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Pay InvoiceBusiness Voice - July/august 2011
Industry by Design: Does Halifax have what it takes to be a fashion hub?
A woman dressed head-to-tow in Chloe Comme Parris’s spring/summer collection walks into The Hunt Club on Spring Garden Road in Halifax. After purchasing a latte and perusing through the store, the woman picks up a lovely floral C’est Moi scarf for purchase.
Ten years ago, the same woman would have had to search much further for her investment, likely out-of-province and certainly not in Atlantic Canadian. But recently, Halifax has seen a shift in the fashion industry. Some would say it’s gone from being nonexistent to being an infant – but that’s a start. From fashion education to retail, Halifax has come a long way, but we still have a long road ahead.
Industry in Infancy
The experts agree; Halifax has come a long way in the past decade. Gary Markle, a professor of fashion at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, describes cookie cutter-like business men walking down the streets of downtown Halifax in the early 2000s, dressed in “beige khakis, a blue shirt and red tie.” That generic image has changed, he says.
“It’s no longer considered sissy to have style as a young guy. People have relaxed and have started to enjoy fashion more. If you compare it to 20 years ago, there were only about two shoe stores you could get anything of any style.”
Jessica Bradford, fashion blogger and creator of Haute Halifax (hautehalifax.com), says since she started scribing the latest in fashion in 2008, she’s seen an emergence of new designers and boutiques. “Just in this past year I can think of four new locally owned stores that have popped up, including The Hunt Club, HIM Boutique, Twisted Muse and Sparrow,” she says. More than 13 years ago, designer Lisa Drader- Murphy moved to an apple orchard in Falmouth, Nova Scotia with her family and transformed the property’s barn into her studio, which doubled as a café. When she arrived in the province, the already-established designer cultivated her own industry.
“I was surprised that in such a culturally mature region, there wasn’t people who had made the decision to become fashion designers and stay here,” she says, sitting by the make-up counter at Turbine, her boutique in Bishops Landing. Drader-Murphy, who came from Alberta and left behind three successful Turbine stores, says she created her “own buzz” when she got here, putting on a fashion show that has become an annual showcase. She says the industry is growing because 10 years ago, there was no industry. “There are more designers in Halifax that are willing to pursue fashion as their career, but we still have work to do,” she says. “When I meet with people that are graduating or studying right now, they just want to pick my brain. But to see that passion and excitement, I’m wondering where this passion is going to take them.” Drader-Murphy was recently the only Canadian designer to be invited to the celebrity gifting suite at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. “Where am I going to see them in five years? That’s really exciting, because it’s been a long time coming. I haven’t experienced that here except for in the last few years.”
Breeding The Industry
Learning about fashion in Halifax has become accessible and arguably rivals some of the best fashion institutes in the country. Whether you dream of the runway in Paris or creating costumes for Broadway, the city’s programs have been emerging and shape-shifting to accommodate for many different aspects of the business. At NSCAD, students are gaining an “intensely strong undergraduate experience,” says Markle. The soon-to-be major in Fashion and Textiles, students currently take fashion as a minor with textiles, an advantage shared by few others in the country.
“There are very few other schools in Canada, at least, that have that kind of connectivity because fashion is sometimes viewed as something that’s commercial or very superficial,” says Markle, who was himself a student of NSCAD and graduated with a major in textiles in 1995. “We’re teaching fashion starting with the hands. So our students know how to make what they’re drawing.” Markle says this is a more modern approach to what the textile craft should be. Students can focus on weaving, fashion or dye and print. That covers “surface, structure and form,” he says.
Down the street from NSCAD in downtown Halifax at the Centre for Arts and Technology, a new fashion design program is teaching production, construction, marketing and merchandising. Michelle Kulyk, department head of the fashion design and merchandising program, says she’s focused on giving her students “solid foundation skills, excellent construction skills and realistic training.
“There was a huge need for this course here. We had no school or official training for people who wanted to be in the garment industry,” says Kulyk, who worked in production and manufacturing for a number of local garment companies including Fundy Textile and Design and Windsor Wear.
Although the industry is growing, Kulyk teaches the reality of finding employment postgraduation. “One thing we’re really focused on is giving employability skills, but they’re also very aware that there’s a chance they’ll have to relocate or they’ll have to work for companies that do work offshore.”
To round it out, Dalhousie University offers a bachelor in costume studies, covering areas such as the esthetics of historical and modern dress, pattern designing of garments from 1680 to the present, costume as sculpture and costume in performance, among others. Drader-Murphy notes that she believes we’ll start to see some overlap: a student will go to NSCAD and then to the Centre for more training in different areas.
NSCAD has been producing high-quality and up-and-coming designers. Recent graduate Chloe Gordon’s label Chloe Comme Parris has been receiving national and international recognition. After graduating, Gordon moved from Halifax back to her native city of Toronto. A family affair, Chloe and sister Parris were a hit at last fall’s Toronto Fashion Week. Markle says before we start retaining our talent, there needs to be an industry that generates income and opportunity for emerging designers. “The people who are educating fashion here need to join together and find the common ground and start asking government and business to support this idea. Not in a hand out kind of way, but demonstrate with careful planning that an industry can grow here.”
Eco-Friendly Flavour
Markle says fashion in Halifax isn’t – and won’t be – a tiny version of Paris or Milan, but it doesn’t have to be. He says he wants to help steer in industry towards being eco-friendly and organic. “Why not be the world leaders for that? Why do we have to become a crappy version of Paris when we can become a fantastic version of us?” After reading about the subject, Markle’s personal mandate ties farming to fashion, which he says isn’t an immediate connection for most people.
“I love fashion, but I don’t want to do it at the cost of the planet. That’s just insane,” says Markle, sitting at his office desk in NSCAD. “It’s easy in our consumer culture to forget that things don’t magically turn out as a shirt, for example. A lot of fibre plants are multi-use crops. We eat them, use them as herbal medicine and we can wear them.”
Sold at more than five local shops including Love Me Boutique and P’lovers Halifax, Laura Chenoweth’s organic apparel line is made with Global Organic Textile Standard certified organic cotton grown in India. A Halifax-based designer, Chenoweth designs her clothing patterns with a local seamstress, with each garment being handcrafted by a small group of skilled tailors in Rajasthan, India. Chenoweth is just one of many local designers practicing green conscious fashion, including MAKENEW (previously Deux fm), a vintage collection pulled from thrift store bins by designer Anna Gilkerson to find quality pieces constructed in North America.
Kulyk and the Centre for Arts is working with the Environmental Services Association of Nova Scotia (ESANS) to headline an event at this year’s Corporate Sustainability Summit at the World Trade and Convention Centre in Halifax. A sustainable fashion show, ecLoTHES, will showcase sustainable Canadian designers from across the country in a two-hour runway gala on September 27, at the World Trade and Convention Centre. Designers will also have the opportunity to sell their sustainable pieces at a trunk show after the event. “Consumers want fashionable change, they want sustainable clothing options. ecLoTHES is not just a fashion show, it is a step towards real change,” Kulyk says. “It’s one step to saying, ‘yes, it can be done here’.”
Community Minded
When entering the world fashion scene, one may say to keep your guard up and prepare for a ruthless and relentless industry. That isn’t the case in Halifax, says Angela Campagnoni, owner of City Models and director of Atlantic Fashion Week. “Halifax is a very laid back city and we’re a small community,” she says. “People can get together and do shows together and the designers can share ideas, which isn’t common in the bigger cities; it’s cut throat. It’s much more community based here.” Despite the sense of community that’s typical of Haligonians, Campagnoni says you “still have to keep your cards close. You still need to have a bit of an edge.”
Steven Mason, a Halifax-based model who recently won two awards at the Canadian Model and Talent Convention in Toronto, says the region’s sense of unity is what drives his career. “Even just going to Toronto for that short period of time, I could tell that some of the other models that were from the Ontario area, they’re more shark-like,” says the 23-yearold, who’s only been modeling for two years. “It’s better to have friends than people that you’re trying to go up against... it’s easier to move forward and that’s what we’re all trying to do in this province.”
The U.S. Invasion
Commercially, the retail clothing industry in the Halifax Regional Municipality has seen a burst of new faces over the past five years. In a study released last month by BMO Financial Group, Chief Economist Stephen Mason, Professional Model Dr. Sherry Cooper says retail sales in Canada are now on par to those in the United States on a per capita basis. This has lured retailers north, she says.
"Canada is particularly attractive to U.S. retailers because of our strong exchange rate, higher sales per square foot and potential room for expansion," Cooper says. After taking a drive out to Mic Mac Mall, one would find a wealth of new U.S. retailers still settling in to their new home. Stores like Old Navy, Hollister and H&M have changed the face of the mall and has increased traffic.
Bradford says adding brand name labels to Halifax’s fashion roster is pushing the region to rival other Canadian cities, such as Toronto and Vancouver. “We’re starting to attract higher end labels because there’s in fact a market here for it,” she says, adding that Halifax is the fashion hub and shopping destination for Atlantic Canada.
The Future Of Hali-Fashion
The industry in Halifax is “embryonic,” Drader-Murphy says. “When I moved my label here from Calgary in 1998, there were very few pursuing fashion design as a career option,” she adds. “Now it’s alive, growing and preparing to be born amid great anticipation. I think that within a few years, many more fashion industry contributors will continue to choose to stay in Nova Scotia and more designers will find themselves in a position to grow and hire the graduates of our design programs.”
To make this happen, Kulyk says we need to regenerate the garment industry. “I’m about production not being a dirty word and having jobs where – when people make things – it’s not being seen as somehow slave labour or inappropriate types of work.” Kulyk says the regeneration of the manufacturing industry will create more opportunity for recent graduates and give them the tools to be skilled manufacturers.
Many new designers believe they can start a label right out of design school, but Drader- Murphy knows all to well that this isn’t the case. She spent 10 years in the manufacturing industry before going to design school while “working the night shift at 7/11.” She says young designers don’t necessarily have to “earn” their place in the industry, but rather take the right steps.
Campagnoni says she’ll continue to grow Atlantic Fashion Week, which is in its fifth season, in hopes of attracting international attention. “I would definitely hope... that we would have more visiting national affiliated people. Buyers and recognized names in the fashion industry.”
Industry folk in the region need to band together and plan for the future, the experts agree. Kulyk says she’ll be helping launch the Textiles and Apparel Manufacturers Association of Nova Scotia this fall and the Designer Craft Council is an already-established body in the region that has a repertoire of designers ranging from potters to jewelers. Above all, Campagnoni says designers have to make the decision to stay here and carry fashion as their first priority.
Drader-Murphy knows it’s possible. “My message has always been to stay here, try it here. It might take a different identity and might take a little longer in certain aspects, but if you really want the lifestyle that Nova Scotia has to offer, take it from me, it’s worth keeping this lifestyle than getting on that treadmill in a large city centre.”
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