DIY designers eye environmentalism, creativity

Mike Gorman
mc286834@dal.ca

Don’t throw out that hideous purple leather jacket you rocked oh-so hard in the ‘80’s. It might be a fashion nightmare to some, but for the ladies of Queen Street, it’s is an opportunity for endless redesigns.

To them, it’s all about do-it-yourself fashion.

“Just take something and make it a little more in-the-moment,” said Merle Bryant, owner and operator of the Clothes Horse.

“Especially with clothes that are a little dated, because they’re only dated by a season.”

She searches through discount clothing that other stores don’t move during a fashion season, buying up heaps of articles ignored by shoppers.

“It’s about the customer’s own creativity.”

Bryant opened the store last August, expanding her business that once sat above her now-neighbour, Elsie’s Used Clothing.

There, she carries fashion pieces she’s worked on alongside objects by local designers, such as Chloe Gordon’s feather/leather earrings and artist Marilyn McAvoy’s knit arm warmers.

Almost everything Bryant carries is used “vintage” or redesigned.

Straying away from the pre-set outfits and mass produced clothing of shops such as American Apparel, do-it-yourself fashion has readily caught hold as an option that not only helps the budget, but allows anyone to inject their own creativity and individuality into pieces that were once mass produced.

While it would be easy to assume this is just another trend in the turbulent world of fashion, Bryant thinks it’s a matter of environmentalism.

“People are very conscious of what it means today to take care of your community and your world,” Bryant said.

She sees DIY as an ethical decision as much as a style choice.

“Everybody became very materialistic about it, with everything being new,” she said.

The result is plenty of end-of-season leftovers that she thrives on redesigning.

“When I was a kid,” said NSCAD University assistant professor of fashion Gary Markle, “if you were caught shopping in a thrift store, you were embarrassed, because you couldn’t afford new clothes.”

Markle points to the rediscovery of thrift shops by consumers as a beginning for the DIY style.

“(Thrift store) clothes are way more interesting,” he said.

“It’s partly people reacting to seeing so much excess, being put off by that and then seeing clothing that has such a short lifecycle,” he said.

“Instead of just being dead, and ending up in a dump, you can repurpose, or extract elements from the clothing to perpetually create new things.”

“There’s lots of material available,” says Pamela McInnis.

She owns Put Me On, another vintage/DIY store above the Clothes Horse that shares the building on Queen Street.

“It’s ethical, inexpensive, it’s environmentally friendly,” she said.

She shows off a necklace and hair-tie she made by cutting away at an old leather jacket. Although she said she works on some new fabrics, she “tries to do as much recycling as possible.”

“It’s just kind of an interesting way to look at something, and see it in a multitudes of different ways,” she said, referring to the once-leather jacket, which she will debut in her store soon.

McInnis will even be presenting her creations this spring during either the Atlantic Fashion week, or a NSCAD runway show, both in April, but says that she hasn’t decided which yet.

“It’s just so in right now,” said Bryan. “It’s what people want, to know that things are being recycled.

“It’s about your own creative style, and about not being dictated to.”