In the beginning...

Hello…is this thing on? I am seriously unskilled when it comes to this stuff, so it should be interesting to see how this blog unfolds.

I am a 40-something (we shall try and not talk about age) wife, mother of 3 –slash- fashion designer. I really think I would have gotten ‘there’ sooner if I hadn’t stopped to indulge motherhood, however there are some things that cannot wait and could never be replaced. I love my children (and like them most of the time) so I  was happy to make that ‘pit stop’.

It has taken me almost 20 years to be able to call myself a fashion designer. But that’s the truth, I do design fashion. I am obviously not a ‘famous fashion designer’, but in my career I have worked for different companies and individual clients, doing just that: designing. And so finally I can say it (mostly in writing, it still takes some effort to utter the actual words). I don’t know why it is so hard to say it, I guess I’ve never felt ‘worthy’ of the title. But recently it dawned on me that if you can take it from concept to product, then you’ve designed! And so I have.

How did I get involved in this you ask? Oh, why would you ask?! I will give you the same spiel that everyone in this industry seems to have; somehow we all have a version of this: “I’ve always loved fashion…I started drawing when I was 6 and it just grew from there…” The truth is, I wanted to travel when I was little, and I also loved drawing, so when a relative told me that a career in international affairs was not well suited for a girl (yes, that’s a different blog), she suggested why not fashion design? And I thought, why not?  So I started drawing superhero outfits and mermaids with different tails. Then in high school I took the technical option of Industrial Manufacturing and I was hooked. Once I learned to sew on an industrial Juki, there was  no looking back. I love the challenge of making something 2-dimensional into 3D. It is like sculpting. So naturally before going to Fashion School I took Fine Arts and became a true art student –without the grunge, it was never me.

I have since worked as a freelance pattern drafter, designer and product developer for small scale manufacturers. I have done custom work for bridal and special occasions, worked for a bridal manufacturer, done merchandising for a blouse manufacturer and designed a line of vintage inspired aprons that would make any grandma proud. I also now teach as a contract instructor in a Fashion program.

I have always wanted to ‘do my own thing’. And although I’ve started, several times it’s gotten interrupted by one life-thing or another. However I think the real problem was that I didn’t actually know what ‘my’ thing was. But I think I’ve found it.

Ever since I started out in this industry, something didn’t sit well with me. I entered the workforce right around the time when the Free Trade agreement was approved, and manufacturing was changing. Suddenly more and more items were being sent for production overseas.  The Fashion industry that we were taught was disappearing and there were not many jobs for what we trained.

I had a problem: I loved pretty clothes and how to make them, but I didn’t love the process required now to produce them. I could not possibly compete with big box companies to provide costumers with an identical item. So what was a young aspiring designer to do? Well, in my case: sulk. And just complain that this was the new status quo.

But now, I think there’s a different way. I’ve come across a new movement which I’ll call Sustainable Fashion. And it involves all aspects of being socially, ethically and environmentally responsible while not compromising style. It strives to uphold the values of quality and craftsmanship, skills that are on the brink of being lost. It strives to give every person involved in the process of production a rightful place and respect. It strives to be responsible towards our environment, by not being wasteful, using and re-using elements that are not harmful. It strives to give everyone their fair share of the profit.

And so this blog will be my exploration of that. It will be my search into this new way of thinking and a new way of doing things, differently from what I’m conditioned to do.

You’ll have to excuse the rudimentary nature of the blog, because it will evolve as I do. I will be learning how to make it ‘prettier’ at the same time as I learn how to convert myself from a mass-producer/consumer into a ‘lover of things beautiful and unique- one piece at a time’.