Profession / role:

Designer

Company / organisation:

alku apparel

Website (if you have one):

www.alku.ca

My primary role in relation to fashion is:

Designer, Manufacturer, Model, Student

I am looking to discover or buy

innovative business strategies, truly ecologically friendly textiles, people who are in the industry to change it, not just profit from it

About me / About business or organisation:

I've been sewing since I was a child, I can hardly imagine life without making clothes.. I'm taking a fashion design program at Vancouver's Blanche MacDonald in 2011, with the intention of earning some industry credentials and becoming a patternmaker, as I love the satisfaction I get from making something fit perfectly. Sometime in the next couple decades, I would like to see Canada revive it's near-dead textile manufacturing industry. Perhaps it's a pipe dream, but I like to think it's just a matter of time before locally produced products become the norm, instead of a novelty.

Career history / Company history:

It was 2007 when I started venturing in to the business side of clothing.. First it was various custom clothing, then my maternity leggings took off and I sold soy/organic cotton leggings on the internet for about two years before the supplier I bought fabric from went bankrupt and went MIA without delivering the $1500 of fabric I had recently paid for. First major lesson in business. I already knew that virtually all non-woven fabrics were now produced overseas, mainly in China. As I grew (and continue to grow) more frustrated by the lack of any locally produced knits, I also grew more aware of the technological advances made in fiber production, namely viscose fibers cooked in closed loop systems, like tencel and modal. It is theoretically possible to efficiently and safely produce high quality fabrics here on native soil, out of any cellulose matter that is in abundance. We just need to work out the details.