current past shows live photos meet the designers

In light of the current economic weather Sarah has been wracking her brain for inexpensive, green ways to exchange beauty and art with all of Canada's passionate minds. Since the small orchestra she dreams of nightly comes with a big price-tag and an even bigger carbon footprint, she decided to come solo, but with a twist.

Every city will be treated with the unveiling of a new dress made entirely from reclaimed second hand garments.

Sarah will be working with local designers and seamstresses to create gowns out of what could have been your old pillowcase!

At the end of the tour, each gown will be auctioned off and the proceeds will go to the David Suzuki Foundation.

The auction has ended. Thank you to everyone who bid on these beautiful dresses!

The Dresses

The Designers

Meet Janine Cockburn of Momiji, Snap Clothing and The Coal Miner’s Daughter
Meet Sunny Fong
Meet Rosemarie Umetsu: of r. u. studios
Meet Ashley Winnington-Ball
Meet Annie Thompson
Meet Susan Harris of Susan Harris Designs
Meet Joyce Gunhouse and Judy Cornish of Comrags
Meet Kat O’Shaughnessy of magdelina designs
Meet Charmain Bertram of Integrity Designs
Meet Alyssa Rushton of Norma W

Meet Janine Cockburn of Momiji, Snap Clothing and The Coal Miner’s Daughter

www.momiji-style.com
www.snapclothing.ca

Let me just say that I am so happy to hear that so many of these talented designers took many round-about paths to end up in the worlds they now inhabit. You don’t have to know what your life is going to look like when you’re 19! Try lots of things! Learn and explore! And here end-eth the lesson…

Janine studied Anthropology at Concordia when she left high school – a field that still tempts her to tackle a masters degree someday. Then she flew over to Halifax to study costume design, which led to another long plane ride and several thrilling placements in the Toronto theatre world. Imagine making stage wear for the Canadian Opera Company, Mirvish Productions and the Stratford festival to name a few!

Children’s theatre was especially fun because there were zero limitations – she dreamed up all kinds of fantastical creatures and outrageous animal costumes - to a textile nerd it was total indulgence. This experience proved invaluable to Janine, who reports she learned “so many historical styles and techniques that can always be applied to fashion today.” (That’s the thing with human culture - the good and useful knowledge has a way of enduring, even as the world rapidly, radically changes.) It was this circuitous route that led to Janine’s current role as designer and seamstress for two very cool clothing companies. The first, Snap Clothing, is a wholesale company where Janine takes old vintage T-shirts and dresses and reworks them through her now top-notch sewing chops. The second is an indie brand called Momiji that she started with friend and fellow designer Yoko Quinlan. They make quirky, semi-casual wear that combines aesthetic details from their Canadian and Japanese heritages. Momiji is actually a Japanese word for a kind of maple tree – voila, cultural mash-up! Her most recent venture is a little boutique, set to open the first weekend of July, called Coal Miner's Daughter (587 Markham Street). She'll be making the clothes and her business partner will be making jewelry. Both use new as well as reclaimed materials. The store will also be carrying many other Canadian Designers to spread the local love and maintain their green principles. Buying local means less transport, lower carbon emissions, economically just practices, and good old-fashioned community building. A boutique like Janine’s isn’t just about beautiful, totally unique goods – it’s also about the good feeling you get from supporting such an inspiring, planet/people friendly business model. I know where I’m going to tackle this year’s Christmas list!

Sarah wore this beautiful dress at her June 5 show in Wakefield, PQ. It’s made, in part, from an old t-shirt, and old sari.

Meet Sunny Fong

On the 10th floor of a charming Boystown high rise you’ll find the apartment of Sunny Fong, whose name could not be more perfect, for his face practically emits light. Seriously – Sunny is always laughing. He’s a five-foot-nothing bundle of joy with a slick Mohawk and inimitable style. When the eTalk crew and I come knocking to shoot a feature on the Recessionista dresses, he welcomes me inside (laughing of course), and I launch right into a flurry of questions about Project Runway. Sunny won this season, by leaps and bounds according to fans and critics alike. I don’t have a television so I found out considerably after-the-fact through some mutual friends, but there’s no question, it’s a quite a feat for him, and definitely long overdue. For years he has given everything he has to his art and craft - forget parties and Hello magazine, Sunny is all about ripping apart a Dior jacket to see how it was made. He is by no means a dabbler. He has worked, and worked hard, with nothing but sheer talent on his side.

He whips out the remote and plays us a tape of the episode. I’m expecting to watch the tearful ‘pageant-sash and crown’-type victory moment, but Sunny shows me a clip of his winning runway show… the clothes… and he’s beaming with pride. That’s just it for Sunny. It’s the art. He is so very proud of his creations, and is not the slightest bit interested in his own face getting fifteen minutes of prime time fame. For him, the big moment of glory, the astonishing reveal, the real dazzler, is always the art.

I met Sunny about three years ago and borrowed two of his long dresses for the first Toronto songbook shows with the Art of Time Ensemble. One was a pastel floaty number inspired by sea creatures (?!), and the other was a glamourous, Oscar-worthy head-to-toe sheath with a wickedly scandalous slit and miles of gold beading - beading that Sunny of course hand-sewed. At that time, though he had been making startlingly original, hand-crafted, high-quality garments for quite some time, he was ready to pack in his "Vawk" label and couture dreams for good. Project Runway was, as he told me, one last kick at the can. Hunh. I take a moment to pity his opponents, because they could hardly have anticipated competing against someone with such an arsenal of skills and technique… poor little lambs. Toronto design veterans aren’t shy about giving him ‘props’ either. When I was initially explaining the Recessionista concept to the Comrags ladies, they stopped dead when I mentioned Sunny’s name. With a sudden, out-of-character enthusiasm Joyce exclaimed, "Oh we love Sunny Fong!" adding, with gravity, like one tough gangster conferring respect to another, "That boy knows how to sew."

Scouring the second hand shops for this project, some elaborate pleating caught Sunny’s eye. From the ashes of a discarded judge’s robes rises this smokin’ little black dress – earth friendly, handmade, one of a kind, and ready for a starring role in a Robert Palmer video remake.

Meet Rosemarie Umetsu: of r. u. studios

The strip of Avenue Road that stretches north from Bloor Street up into the world of Davenport and other chi-chi neighbourhoods acts as the western parenthesis to Yorkville, and little else. There is one hotel facade, a parking garage, the entrance to a Whole Foods and a few storefronts, but it’s definitely not a pedestrian promenade. This strip belongs to the car. (Ugh.) And the fancy ones of course - my "snooty" radar is going off something fierce. You know you’re out of the Annex and off U of T campus when the cosmetic surgery clinics start popping up. Tucked into this bizarre mini-highway’s landscape is the studio of Rosemarie Umetsu, fashion designer and devoted patron of the arts. Or should I say, her atelier? Modeled after a sort of 19th century salon philosophy, Rosemarie’s home base is a meeting place for creative professionals, a hub of cross pollination and collaboration between the worlds of music, fashion, dance, film, photography, and theatre.

Rosemarie grew up in Sri Lanka and was inspired to create clothing by her couturier grandmother. Her training in classical piano sparked a competing passion for music, and she has found a way to merge the two in her current design business, which caters mainly to Toronto’s artistic, musical women. Once a buyer for Club Monaco and Holt Renfrew, she evolved her own boutique lines into the much more individualized, custom business model that she has run out of her Avenue studio for over 5 years now. "Custom" is indeed the operative word - she makes no more than four of each design and never sells two of the same. Clients make appointments at the studio where Rosemarie herself will guide them through her personalized recommendations - distinctive pieces to suit their skin tone, figure and style. The studio itself resembles an elegant walk-in closet, with a welcoming fireplace, floor to ceiling mirrors, and a rack full of bold, original gems on either side. It’s completely unlike your typical fitting room experience. It’s more like playing dress-up with a galpal. Add cheese and wine and I might never leave. Oh wait – we have the world to save!

Speaking of which, this way of doing business is a result of Rosemarie’s dissatisfaction with trying to launch whole collections and sell them to boutiques. All that effort for a de-personalized, disconnected form of trade? Not to mention the waste of unsold garments, the factory-line mentality, the insatiable, unsupportable hunger for more and more markets. No thanks. And this is the way the world is leaning now, don’t you think? "Local" is sustainable. "Local" means that a business is knit into the fabric of a community and is intimately connected to its particular needs - the faces and lives of its members. Local means that maintenance of a steady, balanced circuit is favoured over constant growth. Nature has been trying to tell us that for, um, ever.

Meet Ashley Winnington-Ball

http://www.awinningtonball.ca

"It's like that scene in Sideways, when they are talking about sipping wine and thinking about everything that contributed in the most subtle way to the making of that glass. I like to think about the tooling of the machines that produce the parts, and then the machines that those parts became a part of, and then by what chance they might have fallen off of that machine and ended up on the ground. It's so cool to me, the route every object takes in its little life. And I like that finally you can think of that object {in an entirely new way} by recontextualizing it, say, through turning it into jewellery."

Self-described packrat Ashley Winnington-Ball has always been a collector and appreciator of bits of matter that, for most of us, go unnoticed. While growing up in Scarborough, she would scavenge the gutters and lakeshores looking for a beautiful shape or an interesting texture, be it a peculiar piece of driftwood or a shred of rusty scrap metal. Junk, to Ashley, is art waiting to happen - pure potential - relics of the interplay between what is nature-made and man-made.

She started a mini-business in high school selling her first creations to classmates and not even an English specialist degree from U of T could lure her away from this innate passion. Like all of the other wonderful designers participating in this project, her work is not a hobby, it is a reflection of her life philosophy, one she expresses rather eloquently (see the aforementioned degree).

"My pieces not only recall the first life of each object, the footprint originally stamped in its creation and use, but also suggest the infinite possibilities for its reuse. I seek to boldly asks the world, "What is beautiful? What is valuable? What might you be overlooking?" To me, it’s about seeing things in a new light, seeing beauty where it might not be obvious or traditional. And ultimately, it’s about resourcefulness, preservation and creative living." Amen sister, Suzuki would be proud.

Meet Annie Thompson

http://www.anniethompson.ca

Deep in northwest Toronto’s tangle of warehouse buildings, abandoned rail yards and furniture factories, down a weird industrial dead end row and up a flight of stairs, you’ll find the magical atelier of fashion-art-phenomenon Annie Thompson. I am scurrying down what seems like an endless stretch of sidewalk, Dupont traffic roaring by. I am late and Annie calls, worried that I’m lost. (A Toronto city block downtown is much different than a city block north of Bloor St…one is walk-able, the other, not so much.) When I finally turn the corner at the top of the stairs, her spiky blond head is peering around the doorframe, mischievous eyes gleaming. She leaps toward me and, to my delighted surprise, picks me up. Yep, off the floor. The woman has recently turned fifty and I’m pretty sure she could bench press me. Her smile and her energy are infectious. Our first conversation delves right into the process and meaning of art, yet flows as effortlessly as obligatory small talk. She describes art-making as something necessarily organic – something that she begins and pursues without always clinging to an end-result idea. "That’s what makes it art" she says. I agree whole-heartedly – some of my best songs have come to me while I’m washing dishes, while the intellectual machinery is on pause. It’s in these moments the power of life, sheer life, comes through us uninterrupted, without our brains maniacally trying to shape it. Yes! It’s like Seymour in the Salinger stories telling his little siblings "Don’t aim"! Annie and I stand there, grinning at each other. She is a mixture of impish Puck-like trickster archetype, intuitively wise, tuned-in Hindu goddess and buff blonde Scandinavian tri-athlete. I cannot wait to see what she’s going to make!

We stand near a full wall of windows that let in all the afternoon sunshine. The studio is rammed with colourful paintings, racks of brightly coloured clothing, and an enormous cutting table laden with spools of fabric. Two wildly drawn portraits of her parents take pride of place above her office desk. Every surface is interesting…

I start to notice, in the rafters and high corners, giant floppy dolls that look plucked from a Di Chirico painting. Annie makes these and other surreal, dream-like sculptures for her installation pieces that have been shown in various galleries in New York City and Toronto’s own AGO. http://www.anniethompson.ca/artist.html (Sculptures and Installations) Sheesh, Ms. Thompson is a geyser of creative force, and she doesn’t show signs of stopping. I’ve got to rush home and… make something!

Since graduating from Ryerson’s fashion design program in 1981, Annie has owned and run successful boutiques, painted and exhibited all over the place, and picked up countless awards along the way. All this while raising a daughter (as feisty and creative as she is) and keeping fit enough to contemplate tackling a triatholon. She is also a teacher, running art workshops for kids, courses at Ryerson, eco-fashion seminars and even programs in India that help young women start their own design businesses. But it’s never just knowledge that Annie is eager to share – it’s more than that. I get the sense that Annie thrives on giving of her whole self, her enthusiasm, attention and talents, her love and joy, her spirit and laughter. And I also get the sense that this generosity feeds her creative fires – that it is in fact the source of her seemingly limitless energy. What was it that Egon Scheile said about his prolific painting? – "I am so rich, that I must give myself away".

Ah Annie. Philosophette extraordinaire. I could go on and on, but her web site says it all – check out the spectacular world of this one-of-a-kind, exemplary, inspirational woman. Ten bucks says after a stroll through www.anniethompson.ca you’ll whip out your watercolours.

Meet Susan Harris of Susan Harris Designs

www.susanharrisdesign.ca

How perfectly fitting that I rode my bicycle around the corner to the studio of Ms. Susan Harris – her place, her demeanor and her aesthetic all call to mind a wrap-around porch, a billowy skirt, laundry drying on a line in the sunshine, lemonade in June…

In Susan’s world, the human presences never overwhelm their surroundings. Pets are roaming freely and comfortably. The house itself seems to lean into the ground, almost as though it had grown out of it. The floors of her tiny adjoining studio are all original unfinished hardwood. Giant leafy trees make dappled shade patterns on the white picket fence-d entryway. She isn’t wearing a speck of make up. It is an oasis of breezy Little-House-on-the-Prairie ease, steps from the noisy intersections of Toronto’s bustling west end.

This harmony and comfort with the natural environment can be attributed to her rural upbringing on Lake Erie’s Cedar Island, and has clearly influenced her decisions as a businesswoman and artist. After Studying fashion design at Sheridan College and George Brown College, she immersed herself in the industry, apprenticing and gaining experience in pattern drafting, clothing construction and design. In 2001 she started her own label, applying this knowledge to her eco-friendly mission of crafting clothing out of recycled materials. But Susan was interested in going further than that – she found sewers through Sistering, a program that the helps socially isolated women. The whole operation ran (and still runs!) on green power from Bullfrog. Green and ethical is not something she slaps on her brand to make it attractive to customers, it is clearly her life philosophy and guiding principle. These progressive production methods are complimented by an instantly recognizable aesthetic. Wildlife images and planet-championing statements cut off the fronts of found T-shirts are inlaid into tank tops. Old wool sweaters become long patchwork winter mittens in a rainbow of colours. Bedsheets and old tablecloths become a feminine summer tunic. Nature imagery, text, frenetic stitching and raw edges are all a signature part of her style. After selling her wares through luxe boutique Holt Renfrew and on Tecumseth Street for three years, Harris has a new studio location on Adelaide Street. She now sells through her own studio by appointment and at craft shows and art exhibitions throughout North America.

Available:

• Toronto – Distillery District, Fresh (1025 Queen East), Shopgirls (1342 Queen West) Grassroots (408 Bloor West)
• Vancouver – Tutta Mia
• Elora - Pod

Meet Joyce Gunhouse and Judy Cornish of Comrags

www.comrags.com

Taking the elevator up to the second floor of a gorgeous old loft-style building on King West, I wonder - what will the Comrags ladies be like – friendly, frosty? You never know in this business. Joyce and Judy look like lovely, pleasant women in the portrait on their site, but they are also seasoned fashion veterans, having designed and run their own highly successful label for over 25 years - that kind of longevity in the fashion world is only won with sweat, grit, pure moxie. I’m feeling like a field mouse…

The studio is open, light-filled and orderly. High racks of old patterns line the rafters. Two seamstresses work away by the giant bay of windows and Joyce looks up from one of the many large cutting tables. We shake hands. She smiles warmly – but she has the air of a woman who has run her own business for most of her life – no nonsense, accustomed to hard work and responsibility, zero time for dilly-dallying. Gulp! Am I adding to what is likely an already long list of tasks for these ladies? (Note to self – next visit bring pain au chocolat…) Ah but there’s that twinkle in her eye – the sheer joy of making something out of nothing – all artists have it, and the Comrags women haven’t lost it, even after a quarter of a century of creating.

Joyce Gunhouse and Judy Cornish first met at Ryerson in the Fashion Arts Programme. Judy was working at Larry’s Hide-away, a legendary Toronto punk club, and like any great galpal, would put Joyce on the guest list whenever a good band was playing. Joyce was also waitress-ing her way through school. In one of their website videos a colleague jokingly notes that both were lousy waitresses – so clearly destiny wanted them to pursue design! Since bursting out of the gate in 1983 to great critical acclaim, they have always been passionate about doing things differently. Famous for shows that fused fashion, music and art they gathered artistic forces from all over Queen West to put together truly buzz-worthy events. Models on ice skates, drag queens, rockabilly bands - one commentator remarked that there was always a certain "guerrilla aspect" to their shows - grit over polish - that distinctive, original presentation that sets a collection apart.

Their clothing is beautifully cut and tailored, modern and unfussy - maybe even a little bit tough. In their own words they are "country farmhouse meets urban industrial". For the Recessionista tour dress, Joyce came up with the brilliant idea of using her son’s old hockey jerseys. When I went back to the studio for a fitting I was positively wow-ed – a stunning, body hugging shape, beautiful bold colours, dramatic asymmetrical hem and an oh-so-sexy exposed zipper on the back. Va-voom! Joyce even fashioned a custom slip to go underneath that snapped on to the dress straps. Pros indeed. Long ago they decided to do everything in house – this was the best way to ensure highest quality that the Comrags name is known for. Hence, their own sewing chops are as top notch as their eye for design. By the end of the process I think Joyce and Judy were as thrilled with the result as I was. Check out their website for a retailer in your area. www.comrags.com

Thanks ladies! I’ll be bidding on this one!

Meet Kat O’Shaughnessy of magdelina designs

http://www.magdelina.com

What happens when a businessman/programmer falls in love with a glass and fabric artist? Why, Kat O’Shaughnessy of course. Born to exactly such parents, Kat is a living hybrid of what could be the most unlikely pairing of interests imaginable – textiles and computers.

These disparate disciplines come together in Kat’s current job at the Textile Museum of Canada where she digitally archives the Canadian collection, and also in her personal passion - sustainable fashion design. How do you incorporate computers into fashion design? Check out the images on these crazy silk-screened ties!

Though she comes by these two influences naturally, Kat is intrigued by the larger polarity they represent – between human and machine, and even between mind and body – the divide between physical space and the abstract "pseudo-space" where information and ideas travel.

You would expect this kind of nerdy philosophical talk from a star graduate of both the Pacific Design Academy and OCAD. But her initial attraction to these ideas can be attributed to a slightly more troubling source...

For a good part of her youth, due to chronic allergies and a generally fragile constitution, Kat was in and out of hospitals. Consequently she relied on technology to communicate, and this, she noted, changed the very nature and content of that communication. Many of those bed-ridden hours were spent contemplating how the computer would alter the world on a social level. With characteristic insightfulness Kat wondered - what would become of communication’s physical artifacts? And after a random computer crash instantly lost over a decade’s worth of email communication with her overseas pal, Kat realized these issues were going to have a major influence on her work.

While technology is quickly removing whole genres of physical objects from our reality (newspapers, letters, CDs, etc.), clothing will always be immune to this usurping influence. We cannot deny the physical, we have bodies – bodies that, at least in our culture, need to be clothed. Clothing is, as she describes, "intimate", "the only thing shielding you from the world around you", and thus retains the romance, the grounded-ness, of our inescapably physical nature. "Time can be imbued into the fabric" she muses. Perfume, sweat, and memory converge in our garments. They are relics of the human presences that once lived and moved in them. Therefore re-using/re-inventing old clothing has an added layer of beauty, poetry and human connection to the already wonderful "green" angle. "It always made sense to me" she says.

Sure, these are the theoretical ponderings of a natural born artist – but let’s not forget that Kat is also a very talented seamstress. When I arrived up at the museum for a fitting on her lunch break, Kat took numerous detailed measurements and showed me several preliminary sketches. At the second fitting – where, to my delight I discovered that she had made two custom-made gowns complete with shrugs and hair pieces – each dress slipped over my figure like an old favourite. She was also the first to respond to The Baroness Inc.’s initial shout-out and her enthusiasm was infectious. (Read her Twitter posts here - http://twitter.com/kat_magdelina.) Inquisitive, articulate and intelligent beyond her years, Kat O’Shaughnessy is one to watch in the world of Canadian fashion.

From Kat:

The red dress incorporates a full-length taffeta skirt (from which I used both the ""right" and "wrong" sides of), a scrap of velvet from my studio, crystal buttons from the red organza blouse, and a fairly mangled scrap of lace from my studio (unfortunately unphotographed before being attached to the dress).

The red fascinator/headpiece is made from a plastic candy container, a scrap of red felt, scraps of organza from the red blouse, a bit of the parasol and a crystal button from the blouse.

The red shoulder-wrap is made from the red organza blouse, a red silk parasol, every single tiny scrap left from the making of the dress and fascinator, and a scrap of black silk crepe.

The blue dress incorporates a silk skirt suit - the skirt remained mostly intact with the exception of shifting the location of the zipper, while the bodice was made from carefully pieced segments taken from the suit jacket.

The blue fascinator/headpiece was made from a plastic candy container, a scrap of turquoise felt, some silk crepe from the jacket, strips of silk habotai lining from the jacket and all of the jacket's mother of pearl buttons.

The blue shoulder-wrap is a repurposed faux-fur child's stole with silk scrap ruffles from the suit jacket.

There is also a removable brooch detail - made of a recycled hair clip and the remaining strips of lining from the jacket.

Sarah wore the above teal dress at her May 29 show in Victoria, BC, and the wine/black dress at her May31 show in Vancouver, BC .

Meet CHARMAIN BERTRAM of Integrity Designs

http://meetthedesigners.blogspot.com/

With a name like Charmain how can you help but have that tropical good vibe? That friendly island ease? As boisterous laughter and strains of Stevie Wonder emerge from the back-room studio I feel like I am indeed walking into a patio party - but don’t get too loose, this London-based designer is anything but lax when it comes to her business philosophy. Proud owner and operator of Integrity Designs, Ms. Bertram is living up to the name, working with second-hand materials and now expanding into sustainable fabrics like hemp and bamboo.

"Hemp is a wonder plant" she says emphatically, pinning the gown prototype snugly around my waist. There are so many things you can do with it – so many uses that were formerly (and needlessly!) the domain of petroleum-based products. We share a quick mini-tirade about how slowly things are changing in this department. But Charmain is in no way a preachy wet blanket. With a raucous Beatles tune now in the background, she waxes enthusiastic about all the things that are now possible thanks to the awakening public appetite for handmade, local, sustainable goods, and I get the sense that she thinks we are living in exciting times. When she heard about the Recessionista idea she was quick to sign up.

"Right up my alley" is a bit of an understatement, she says. And, lucky for us, she had a wealth of ideas already. In Charmain’s industrious hands, two old pairs of khakis and a gaudy blouse from the seventies will become a one-of-a-kind gown, complete with a glamorous train, plunging backline, and that funky Integrity edge.

How did this music-loving, savvy young whippersnapper start creating clothes? I ask. Her experience is wide and varied. From apprenticing with an expert jeans manufacturer to working in upscale urban bridal wear to making custom costumes for Pride Parade drag queens, Charmain has done it all. While struggling to then get her own line off the ground independently in Toronto, she came across the Fresh Collective boutique and was an instant convert.

Fresh Collective is the brain child of long-time Toronto fashion maven Laura Jean (the Knitting Queen) Bernhardson. Designers work in the store one day a week and pay a small portion of the rent in exchange for retail space (prime real estate in boutique-heaven - West Queen West) and access to the pooled knowledge and resources of all involved. No one has to bear the burden and risk of the entire venture alone, and everyone contributes. To Charmain this is an important ideological point. "Think big, live small" her company tag-line reads. Though she is passionately ambitious for her years and obviously loves to work hard, she does not dream of mushrooming into a multi-city operation with staff and billboards and two annual couture collections. The desire for constant expansion is perhaps where we’ve gone wrong as a society – unchecked growth at any cost just isn’t feasible on a finite planet. The brass ring for Charmain and designers like her is a self-sustaining business – one that can provide the owner/creator with a healthy income, creative fulfillment, and the peace of mind that comes with knowing every aspect of it is ethical and planet-friendly. I call that a triumph in this day and age, and a goal to which we could all happily aspire!

Sarah wore this beautiful dress at her May 27 show in Saskatoon, SK .

Meet ALYSSA RUSHTON of Norma W

http://www.normaw.ca/

In the thick of the China Town bustle I come to a graffiti-covered door with two doorbells. A squiggly arrow points to the upper one and reads "Alyssa and Greg!" in artfully wacky script. I’ve arrived at the atelier of flaming-haired Alyssa Rushton, the coolest aunt you never had. She opens the door in a hot pink cardigan, Laverne &Shirley hair scarf, leggings and a cat in her arms. "Come on up!" she says. My "Oh-god-fashion-people" trepidation has evapourated. This is going to be fun.

Her apartment is a funkified playground of flea market oddities, sewing projects, spray-painted lawn chairs and over-the-top baroque mirrors. Torquoise, pink and white are everywhere – it’s Parisian parlour meets Pee Wee Herman.

"And just who are these gentlemen?" I ask of the two cats.

"This is Pepinot, named after the little guy in Les Choristes, did you see that film?"

Did I? Mais, moi, je l’adore!

"And the other," she continues, "is Pinkerton, after-"

"Weezer’s best album" we chime together.

Alyssa is my new best friend, whether she likes it or not.

This former OCAD student once lived the dream of owning her own boutique and selling her own hand-made work in Kensington Market. But after nearly "breaking my adrenal glands" she decided to leave the stress behind and join Queen Street’s Fresh Collective, an amazing store/idea that I’ll elaborate on later in the tour.

Alyssa’s site biography is conspicuously tiny. In it she expresses her dislike of capital letters and "all about me" blogs, which explains the welcoming, easy demeanour - her unhurried self-comfort and confidence. No fuss, no muss, no pomp and circumstance, just a wild creativity that will not be suppressed. What I love about Alyssa is that this talent doesn’t translate into competitiveness. Actually it’s the opposite – on her site she shares with other designers a list of suppliers that are fair-trade and environmentally responsible– information that takes a lot of time, effort and conviction to locate in the fashion industry. Those kinds of businesses are "almost impossible" to find, she says, but this sincere desire to conduct her work ethically is clearly priority number one.

"There is too much clothing" she says, shaking her head. The re-purposing of second hand garments is just one aspect of how Alyssa’s work addresses that issue, she also strives to keep her business local and sustainable. "There is a store in the Eaton’s Centre called "Made In Canada" and everything - everything in the place is made in China!" she says, incredulous. The fuel for transport, the human rights blurriness, the pollution and a whole host of other hot buttons come to mind. For a little 15 dollar stuffed moose in a mountie costume? Hmph. We both fall silent.

Not that all of this current affairs talk has dampened the whimsy of our surroundings. The dresses are right out of a fairy tale – the lyrics to So Many Miles, written in cursive thread script, adorn the bottom of a fluffy white party dress from the 50s. "Je suis une jolie robe" is stitched across my old pink stage frock. My delight springs back to life!

And therein lies the message of this tour. Joyous, life-affirming creativity and eco-conscious ethical business practices are not mutually exclusive entities. What I’m gleaning from this glimpse into the world of DIY fashion is that everything we do ultimately comes down to a life philosophy. And that doesn’t necessarily mean we all have to live in the woods, grow our own yams and get off the grid. It means we use our gifts to clean up our corner of the universe.

Artists like Alyssa live and work and breathe this philosophy – one that could improve the fate of this planet – let us celebrate them!