Sustainable Fashion in Theory and Practice

LOCAL BUTTONS AND RYERSON FASHION STUDENTS TRAVEL TO PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI TO STUDY SUSTAINABLE & ETHICAL FASHION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Unemployment remains at an all time high in Haiti following the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Many skilled garment-makers and designers remain jobless due to the lack of exposure to international markets. The sparse garment jobs that are currently available in Haiti are often subject to poor pay and horrific working conditions. Local Buttons creates up-cycled professional wear and accessories that embody style and quality. Each piece provides sustainable, fair pay jobs in Haiti and breathes new life into old materials.

Local Buttons and the Ryerson School of Fashion collaborate to lead a select group of fashion students to Port-au-Prince, Haiti to learn first hand about ethical production and sustainability in the fashion industry. Students will be visiting Port-au-Prince from June 2^nd-6^th, 2014 visiting multiple factories, local designers and artisans and a bottle recycling plant that makes textiles in the US from recycled Haitian bottles.

Lu Ann Lafranz, program director of fashion design at Ryerson states  ‘As a strong supporter of experiential learning for our students at Ryerson School of Fashion, I saw an opportunity to ignite further interest in sustainable fashion through our hosts – Local Buttons. What better way to allow students to push the boundaries of their education than to reach outside the walls of our classrooms and create an international experience?’

The trip will provide an inside view of manufacturing to students whose education traditionally remains in the academic and design aspect. Opening the doors to ‘expose’ manufacturing will allow students to see first-hand the various levels of the supply chain and the human and environmental impact of our consumption patterns in North America.

Alec Hildebrand, Ryerson fashion student states: ‘By seeing first hand what the factories are like and what the ethical occupational standards are in a developing country, I will hopefully be able to design garments that not only fit my aesthetic and functionality, but also are able to be manufactured at a relative cost with upheld fair trade and proper safety standards.’

‘We are thrilled to bring students into our production process’ states Anne Pringle, co-founder of Local Buttons. ‘It has been our goal since day one to provide transparency throughout our line and encourage collaboration within the design community’.

For more information contact Anne Pringle: anne@localbuttons.ca

Fashioning the Mind

“The only real elegance is in the mind; if you’ve got that, the rest really comes from it.”

-Diane Vreeland

The integration of fashion and academia is not something that immediately springs to mind when you start speaking about clothing. However, the two are closely linked. Fashion integrates architecture, engineering, chemistry and art. It is this integration that allows for the greatest creations.

The fashion industry, which must constantly reinvent itself, is undergoing a massive change as consumers begin to demand more from their clothing. A shift away from fast fashion and towards ‘slow’ fashion is the only way forward. We are beginning to place greater emphasis on understanding the impacts of the fashion industry on our natural environment and those who create our garments. But in order to succeed, it is vital that equal attention is paid to aesthetic, functionality and impact.

Just last week we got to be the fashion nerds we really are as we watched (like proud mamas) our Cornell dream team present to a team of judges in DC for the 2014 P3 Competition and National Sustainable Design Expo at the 3^rd USA Science and Engineering Festival.  The team presented the findings of a year-long study/project focusing on waste reduction in the clothing manufacturing sector based on our model in Port-au-Prince.  The dream team won an honourable mention and we are thrilled to know the partnership with Cornell will continue!

Oh, we also met Bill Nye on our DC adventures.

 

Spring Fling

It’s Spring! Or at least we are pretending it is.

We’ll be at the Cambridge Hotel and Conference Centre with other fabulous local vendors.  Come by and check us out for some sweet spring deals!

Evergreen Brickworks Pop Up Sales Event

Join us and a host of other talented local & sustainable designers at the Evergreen Brick Works for the Fashion Takes Action Expo.

Sunday March 2nd from 10am-4pm

Galentine’s Day Sale

We’re celebrating Galentine’s Day in Style with a sweet SALE.

Purchase anything on our Etsy site  with the promo code GALDAYLOVE and receive 25% off!!

 

Happy Shopping!

xo

The LB/Cornell Dream Team

Last year we were fortunate enough to commence a partnership with Cornell University (funded by the EPA) and the ‘dream team’ of professors and students to help us work on creating zero waste pattern design at our design lab in Port-au-Prince. Our team consists of fashion and design officiandos, fibre scientists, fashion historians and a whole lot of creativity.  After a few months of product development we welcomed  Dr Tasha Lewis, the chef of our  Cornell team, to visit us in PAP to see the progress. With her arrival we began to manufacture 4 new beautiful pieces designed by yours truly with patterns and technicals made by the Cornell dream team.

We are working to minimize our waste through the design process with the ultimate goal of zero waste pattern design. In the meantime we are looking for creative and innovative ways to use our scraps created from our design process. We are inspired to collaborate with other artists, designers and professionals in Haiti to create a network that allows us to share our resources and to find innovative ways to create sustainable business models in Haiti. This is merely the tip of the iceberg of where the dream team will go!

Partnership with Cornell

It’s September, that time of year where we wistfully say goodbye to summer and begin to shift towards the Fall. Really this just means switching to sweaters, boots, scarves and soups! It also is a time to take an introspective look at what we have accomplished as the year begins to come to a close.

For many, September means a return to the books or the final weekends at the cottage. I am happy to say I no longer have to return to class. I am currently just waiting for my thesis to write itself. I remain confident I will wake up one day and an eloquent masterpiece will present itself having been written in my sleep.

While we (the collective LB) may not be returning to class this Fall to learn, we are heading to Cornell to give a guest lecture. Not going to lie, giving a lecture at any Ivy League School makes me feel kind of grown up. I can officially check this off the bucket list!

We have partnered with the fabulous Dr. Tasha Lewis of Cornell to work on a project with a group of talented fashion students on zero waste pattern design. This September will mark the first meeting of the research group and we are very very excited to meet everyone!! We are looking to improve our manufacturing practices so that we can reduce the waste created throughout our production processes. To mitigate the waste we currently use scraps to make bags and bow ties, to stuff the pillows used on our factory chairs and are looking to begin a new jewelry line:)

However, we know there is ALWAYS room for improvement and working with Cornell could not have come at a more opportune time. We head to Ithaca next Monday and cannot wait see how this project will unfold.

Here is to a Fall of new beginnings, we couldn’t be more excited to slip on a sweater or in our case an up-cycled blazer:)

Guilty Pleasures Sale

Come by for a custom fit!

This Saturday we will be at the Drake Hotel taking part in the Guilty Pleasures Designer Sale.

Come join us and indulge in a day of fashion and brunch from 9am-4pm.

The Sale offers 2 floors of fashion, from 20 different local designers including yours truly, fashion shows and a silent auction. We look forward to seeing all you beauties there!

The Fashion Preacher (part one)

Mr. Hans Garoute

Local Buttons produces solely in Port-au-Prince, Haiti with the NGO INDEPCO taking care of our manufacturing needs. We chose, and continue to choose, to work with INDEPCO and it’s President, Hans Garoute, due to the quality of work, high labour standards and because Hans is a man of integrity with a wealth of knowledge. His warmth and charisma is splendidly contagious. We are fortunate enough to be able to spend early morning and early afternoon car rides with Hans as he takes us to and from the factory and they are some of our most treasured times while we visit Port-au-Prince.

Hans has been deeply embedded in the fashion industry for over 4 decades now, working in America, China, Brazil and of course, Haiti. With his breadth of knowledge and vast experience Hans could be the subject of an incredible novel! Earlier this week we sat down and took part in an interview with Hans where he shared his main insights on the fashion market and how Haiti can become a valuable economic player in the global market once more.

At one point, Haiti grew vast amounts of cotton and produced jeans for the likes of Levi Strauss. Next to agriculture, the apparel industry is the largest industry in Haiti. However, Haiti currently mainly produces utility garments for national use, with all large export operations of designer wear owned by foreign investment.

Let us take you on a three part journey of the life of Hans as it intertwines with the rise an fall of Haiti’s garment sector.

Hans was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, where he stayed until fleeing the country at the age of 16 after his father, a colonel in the Haitian army, was kidnapped and by the Duvalier regime. His father, wildly popular with the Haitian people, was never seen again. Hans moved to refuge in Miami where he went to school. In 1967, Hans took part in a thwarted effort to overthrow the Duvalier regime. Along with 120 other Cuban and Haitian exiles set to board the boat on route to Port-au-Prince, Hans was arrested in Miami. (read more about this story here).

Shortly here after, Hans began to work for May’s department store as a stock boy. Before long he was offered a scholarship (by May’s) to attend FIT where he became a merchandise buyer.

As a buyer Hans witnessed the movement of the industry from the Eastern US to the South. When he began buying, most manufacturing took place in the Eastern US in New York and Boston. As the East began to unionize, the industry moved to the Southern states; Mississippi and Georgia in the 1970s. Once these states too became unionized the garment industry moved once more, this time Puerto Rico and then eventually to Haiti.

Once in Haiti, the sub-assembly garment sector took off. During the 1980s (for roughly 15 years), over 150 factories assembled brassieres in Haiti. However, the move to Haiti was a financial one for companies as Haiti was not producing  the entire garment but rather assembling the product allowing companies to save on production costs. Buying was done in China where the organized ‘cuttage’ took place before being sent to Haiti.

Here we see that the Haitian industry is being built solely on assembly, and the industry lacks sufficient training in its manufacturing and lack of training and development in project management at the local level. These issues continue to thwart the industry today. We will pick up next time with Hans and his plan to revolutionize and organize the small, local tailors as he works as the Fashion Preacher spreading his word throughout the country.

Hans overseeing a LB design

Trunk Show

Last Thursday we hosted our LB Distilled Trunk Show at the FTA fashion showroom in the Distillery District. We had an amazing time! Thank you to all who came out to support and to shop.

A big thank you to Chocosol for providing us with a delicious spread of chocolate samples, drinking chocolate and local, organic fruits! If you want to know more about the amazing Michael Sacco and Chocosol, check them out here and you can ‘like’ them on facebook here