers]‘s studio throughout the Spring and I’ve got everything at my studio/showroom at home as well, so I’ll be there.
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In between the interview, Terri was showing me photos of the farm and the alpacas – some of the most incredibly cute animals I’ve ever seen, and it really gave me a different perspective on wearing materials using animal fur that’s ethically processed. The scarves are incredibly beautiful (and were used during some of the EFW shows) and the beauty of the animal comes out of each piece. The scarves are a blessing in this kind of weather, and I’d totally rock the earrings when my hair’s tied back.
For a line that sounds so rough and tough, Linda Wong of The Batallion is a really nice person. But not only that, she’s very conscious of her daily activities that impact the planet.
MCR: So how did you get involved in Eco Fashion Week?
Linda Wong: Actually, I was invited by the promoters of the show so they contacted me and basically gave me the information about what they do, and I thought it was a great opportunity to come up here and maybe meet some Vancouver stores and do the runway show.
MCR: How was the show?
LW: It was great. They’re so super professional, and I’ve done many shows in Los Angeles, and you know it gets pretty hectic, and they’re very organized, so it was smooth. They’re very on top of it.
MCR: You’re not in any local boutiques yet?
LW: Yeah.
MCR: Can you talk a bit about the fabrics that you use?
LW: So we try to incorporate as much sustainable materials. Usually about 80% of each collection is something that’s sustainable. Or vegan-friendly, vegetarian friendly. We have our veggie fur and our veggie leather. This line, The Battalion, is of course, we’re a fashion line. And I just incorporate the sustainable element because I think it’s practical, and makes sense, and now I can actually do it for every business. At the same time, it needs to be fashionable, because I don’t want to just make clothes just because the fad is eco and do it. We want people to buy their stuff and keep their stuff as long as they can because they love it, so like I said it has to be fashionable, and aesthetically pleasing. Also, the big thing for The Batallion is every piece needs to look good, and feel good. So that’s a big payoff, a mission statement for us. Trying to accomplish that. We’re also a member for 1% for the planet, because some things that we do, like the veggie fur and veggie leather, they are faux, but they haven’t quite developed eco sustainable materials to make them. They’re poly, nylon, and what not. So that’s why we do our donation to the eco charities, to balance out what we do.
And so we also have bamboo and organic cotton blends in the rest of the collection as much as we can. In my own office, we try to recycle as much as we can. The basic stuff that everyone should know by now. I do have some production made in China and some made in the US. Things from China, I tell the factory to, even something as small as, do not put the tissue in the packaging. There’s just no point when they’re receiving the goods. And going to throw it away. But at the same time, things still need to be packaged when they’re being shipped. They still need to come in a professional manner. We eliminate as much as we can. Those are the type of things that we do and I’m always sourcing for new, innovative, eco materials or just like I said, that just should be practical by now. Why should we be so wasteful on the things that we do, because from every office and store that you go into, there’s just so much waste. It’s time. Even if global warming wasn’t happening…
MCR: We should be doing it anyways to conserve the Earth.
LW: We’re in the Westernized countries. There’s just so many people that don’t even have what we have.
MCR: The President [of Eco Fashion Week] said the goal of this event is that eventually it would just be “Fashion Week” and we don’t have to call it Eco because sustainable practices should be normal.
LW: I’m glad a lot of people in this sector have that same understanding that shouldn’t it just be “Fashion Week?” and that we all do the part that we should anyway.
MCR: Is there an [eco fashion] industry in LA? And if so, how does that look compared to a place like Vancouver?
LW: People think that in California everyone’s really environmentally friendly, being activists. Especially LA, it’s sunny, beach lovers and things like that. But I actually feel like Vancouver seems a little bit more on top of it. I’m sure places like San Francisco, Portland are even moreso.
MCR: So LA can learn from us.
LW: They could do a little bit more. Even my apartment building I live in. They don’t even have recycling because the landlord has to pay extra for that service. So we just don’t have it. And I literally sneak my recycling down the block two houses where they have it.
MCR: That’s awesome.
LW: And every couple of days I’ll do it on my way out of my neighbourhood, just one block over, I’ll drag it to those houses and put it in their trash. Things like that. I told my landlord that they should have a recycling service, but it’s just a money thing. They don’t want to pay extra money, so they just don’t do it. And I don’t see anyone else in my building doing that. People will do the bottles, because they collect money. But all the paper waste, and plastic containers from restaurants, those are all recyclable, and they’re not going to get money from recycling things. And it’s driving me crazy. So we still have a lot more to do to get people to do it, not because you’re going to get some money back. Doesn’t it just seem crazy to throw out all this plastic into the trash? But you know. We’re working on it. We’ll get there.
MCR: Certainly, you and your work is definitely making a contribution. And that’s great.
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I really hope The Batallion gets in boutiques up here, so we can kick out all the Snowflake stores’ asses.
That’s it for the F/W 2011 trade show. The seminars were going on at the same time too, so hopefully next year I’ll be able to make it out to one or a few. Definitely worth hearing from the experts as much as the designers who are doing it from the ground up.
