EcoSalon caught up with fashion designer Tara St. James of Study NY on her latest socially conscious collaboration with prison women in Mexico, ethical fashion and what made in NYC really means.

Juliette Donatelli: Your newest work involves a collaboration with a women’s prison in Mexico. How are you working together and how did the partnership evolve?

Tara St. James: On a recent trip to Oaxaca I discovered a shoe line that I really loved called Taller Nu. I got along very well with the designers, they invited me to their workshop in Mexico City, so we decided to do a collaboration together. They work with a women’s prison group. They train them to do cross-stitch on leather, and they use that cross-stitch for their shoes. What I did was send them an image of one of the sweater knits that I am doing from Peru, and I asked them to reinterpret that knit pattern into a cross-stitch. So they did the interpretation themselves, I approved it and we designed the shoes and the bag together. That will be for late summer, fall delivery because of the lead time. I will be working directly with the designers and the collaboration co-op.

JD: The cross-stitch is done in Mexico. Are the shoes also made in Mexico?

TSJ: Yeah, everything is done in Mexico. They source the leather there, it is all domestic leather. They have it perforated so the cross-stitch can be done more easily. They bring just the panels to the prison and give them the instruction.

What is really kind of interesting that I love about it, is that if you look inside the panels each one has a different finishing on the inside. You can tell it is done by different women, and it’s just the way they interpret it. So on the outside they are all uniform, but on the inside they all have this signature.  I love that. And I love that you can see that.

And the only other thing I am importing are these alpaca knits from Peru. I have been working with this women-run co-op there for about a year now and this is the first development that we have done together.

And then the rest of the collection is made here in NYC.

The other thing that I am launching for this year, which will be early than fall, it will be a spring launch, is the open back shirt dress style that I always do. But instead of one piece, I am doing it as a piece that can be worn different ways, and convertible. So you can mix and match the fabric and remove certain panels or add on other panels.

JD: What about made in NYC? Is that a selling point for your brand?

TSJ: As far as wholesale buyers are concerned, I find the reaction not super encouraging. They are not all that inspired by it, although I think they like having the story to tell to their customers. Because I do see the reaction, you know when we had this space [Market 605] as a retail space, people coming in, whether they were tourists or New Yorkers, loved the fact that everything was made here. And so I think having that story associated with the brand, or even part of the brand, is important for the buyers, not for themselves necessarily, although some of them really care, but they like to communicate that to their customers.

I am not sure a lot of people are seeking it out yet, but they are definitely interested in it.

I have always felt the same way about the sustainability of the brand: I don’t think people really care about organic cotton, as long as it felt good and could be worn easily and washed easily and cared for easily. So it was really my responsibility to make it sustainable, but also my responsibility to make the design last long and be a quality good. And part of that is making it here in New York, I think the workmanship here is just good. I am lucky, I have a great factory that I work with and they do a really great job. I am not going to lie, I have had great factories in China too that do a really really great job but if I can get that quality and workmanship here then why shouldn’t I?

Want more interviews? See also:

Hannah Jones, Nike VP of Sustainable Business: Behind-The-Scenes Interview (Part 1)

Interview: Nike’s VP of Sustainable Business Hannah Jones (Part 2)

Interview: Author Kate Fletcher On New Fashion & Sustainability Book

Author Interview: Elizabeth Cline of Overdressed The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion

images: Study NY

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One half of the dynamic ethical fashion label, Feral Childe’s Alice Wu, chats with EcoSalon for an inside discussion on their work as made in New York City designers.

Designing all their prints by hand, the bi-coastal team, Moriah Carlson, in Brooklyn, and Alice Wu, in Oakland, are never short of eye-catching designs, easy feminine silhouettes and intelligent ethical values. We sat down with Alice Wu of Feral Childe to talk about their carefully sourced fabrics, ethical production and why having a keen eye for practicality matters for sustainability.

Juliette Donatelli: Feral Childe is best known for its prints and fabrics. Where are the prints made and is there a story behind them?

Alice Wu: Some of the prints are done right in Los Angeles. We use a sample dye house in Marin so we work with our dye guy to create the sample palette for the season. We have our printer print one color and do different dye lots. The same fabric comes out different ways so you get a nice tonal range.

This one is actually printed in Korea. So our silks come from either Korea or India. It depends on what fabric our suppliers have on offer. Everyone has different specialties and fiber qualities. We used a silk linen which was really nice. And for a really vibrant silk, this is digitally printed on a silk cotton.

So we make the image and then we try to find the right fabric partner to do it. Then you have to wrestle with the fabric to make it into the garment. But we try to make it fun altogether.

JD: And all the clothes are made in NYC?

AW: Yes, all the clothes are made either in midtown sewing facilities or we also have started working work sewing contractors in Sunset Park.

JD: When you have a buyer, or the general public come in and see the collection or see the clothing in a store, and then find out they are made in NYC, is that a selling point?

AW: It is. I think people like it. I think it is really wonderful to know the person who made your clothes, to say hello, and thank you for cutting my fabric and putting it together. It adds a very personal touch to something you are going to be wearing for a long time. That is something that is very important to Moriah and me–to try to work with people we can interface with. Even my fabric supplier from India I have met. The first time we worked together was over email, but about a year later he came to New York on business and we met up. It was really wonderful to put a face to all the email correspondences.

JD: How important is it to you to think about where and what fabrics you are using?

AW: For us it is very important to consider materials and where they come from at all steps of the design process. It is choosing materials that have meaning.

In the beginning, whether that meant discovering Garment District castoffs or remnant fabrics, we like to have a story to go along with the fabrics we find. Even though we aren’t necessarily working with remnant fabrics right now–we are creating our own–it is still important for us to have personal connections with the fabric suppliers that we are in contact with each season and to know as much as we can about where the fabrics are coming from, whether they are durable, and are they easy to care for.

It is less important that it is specifically organic — but we try to use organic whenever possible just because it is better for everybody. But for example, even though this is not organic cotton, [this fabric] is woven in Japan working with a small mill that has restored all this vintage production equipment. So you could say it is more of an artisan fabric or made by people who really care.

For instance, take [a product] blend of modal, cotton and polyester. There was a time where I thought, ‘I am never going to make anything with polyester again, I am only going to use natural fibers.’ But if there is a little bit of poly blended with natural fibers it sometimes helps to make the garment withstand more wear and tear. You can throw it in the washing machine, or we have customers that are vegan but want to look nice. So there are lots of things to consider.  But we certainly want to make things to treasure.

Related on EcoSalon

Author Interview: Elizabeth Cline of Overdressed The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion

Interview: Author Kate Fletcher On New Fashion & Sustainability Book

Hannah Jones, Nike VP of Sustainable Business: Behind-The-Scenes Interview (Part 1)

Interview: Nike’s VP of Sustainable Business Hannah Jones (Part 2)

images: photographed by Jonathan Hökklo for the brand

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EcoSalon sits down for a fun conversation with jewelry designer Natalie Frigo on her made in New York ethically sourced stones, the three kinds of fashion consumers and what it takes for people to change.

Juliette Donatelli: All your jewelry is made in New York. How important is that to your customer?

Natalie Frigo: I launched my first line in 2010 and I would say that it was made in NYC, and it didn’t matter at all. Nobody cared. There were, like, three people who cared. How could you not care about this? This is awesome! You don’t want something domestic? There would be a couple of stores that would say, ‘Oh, we love that. We will totally promote that.’

So, now people are more excited about it. And I have people who will contact me –buyers and retail customers who will contact me and say, ‘I love your designs, but then I saw it was made in New York, and I knew I wanted to get it.’ And it’s this thing that justifies it to them.

If you are interested in that it matters, but this is not going to convince you to be interested in that.

I definitely still get from buyers, they seem to understand it more, but I do get a resistance on price because my stuff is made domestically. And my stones are ethically sourced. If you don’t know where your stones are coming from, it is like apparel, a little child cut that stone. There is no question in my mind. I would put money on it. Awful. My stones are not like that. They cost more money–two to ten times as much. And so some people are like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s all great but our customer won’t pay more.’ They like the designs but there is a price resistance and they would just rather have a cheaper good. As much as they think that it’s great that it’s made domestically, it’s not worth it to them, or they don’t want to educate their customer or try to get a new customer base.

JD: What do you think it would take?

NF: Really. What could it take? How much more information do you need to make things domestically? The economy fell from underneath us.

There was a woman who came in [to Market 605], she was dressed pretty cute, and she started going through the clothes. I was wearing something from Feral Childe, and I said ‘I love this jacket, I just bought it.’

And she looks at the tag and it’s a four hundred dollar jacket and she’s like, ‘Oh yeah. That’s too expensive.’

And I said, ‘Well, you know, it is an investment piece. I am going to have it for a really long time, it’s very classic, this isn’t going to go out of style.’

And she said, ‘Yeah, I don’t shop like that. I buy multiple things every season and I never invest in anything. I have friends that do that, I am so impressed. But I can’t do that.’

You can do that right this second! You could get that one thing right now and just start. So people who shop like that are also the buyers.

What does it take to change a person?! I feel like some people are just never going to think it matters. And then there are people on the fence, and the more they learn about it they get super excited. And then there are people who have always known about it and they’ve always been into it and they are all about it.

I would say most of my accounts are galleries or local stores that have been in their communities for a long time and are interested in developing relationships.

JD: It’s all about the relationships we build.

NF: Yeah. You don’t have to have everything made domestically but you could have some things. People want to buy domestically, but they are so used to not having to pay for things on that level.

JD: Getting the conversation started is so important. If Michelle Obama, someone who is always being asked who she is wearing, made a simple statement about where it was made, because it was probably made in the USA because of the designers she wears and the quality of the pieces–a little awareness like that could go really far. 

NF: Yes, we need good fashionable ambassadors.

I got into a conversation with this guy, he was one of the workers at a show that I was setting up for. He came over to my booth, and said, ‘Oh your stuff is really cool,’ and I said thanks, it’s made in NYC. He said, ‘That’s awesome. I had to stop buying Carhartt because they don’t make it in America anymore, they make it in Mexico.’

He was amazing! Just this regular guy wearing t-shirt and jeans, and he’s all mad because Carhartt stopped producing domestically. You need people like that in all walks of life. He’s probably lecturing his friend non stop about wearing something made in China!

Related on EcoSalon

The Promising Future of Men’s Fashion: An Interview With the Discerning Brute’s Joshua Katcher

Interview: Lingerie Line Enamore Promotes Design Over Eco

The Insourcing Trend: What is the Impact of Clothing Made in the USA?

images from the brand

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