Plum Clothing Makes The Grade!

Ever since I started writing this blog, people have asked me, “Where can I shop then?” “What should I do instead?” Well, today I’m going to point you in a direction that may give you some answers.

One of the companies that has caught my attention on this search is Plum Clothing. The first time I saw a Plum Clothing store was their location in North Vancouver which was on Lonsdale and I passed it every day on my commute to work.  I liked it instantly. It was my kind of clothes. I liked too, that back then (in 199-y-something) it was entirely made in Vancouver.  But back then, I didn’t have such a heart for things made locally or fairly or anything of the such. I just wanted to work in the industry, and I thought their price point was too expensive for me.

4th Ave. Location in Vancouver

Fast forward a decade or so…and they are still here. They have locations throughout BC including one in Kelowna (happy dance to those in K-town) and I believe in Calgary, Alberta as well. Now, in growing with the times, it has become increasingly difficult for them to manufacture everything in Vancouver, but they still do for a great number of items. But more important than their manufacturing is the philosophy they are following. And this is what’s caught my attention. Their motto is: ‘Dressing with purpose”! Don’t you love it? Don’t you want to find out more about what that means? I did! So I read a couple of their blogs which I get with my email subscription to their sales.

The first one talks about how every woman is an individual and as such we must not conform to what fashion dictates to us! That follows the theme of what I was trying to explain in my last post. The author explains that their vision is for each woman to follow a ‘functional’ wardrobe that works with their lifestyle. Sooooo great! A functional wardrobe immediately says to me less clutter and more intentional items. Stuff you love to wear, stuff that looks good on you, less throw-away fashion.  Check out the article yourself and tell me what you think…Dress with purpose -Fun, Function and both?

The second post is about how we view value and whether we know it or not, what we place a priority on.  It explains three ways we can place value on something, by simply following economics, by its emotional/physical benefit or by its versatility. I especially like the part where she destroys the notion that fast fashion is cheap because you actually end up spending more in the long run!  Dress with purpose - Value Isn't Always Economical

Let me be very clear that I am trying not to be preachy or bossy and say that one must or must not do this and that. I am simply looking for alternatives to the way I do things that will make me a more conscious consumer. And so this is one of them.  Although I would love anything from their store Plum is not giving me anything to talk about them. I may not know everything about Plum, but I know this: at least on the forefront they are attempting to be different by expressing a vision and value that does not conform to the norm. And for that, in my books,  Plum gets an ‘A+’

Design vs. Fashion

One of the greatest things that have come from investigating the slow movement is the feeling of comfort that I’ve gotten the more I dive into it. As I read more about slow cities, slow food, slow education, there is a common thread that gives the sense that enjoying the process almost is as important as the end result. I really like this. 

When I think of it in terms of clothing I realize that for me, making clothes has always been about the challenge of creating, of falling in love with a texture or a colour, and finding the shape I want the design to take.  Then   drafting the pattern in a two-dimensional form and finally seeing it take shape in 3-D by completing the garment.  I just realized that I’ve actually always been more about the design than about the fashion. 

Preliminary sketches for a client, c. 1990

Design elements translate to all forms of art, things like lines, textures; colour and shape are all used to create a unified piece that is pleasing to the eye. Fashion as we know it nowadays is dictated by a select number of corporations that decide what is in or out. They do use all kinds of forecasting tools, to guess what the consumer will buy, but in the end, they get to decide what’s available to us. Fashion before the dawn of mass production was ‘trickled down’ from the elite, but each person had a say in what their garment eventually looked like because everything was made to measure. We had a say in the design. I think this is the part that I love, the craftsmanship of the trade. It’s in the details and in the small personal touches that each piece comes alive. One of the websites I have come across talks about how slow fashion embraces personal expression, encourages education, promotes conscious consumption and values quality. The part about embraces personal expression is most encouraging to me, because I feel that in our constant search to be on top of fashion we have lost our sense of personal style.

In my History of Fashion class, I teach about how it is a general consensus among scholars that the main reason humans started to wear clothes was for decoration purposes. Modesty, protection and status are also reasons, but even though the jury is out on what came first, most historians agree that all forms of societies have developed some form of decoration to their appearance. This indicates to us that no matter what we wear, be it a loincloth or a gown, it is meant to express our personality and therefore become a form of art. So it is only logical that our fashion should be an extension of who we are and what our lifestyle is. Slow fashion allows for this.

Samples of princess style line variations.
Pattern making for Fashion Desing, by
H. Armstrong.

The problem is that many of us have forgotten how. I have encountered so many people who have said to me “I just don’t know how to put outfits together, or I just don’t know what looks good on me, or I just don’t know what’s in”.  If we were to learn about the craft, about how clothes are made and how they are put together, then those questions could slowly be answered. You would learn about princess seams and empire waists, and how those could help make your shape slimmer or wider. You would learn about colour combinations that are complementary, you could learn that prints are a form of texture because they create an optical illusion. 

The process of making clothes has always been slow. It is like building a house or creating a painting, it should take time and thought and in the end the final product will be a piece that not only fits your shape but also matches your personality from the inside out. But what we forget is that the process - that time in which creativity is king- is one of the most rewarding parts of designing.

Finders Keepers

Look what I found:

To you it may just look like a bunch of shirts, but to me it’s the end result of months of searching and restraining to buy the first long T-shirt I find. I used to get my ‘basic’ long sleeve T’s from Smart Set, and then when they changed the quality I went to a few varied sources, but was not totally convinced. Then I got onto this bandwagon (my sustainability quest) and it seemed almost impossible to not buy ‘cheap fashion’ when it came to basic items. It felt they are just too basic to warrant a higher price point. So when I found these “Made in Canada” with imported Merino Wool, washable, long sleeve T shirts on sale for $9.99 it was almost too good to be true! And then I remembered where I was: Costco.

Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to go into a rant against Costco. I can be the biggest hypocrite when it comes to filling my need to buy in large quantities for what I deem the best price at the time. I understand why it certainly has a hold in the modern consumer. But the bottom line is that it’s a Big Box company! And according to my buying compass, big box companies have ruined small enterprise, correct? The problem with being hard nose on this concept is that big box companies are not going away any time soon (not all of them anyway) and one person boycotting them is like a little ant trying lift an elephant. One thing big box companies are good at is giving the masses what they want. And Costco definitely knows how to do this. I’ve worked with companies that had to fill Costco orders, and believe me they don’t deal in small numbers, but they are very specific about their items. So if Costco is selling Made in Canada, merino wool, washable t-shirts, then, that means there’s a consumer base that expects, needs and wants this type of product.

I know that just because a company is selling one good thing does not always take away from the rest of their product. I think of H&M’s efforts to produce line of clothing with organic fabric –that doesn’t take away their fast fashion practices!  So we have to be careful not to be fooled by their marketing campaigns.

But, and this is a big but, in my opinion if the company is making an effort to provide a product that is sound it’s doing two things:

      1. It is changing what they provide as a status quo and therefore changing the perception and expectations of the consumer. Ie. If the buyer sees that it is possible to get a good quality t-shirt at Costco, made in Canada then they might continue to expect it.

       2.  It is providing the small business that produced the item with a large enough number to continue their operations. And as long as they pay a fair price for this product the manufacturer will be able to continue to produce it. 

So this story ends with me keeping my T-shirts and hoping that more Big Box companies start to make small, even tiniest minuscule changes to help the little people. –Hey, one can dream!

Back in Business

I’m back! In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t blogged in a while. I know, I know, you all missed me…but the reality is I missed this more. I didn’t realize how much of a burst I got by writing about sustainability until I didn’t do it for a while. It truly is my passion.

Another hobby of mine. Above,
pillow with hand printed and embroidered tapestry. 

Why hadn’t I blogged in a while? Well, I can give many lame excuses like, it started to take over all my waking hours, or I could do this instead of work, but it wouldn’t fly for too long. However the main and most painful truth is that I got overwhelmed. I found that in this quest of becoming sustainable and transparent in your purchasing one is going against the grain of pretty much the status quo. The project started to become bigger than what I felt I could handle, especially while I chronicled it along the way. So in true form to my past experiences, the best thing to do when bogged down: put your head in the sand. NOT! Yes, I’m afraid that’s what I felt like doing, so the result was: no blog.

That doesn’t mean that I gave up on my sustainability motto, I just couldn’t write about it at the same time. In this past year I have learned a few things and moved closer towards my goal.  In my past posts, I mentioned I wanted to practice 10 ways to becoming more sustainable in 10 months. Well, even though I didn’t follow each in order I can say I have covered quite a few in the past year.  For starters, I abstained from buying fast-fashion, I have resisted the urge to shop for clothes at the grocery store! Second, I’ve shopped more at consignment stores. Third, I’ve shopped less, investing in pieces that were maybe more expensive but I knew would last longer. Fourth, I’m still learning about corporations and their practices and other options. This by far is the hardest hurdle in the whole thing. I still don’t have answers as to where or who is better to buy from if everything is still made overseas, but I am getting closer to finding solutions. Fifth, I’ve actually started to make more clothes again! It is truly awesome to be able to receive a compliment on something you’re wearing and say ‘why thank you, I made it’. It’s so funny that when people hear that, they immediately start to stare closer at it, as if in disbelief that something that looks store bought could be hand sewn (that’s essentially what the operators in factories are doing, remember, clothing is and always will be a man-made product)!

I haven’t had much luck with the upcycled stuff, I had a very sad outcome with one attempt I made that resulted in what I now call ‘the ugliest dress I’ve ever made’; which proves to me that upcycling is actually a lot harder than it looks.

So in hindsight it seems like I’m right on track in my journey. I’ve decided this is how I’m going to move forward. As I start up this new chapter of ‘In good fashion’, I am not going to follow a timeline. I’ll just write about what I find when I find it, I promise I’ll make the posts shorter too!  And as I start documenting it again, I hope to be able to bring more insight and concrete solutions to these challenges. As well as provide resources and tips for any of you who might feel inspired to follow this road with me!