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Vancouver is home to a thriving fashion industry made up of individuals committed to its growth and success. Get to know these personalities in The Inseam and discover what makes the Vancouver Fashion scene so awesome. Every month, The Inseam’s Eco Edition focuses on the innovators that shape the green movement in local fashion. |
Photo courtesy of Michelle Hardy
As much as the average person probably doesn’t realize how many apparel designers, and “makers” there are around Vancouver, most people probably aren’t aware of how many design school programs and students there are.
Fashion design courses and programs are currently offered at a number of academic institutions around Metro Vancouver, including Kwantlen College, the Art Institute of Vancouver, Blanche Macdonald, the Visual College of Art and Design of Vancouver, Lasalle College, Capilano University, and Emily Carr University.
One recent Blanche Macdonald graduate, Michelle Hardy, is demonstrating that skill and creativity combined with education is producing innovative ways to make fashion more sustainable.
Jessica McIlroy: Tell me about how you got started in fashion. Was it an interest in making your own clothes, designing things, or someone you admired?
Michelle Hardy: I have always been interested in clothing and fabric: how it feels, how it looks, how it makes you feel when you wear it. I think it’s amazing that one article of clothing can totally transform your day and even how you look at the world. At least for me it does. I feel much more confident and able to take on the day in a dress than I do in an oversized hoodie and sweat pants.
When I was a young girl I spent hours dressing and undressing my Barbies and dolls. I would never take them and act out a story, it was all about the clothing for me. I also spent a lot of time at my grandma’s, who was a sewer. She had boxes and boxes of patterns stashed underneath the bed in her guest room. I spent hours just looking at them.
When it came time to decide what I wanted to do with my life, someone told me to think about what you enjoyed as a child and base your career around that. This was probably the best advice I ever received because once I looked back at my childhood the answer was simple: fashion.
Photo courtesy of Michelle Hardy
JM: What did you find valuable in your design school experience?
MH: Definitely pattern drafting. Before learning how to create the patterns I was just sewing and using store made patterns, which is fine, but I was looking at the pattern pieces not knowing what they were all the time or how it pieced together. I feel like now I can see the whole picture and it just makes sense. I also find it really relaxing.
JM: What aspects of sustainability or being “eco-friendly” in your designs and fashion did the school teach you?
MH: We learnt about different fabrics: synthetic and natural and the process that it undergoes to become a sheet of fabric that we buy in the store. It actually kind of boogled my mind. Synthetic fabric is created completely from a chemical bath. Completely from chemicals! Chemicals that can harm you! And we wear it on our skin...our skin that absorbs things so easily. I feel almost as though synthetic fabric is a double edged sword. It’s not very good for the environment and I feel like it can’t be very good for you either. However, I do see the appeal to industry of being able to create something waterproof or with the ability to wick away moisture from your body. I just think that many people don’t realize what they are putting on in the morning when they are getting ready for work, and I wonder if they did, if their choices in clothing would be different.
JM: Where did you own interest in eco fashion come from?
MH: It wasn’t even really a choice for me when choosing my fabrics. I gravitated towards the linens and wools and of course the cork fabric I used. Natural fabrics are a lot more interesting. The impurities and roughness of it adds so much character in my opinion.
Photo courtesy of Michelle Hardy
JM: Tell me about your final collection.
MH: My collection was originally inspired by the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox. I thought it was really inspiring that the animals in the film where living their lives as humans and then in the middle of the movie accepted that they were “wild animals” because in reality so are we. I wanted my collection to be grounding. To bring you back to nature. So, I used natural fibers: linen, cork, wool and mohair to create roughness and textures. My inspiration for the collection spread into the boreal forest where foxes, bears and deer live. I took aspects of that environment and portrayed them in my clothing as details.
JM: What do you hope to do now that you’ve graduated?
MH: I would like to start my own line and sell it in stores across Canada and online. I plan to start in the New Year actually. I really want to continue using cork. It’s so unique and really sends a statement and there really isn’t anyone who is selling clothing made from cork. I like to think that kind of gives me an edge. I also still want to be mixing different textures and fabrics. I really think that garments are so much more interesting with a little roughness to them.
JM: Any other thoughts you’d like to share?
MH: My favourite thing I made this year was the pencil skirt I made out of cork. It’s so amazing and different. When I look at everything I made I am extremely proud of myself. And very glad I took the risk in buying such a different fabric. It encourages me to continue looking for unique fabrics or even looking at fabrics in a different way. Who says you can’t recycle the fabric off your grandmas old couch to make a cocktail dress. Could be interesting right?
Keep an eye out for the innovative designs of Michelle Hardy, available online and hitting stores new you sometime soon!
