stories from my red thread life
No Exit
This hand belongs to a real person who deserves to be treated with respect I’ve already shared with you my outrage about the lax safety standards in garment factories that have led to the deaths of hundreds of workers overseas in the past few years, workers sewing clothing for us and for our children. But our outrage, however deeply felt at the moment of a catastrophe, is clearly not making an impact on the safety of workers, particularly those in Bangladesh, and I just can’t let it go. These are not rare events. The devastating fire that killed more than 100 people in a garment factory in Bangladesh last week was notable only for its scale. Authorities declared that the loss of life would have been dramatically lower if the exits had not been locked from the outside. Why would any company allow its products to be made in a facility that permits workers’ lives to be put at risk? Are we truly willing to sacrifice human life in exchange for low labour costs? What’s stopping us from demanding answers to these questions? Katrina Onstad wrote an excellent article in The Globe and Mail last week on this subject entitled [...]
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 [...]
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” [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
From the mouths of babes
Who really knows what children think their parents do all day? Do they understand what our jobs are? Wonder if we enjoy working? Just before going back to school this week, I found a huge pile of schoolwork from last term in my 10-year-old daughter’s knapsack. One page caught my eye – an assignment analyzing “Media Text.” The piece she chose to analyze: the Red Thread Business Card (she redesigned it first, adding several lovely images she drew of girls posing, wearing dresses). At the end of her fascinating analysis, she is asked for a personal opinion of the media piece. This is what she wrote, letter for letter: “I will totaly buy her stuff and I think her form of media is remarcabel, it has a message, what phone number and email, where to order and when and why and who from, she macks lots of money and she is happy!” I can’t stop smiling.
If a 6-year-old could design her own clothing, what would it look like?
A few weeks ago I mentioned to my sewing students in my youngest group (6-7 year olds) that I was planning to design a special dress for Valentine’s Day. My comment was followed by a lot of excited chatter about what this dress should look like, followed by a sudden cry of “Get us pencils and paper!” After a flurry of drawing they presented me with their designs. Each designer described her vision and I applauded their efforts. Here’s what they came up with: hearts and hearts and more hearts (and dogs!) Stay tuned to see the final design. Thanks for the inspiration!
On sewing and kids
During 2009, I tried something new – teaching classes in sewing and quilting for kids (and a few very enthusiastic adults). Since January I’ve taught more than 50 classes, and it’s been quite a learning experience for me (and hopefully, for my students too). Before I became a parent I knew I loved children, but I didn’t really appreciate their amazing unique qualities until I had one of my own. Likewise, I always knew that children were innately creative, but I didn’t realize how unique their creativity is. I also didn’t realize how much sustained focus they can bring to a task when they’re deeply engaged. It’s pretty fantastic to watch a 7-year-old practice a brand new skill (even something mundane like backstitch) by creating a wild pastiche of intersecting shapes, or to see a vibrant piece of patchwork take shape in the hands of a 9-year-old concentrating so intensely she leaves the animated conversation and goes somewhere else. And then there’s the surprised look of mastery, the gratifying “wow, I actually made this” moment. This past Spring and Summer, some of my sewing kids decided that the little “stuffies” they were making in class were too cute to keep [...]
Pink vs. Blue
As the mother of three young girls and a designer of clothing for girls, I spend a huge part of my day immersed in the childhood world of girls. So when my customers started complaining a few years back that they were having trouble finding great clothes for boys and wanted me to design some, I first told them to check out the great stuff for boys designed by my friend Carol at Kid Brother, and then I started thinking about creating some clothing for boys. I knew that flowers and pink would be out of the question, of course, but I didn’t realize how strongly social constraints affect parents of boys when shopping for clothing. Now, one year after designing my first small collection of boys’ tees and pants (see images below), I remain fascinated by the fact that parents are quite adventurous when dressing their girls, and often conservative when dressing their boys. The thing that stumps me the most is bias against colours, which I perceive as mostly gender-neutral. Why is blue a more masculine colour than red or purple? Why are bright colours considered more appropriate for girls than boys? Why are dots less masculine than [...]
Pink vs. Blue
As the mother of three young girls and a designer of clothing for girls, I spend a huge part of my day immersed in the childhood world of girls. So when my customers started complaining a few years back that they were having trouble finding great clothes for boys and wanted me to design some, I first told them to check out the great stuff for boys designed by my friend Carol at Kid Brother, and then I started thinking about creating some clothing for boys. I knew that flowers and pink would be out of the question, of course, but I didn’t realize how strongly social constraints affect parents of boys when shopping for clothing. Now, one year after designing my first small collection of boys’ tees and pants (see images below), I remain fascinated by the fact that parents are quite adventurous when dressing their girls, and often conservative when dressing their boys. The thing that stumps me the most is bias against colours, which I perceive as mostly gender-neutral. Why is blue a more masculine colour than red or purple? Why are bright colours considered more appropriate for girls than boys? Why are dots less masculine than [...]
Fabric Utopia
Even though I mostly design clothing, many of the fabrics I use are meant for quilting. Quilting cottons are very high quality textiles, very washable, and they come in a vast array of prints, some fabulous, many not so fabulous. Sometimes searching for great prints is a frustrating endeavor – I’m very picky. But when I find something I love, it’s exciting. So when the opportunity came up for me to attend Quilt Market last weekend, a huge trade show in the U.S. devoted to quilting fabrics, I jumped at the chance. I flew to Houston and went straight to the show, where I spent two days in blissful surrender to the largest amount of fabric I’ve ever seen in one place in my entire life. I ordered wild linen prints from Japan, gorgeous buttons made in Germany, French trims, and a lot of great cotton prints for next year’s designs. But the most exciting part of the show was something I didn’t expect at all – I got to meet some of my favourite fabric designers, and to tell them how much I love working with their designs. Here’s a picture of me with Amy Butler (you can also [...]
Welcome…
to the busiest month of my year. With the One of a Kind Show only a month away and fall/winter production in full swing, this probably is not the best time for me to start a new blog. But the creative flurry of this time of year is both stressful and stimulating – what better time to start sharing with my customers and friends some of the pressures, joys, and inspiring moments in the life of Red Thread. My very first retail show was the Spring One of a Kind Show in Toronto, in March 2005. I made 100 dresses with the help of my very good friend Mel, cutting them on my kitchen table and sewing in a tiny back bedroom. Every dress was a labour of love, and as the show opened on the first day I was overcome by insecurity – would anyone like my work? Had the past several months of toil been for nothing? Within the first 2 minutes of the show I had my very first customer, who later became a good friend (what a nice coincidence!). Soon there were others, and as I continued to do the show, my customers grew exponentially, as [...]