Too much stuff!

Something usual happened to me this week, perhaps even cathartic.

I live in a rather chaotic environment of my own creation, with three young children and a home-based business. There are times when my house accommodates not only family and friends, but also hundreds of new garments, or dozens of bolts of fabric waiting to be cut, or dozens of boxes waiting to be packed and shipped.

Right now I’m busy preparing for the One of a Kind Show, which starts in a few days. But it’s my seventh year, so I know what needs to be done. The complication this year is that I’m selling my house at the same time.

The thing about selling a house that is challenging for people like me, is the fact that houses look much better when they are not cluttered with too much stuff. The five of us have accumulated a LOT of stuff.

When I was writing my bio for my website, I described myself (humorously but truthfully) as a fabriholic. I don’t love all fabric of course, but when I find a piece I love, my imagination runs wild. Whatever draws me in, whether colour, pattern, or scale, all beautiful fabric feels to me like a tantalizing design challenge.

This week I had to pack away that fabric. First went the bolts, nearly 100 cotton prints. Then I filled a dozen large bins with smaller pieces of fabric that cry out for transformation into a work of art… one day.

Seeing this volume of fabric was staggering. I immediately thought of the TV show “Hoarders” and the oppressive impact of possessions on people who can’t part with anything, even trash. I thought about my attachment to fabric and wondered momentarily “is that me?”

It’s not. But when I packed the extra fabric away, albeit temporarily, I looked around my studio and felt my creative juices flowing more freely.  And likewise, when my children saw their bedrooms reduced to a minimum of toys with everything neatly organized, they were elated. Contrary to my expectations, they loved it.

Some possessions truly are treasures. But as I learned this week, when there’s too much stuff it makes it harder for those treasures to shine through. And while I still believe that there are some beautiful quilts in my future, I’m happy to part with some of my treasured fabric, to share it with people who can transform it into treasures of their own. If you’d like a small bag of fabric pieces to add to a project, or if you’re involved with a charity that could use it for quilting or other sewing projects, please drop me a line for more details – I’m happy to share. If you’d like to see what it looks like, just check out my website for a little taste. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 

Much Ado about Colour

Last night my sister came to me with a mission: she’s taking a quilting class and wanted to select nine harmonious fabrics to use in her first quilt. Because I own a vast amount of printed cotton fabric, she expected this task to be easy. It wasn’t!

As she pulled out bolt after bolt and ruminated over multiple possible combinations, I started to think about what makes a colour or a print pleasing to one person and ugly to another. I spend a lot of time making decisions about colour and scale and pattern, but it was interesting to watch somebody else engaged in this process.

We all know what we like when we see it – something in our brain just clicks. We live surrounded by visual stimuli and are constantly judging what we like and dislike from a multitude of choices. But I wonder how much of this is subjective, a reflection of our personal or cultural associations and biases, and how much is attributable to science.

A recent (2010) study at UC Berkeley by a team of psychologists devoted to the study of colour perception and aesthetics, postulated a new theory of colour preference. “Ecological Valance Theory” suggests that our preferences for colour may be part of an evolutionary process in which we naturally favour beneficial objects and healthy conditions. This might explain why the colour blue has near-universal appeal (because of its association with a blue sky), while dark yellow and orange, olive and brown hues are widely disliked in several countries they studied (perhaps because of a negative association with vomit, urine, you can use your imagination). I wonder what that says about me? I love mustard yellows, deep orange and earthy browns…

Other studies by the same team confirm what we all instinctively know about colour – that most of our preferences are based on association. Like our sense of smell, we’re wired to connect our senses with our experience, and this is what makes our reactions to colour so instinctive. That beloved childhood quilt, favourite food, or prized sports team all have an impact on our colour preferences, as do the things we dislike.

For professional designers in all disciplines, the use of colour combines art and science in ways that we might not fully understand, but that have powerful resonance for us all. It’s a fascinating challenge.

p.s. On an unrelated note, if you’d like to check out an interview I did last week on The Weather Network about dressing your children for Fall and Winter, you can check it out on YouTube here.

 

More than just a photo shoot

A few weeks ago I did another photo shoot, this time for my Spring/Summer 2012 line. Once again my amazing photographer Lise Varrette worked her magic, this time in her new studio space over a five-hour period with a total of nine children! The children were amazing and the photos are beautiful.

As I reflect on these twice-yearly photo shoots I can’t help but feel that in addition to tracking my development as a designer, they’re also tracking the growth of my three daughters, my nieces and nephews, and our beloved friends who have generously acted as my models, some for years.

My Caterpillar Dress is a particularly difficult one to photograph well. Because one size fits from about 1-4 years, I like to show it on different ages in the same photo to illustrate its flexibility. But it can be challenging to photograph a 12-month-old, and I don’t know very many right now (all the children in my life are growing too quickly!). Visiting friends with tiny toddler twins fit the bill perfectly. Their older “helper” was the lovely Anika, turning 4 next month, the daughter of other beloved friends. Acting as the senior model with two rowdy toddlers was certainly not the easiest task Anika has undertaken, but she handled her role with aplomb.  Here’s one of the photos I love, showing Anika with little Alia:

The thing that I love most about these shots is that Anika was once the baby in these photos. Here she is at the age of 11 months, not quite walking on her own, modeling the Caterpillar Dress with my daughter Georgia, then 3 and a half. Little Anika held on to the brick wall and shuffled along, turning every so often to check out the camera, while Georgia, amused, shuffled along with her to stay in the frame. Sometime Georgia would take Anika’s hands to steady her and there were quite a few amusing moments.

Fourteen months later, just after turning two, Anika modeled the same dress, and to say that she was delicious would be a huge understatement. Anika is quite tall for her age, so it was already getting a little too short to wear as a dress.

Next month will be Anika’s fourth birthday and the start of kindergarten, and the dress still looks great on her as a top. As with all children we love, watching her grow has been a delight, and documenting our growth together through these fabrics and dresses and images feels much more like a wonderful journey together than just a photo shoot.

 

Stereotyping our children from birth?

Toronto couple Kathy Witterick and David Stocker became international news a few weeks ago when they made public their decision to raise their third child, now four months old, without imposing a specific gender identity, and to keep the child’s sex a secret. The couple explained that they wanted to neutralize the way their child would be treated, and to create an environment in which little Storm could grow freely and make independent decisions. The public response illustrated clearly how strong our feelings are on this subject of gender identity and childrearing.

I think about gender stereotyping quite a bit, particularly its philosophical and practical application to the design of children’s clothing. Many parents I know have strong feelings about the way children are gender-directed from birth, through their clothing, toys and entertainment, but the vast majority of us participate in this process. Even if we feel the urge to ban the Barbie movies from our homes and encourage our sons to wear whatever they like, no matter how unusual, most of us take the easier road to mainstream social acceptance.

I wanted to share a photo with you of an adorable little boy, a toddler, playing outside on a beautiful summer day in a pink romper, bloomers and bonnet. But the subject of said photograph, my otherwise-enlightened husband, refused to grant me permission to publish it. Perhaps that speaks louder than the image itself. The photo struck me as an excellent illustration of how much less uptight North American parents were in the days of gender-neutral rompers and playsuits, the clothing of my 1970s “Free to Be…. You and Me” childhood. I wondered: as we’ve grown more egalitarian, have we also become more uptight about the way we dress our children?

My customers frequently express disappointment to me at the lack of variety available in mainstream boys’ clothing, and its very limited colour palette, as well as the preponderance of pink and purple and preciousness in girls’ clothing. But I have learned from my years of designing and selling children’s clothing, that colour remains a very touchy subject for many parents, and that we tend to impose our choices on our children, whether consciously or not. I’ve also noticed that children shopping with me tend to be attracted to vibrant and unusual colours, regardless of their sex.

It’s more than simply colour influencing our judgment; the cut of a garment sends subtle messages about gender appropriateness as well. Is a white t-shirt with tiny scalloped trim around the neck gender neutral? What about jeans with a subtle flare, or a top with cap sleeves? Even within the basic realm of t-shirts and pants, there truly is very little unisex clothing available in mainstream stores. Have we lost our taste for it? I would love to take on the challenge of designing a completely gender-neutral season. But would it sell?

At the One of a Kind Show last Christmas, I overheard one of my customers telling a friend that her kindergarten-aged son proudly wore tights to school. When I asked if he’d encountered any harassment, she told me that when a classmate said to him “Why are you wearing tights? Girls wear tights!” her son retorted “Superheroes wear tights!” and he has never been teased since.  Good for him, and good for her.

I wonder what schoolyards would look like if we were all relaxed enough to let our children make their own choices about clothing. Would more boys, like Storm’s 5-year-old brother Jazz, choose to wear pink dresses? Reporting on this unusual family, the Toronto Star printed an excerpt from Jazz’s journal in which he wrote “Help girls do boy things. Help boys do girl things. Let your kid be whoever they are!”

Devorah Miller
Red Thread Design

 

My Amazing Customers #1: Alison Fraser

First in a series of tributes to some of the amazing people I’ve met on my Red Thread journey.

Many people are very comfortable with the status quo. Especially when we’re busy raising families, it’s hard to look beyond our everyday responsibilities and embrace broader challenges. But that’s exactly what Alison Fraser chose to do, creating life-changing impact for a group of children and young women in rural Tanzania, a world away from her home in Cambridge, Ontario.

The story of Salome, a young mother of two, was moving and inspiring to Alison. Salome is currently completing high school, fully funded by Mom2Mom Africa.

A full-time environmental toxicologist and mother of three young daughters, Alison doesn’t have a lot of spare time on her hands. But for the past few years she’s built a project called Mom2Mom Africa (http://www.mom2momafrica.ca/)  that’s grown from an annual book and school supplies drive into a community fundraising project that’s been paying for the education of 11 children and 4 young women in Tanzania.  Most of the money is raised through an annual event she holds in her backyard! This year’s event was held last weekend, featuring lots of live music and an impressive silent auction. Based on the success of this year’s fundraiser, she’s adding three children and one young woman to the project.

One of the things that makes Alison’s project work so well is her relationship with Robert Chekwaze, a friend and professional ecotourism guide in Tanzania who acts as Alison’s primary liaison, identifying children in need and helping ensure that tuition fees are paid, and that the students have what they need to be successful. In addition to tuition fees, students also receive money for uniforms, supplies and school meals. It’s shocking, at least to me, how little it costs to fund a child’s education in Tanzania, just a few hundred dollars per year.

Mom2Mom Africa is not a formal registered charity, it’s a project created by a smart, empathetic Mom with a vision. Alison is scrupulous about financial oversight, and sends 100% of the money she raises directly to the students. She describes the project as richly rewarding, “heart-breaking and heart-warming at the same time.” Her dedication is an inspiration to me and to many others, and I’m honoured to support her in her quest to change the world for the better.

Devorah Miller
Red Thread Design

 

Do you know how your clothing was made?

This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the worst industrial disaster in New York City’s history. Unable to escape, 146 garment workers died, most of them young immigrant women. That March 25, 1911, their workplace had no fire alarm, many exits were locked from the outside and the factory’s single fire escape collapsed. Dozens of people fell or jumped to their deaths from the eighth, ninth and tenth floors of the burning building. It was a tragedy for all New Yorkers, and is still commemorated today.

Garment workers then as now were lower status citizens, their conditions ignored until the horror of that fire. After 30,000 New Yorkers marched to remember the victims, among the public outcry came successful calls for greater regulation of industrial workplaces. The fire helped catalyze the birth of the modern labour movement.

Many workplaces of the day were dangerous. In the 18 months leading up to the fire, thousands of New York City garment workers had been on strike, demanding fair wages and greater safety, such as adequate fire escapes and unlocked doors. As the protests continued, many factories voluntarily improved working conditions, but not the rabidly anti-union Triangle Waist Company. Its employees paid the ultimate price.

One hundred years later, most of North America’s clothing manufacturing has moved overseas, where many workers are currently fighting for similar protection. Although garment industries across Asia employ millions and are growing rapidly, wages and working conditions often leave much to be desired. On International Women’s Day earlier this month, garment workers in the Indian city of Bangalore, two thirds of them women, staged a protest. Similar protests have taken place recently in Bangladesh and Cambodia. And last December, more than two dozen garment workers were killed in a factory fire near Dhaka in Bangladesh, the stairwell exit locked. It was not an isolated incident.

I sometimes see clothing priced so low that I cannot conceive how it could have been produced responsibly and without exploitation. This disturbs me. As a mother of three and a consumer, I think about my impact both on the environment and on other people. Because I design and produce clothing, I thoughtfully plan every stage of its production, ensuring that it is ethical and efficient. I choose my fabrics carefully and keep waste to a minimum. With high quality for longevity, I consider the lifespan of a piece of clothing, including its buttons, label and trim.

It is hard to know the conditions in which clothing is produced. If sustainable fabrics are important to you, highly regulated organic certification and labeling help. But it is harder to tell how the person who sewed your jeans was treated. Here, you can partly rely on fair trade or union labeling. Many clothing companies now have information about their manufacturing processes on their websites, although ethics and working conditions are often far from transparent. If this is important to you, it is worth taking the time to search for companies with a proven commitment to fair practices. Many of us are increasingly tuned in to the way our food is grown and produced; I wonder if similar concern might apply to how people buy clothing.

As a consumer, I try to buy fewer things, making sure of the quality, and then wear them for years, rather than treating my clothing as seasonal/disposable. I apply the same principle when I am designing because I think it is a huge benefit to my customers. If a dress can be worn over time, as a child grows, and then passed along, and still look great because the fabrics are excellent, then that healthy dress will last beautifully.

My husband, a teacher, spotted one of my earliest caterpillar dresses on one of his kindergarten pupils recently, and mentioned it to the girl’s mother. She regaled him with the story of the dress and the three children who have worn it continuously for six years. That’s a dress I can feel good about.

 

Child Labour, redefined

When I was a child, my mother had a thriving small business designing hand-painted silk scarves. When she was preparing for the One of a Kind Show, my sisters and I were all called into service. My favourite job was ironing the finished scarves, for which she paid me ten cents apiece (according to memory, the work was all voluntary). Being flat, the scarves were easy to iron and it was very satisfying seeing them transform from a wrinkled mess to shiny, smooth silk. It was pretty good work for a ten year old.

When I started Red Thread my children were too young to help, and as they’ve grown I’ve been reluctant to exploit their childlike industriousness. But they’re proud of this business that occupies their home: they and their friends are, after all, my target demographic, and many of their classmates profess to dreaming about becoming fashion designers.

With the Spring One of a Kind Show just one week away, I have many racks of bright new dresses in my house. This past weekend was set aside for tagging, and my youngest daughter Georgia, just turned 6, was raring to go. A good friend came over to help, and Georgia voluntarily worked alongside her for hours, absorbed in the task of putting the little stickers on the back of each hangtag. I was moved by her focus and patience, and am starting to reconsider the value of satisfying work for children who enjoy it. She was an enormous help, and she knew it. I wonder how long it will be until she demands a living wage for her efforts…

 

What does it take to be a successful Mompreneur?

I have to be honest – I hate the word mompreneur. It takes my identity as a designer and small business owner, which in my mind is separate from my identity as an exhausted mother of three, and squishes them together. I’d rather be known as a good designer/entrepreneur without the need for additional qualifiers. But.

The truth is, mothers running businesses do have an awful lot in common. We’re all tired, for starters. We share many of the same conflicts and challenges. And we’re very, very good at learning from each other.

A new book was released this week that I can’t wait to read. It’s called Mom Inc. and it was written by two very savvy mompreneurs, Amy Ballon and Danielle Botterell, partners in a successful business. Amy and Danielle have helped mentor me since the birth of Red Thread, and both are very smart and pragmatic. I’m glad they’re finally sharing their wisdom more widely, and I know they’ll help a lot of people get started on this crazy path armed with solid advice and a wealth of knowledge.

So what does it take to be a successful mompreneur? I am fortunate to know several, and I think the unifying factor is a combination of intense creativity and tenacity. It helps to be a great problem-solver, resourceful, and calm under pressure, the same skills that make great parents. For me, one of the things that has contributed the most to the growth of Red Thread has been the support of my family, friends, and customers. The funny thing about doing it on your own, is that you rarely are truly on your own. In this proud mompreneur’s humble opinion, surrounding yourself with a circle of support, and paying all that good karma forward, may be the smartest thing a budding mompreneur can do.

 

A Peek Inside a Red Thread Photo Shoot

I sewed up a storm last week putting the finishing touches on my Fall 2011 Collection, which is now being shown at various wholesale markets. The most fun part of this whole process, of course, is the photo shoot! I work with a great photographer, Lise Varrette (www.lisevarrette.com), and every shoot we do together is better than the last, more creative and satisfying.

Red Thread has been photographed in a variety of locations, including a formal photo studio, on the beach, in the park, even the alley behind my house, next to my neighbour’s 100-year-old garage. Last year we photographed my fall collection in my living room, in a makeshift studio. But this time around was a first for me, a testament to the ability of a great photographer to find beauty anywhere.

Spring 2010, at the beach

Spring 2009, in the alley next to my neighbour's garage

As you can see, I love to shoot outdoors. But this is not an option in February, at least not in Toronto. Lise and I talked about what we wanted to achieve for this shoot, and decided to do it at my house. But when she showed up with less equipment than usual, I was horrified to learn that rather than setting up a little studio in my living room, she planned to achieve the effect we’d discussed by shooting around my house, in nooks and crannies, doors and windows. She’s great at this, transforming ordinary spaces using light. But my house in February, when I’m engrossed in both Spring production and Fall design, is not a pretty sight, the ordinary mess of five busy people compounded by dozens of bolts of fabric, bags of buttons and trim, not to mention the teetering piles of paperwork.

Lise transformed my kitchen into a location in a matter of minutes. At first I watched in horror as she did several shots in my large window seat, once a lovely feature but now badly in need of repair, its wooden frames weakening and window glass streaked with moisture, its seal lost long ago. She then started moving around my house, using the windows as backdrops and as sources of glowing natural light.

Lise shooting in the window seat

Seeing the photos for the first time, especially those that were shot in the window seat, I was dumbfounded. The glass, cloudy and streaked, is stunning and luminous. I feel gratitude for this gifted photographer who took the pieces I’d worked so hard to create, and presented them in such a beautiful way, while also sharing a part of my home. Thanks Lise!

Nikola in the window, Fall 2011

 

Tickled Pink

Normally I avoid pink when I’m choosing fabrics for a new season. It’s so overdone, so painfully gendered, more about being pretty than powerful, sweet rather than strong and playful, and more imbued with symbolism than perhaps any other colour when it comes to dressing our children. My customers often tell me that they’re on the lookout for anything other than pink!

But.

As the mother of three girls, there have been times when each of my daughters wanted everything to be pink. And when I’m designing, I occasionally fall in love with a print that features pink, if it’s strong and vibrant and gorgeous. There are so many amazing variations on the colour spectrum, so many interesting combinations and juxtapositions.

Last month I found myself facing some gorgeous pink fabric, a lovely eco-blend of soy and organic cotton in a deep rich shade of fuschia. It was a stunning match for a cotton hearts print I’d been saving for the perfect occasion. How could I resist? And so I made a special dress in 100% pink, in honour of Valentine’s Day, and I offer it to you in all its pinkness, proudly. Turns out I can do pink after all.

Hope your Valentine’s Day is full of love and pink. Why not?