Blondie Apparel: Made in vs Designed in Canada.

What's This Place? podcast turns one this week.  I launched my first episode with Sharon Smyl from Collected Joy a year ago this week and heck yeah, I'm going to celebrate!
I'm giving away a chance to win one of 3 garments from Blondie Apparel, a 100% Made in Canada garment...from fabric to hang tags to thread. 

HOW TO WIN?!
Go to my Instagram or Twitter for rules and entry. 
You can also send a screen shot of a review you write on your podcast app between now and  September 27th at 11:59pm to miranda@theodore1922.com.

This week on the podcast we go behind the blood sweat and tears of Blondie Apparel.  Brodie and Michelle Brodie started out making hats and scarves but soon moved on to designing womenswear made here in Canada.  
"Designed in Canada" is one thing but manufacturing that design here at home is a Level Up not many businesses have the guts to pull off.

Blondie Apparel decided to put everything on the line and start manufacturing garments entirely in Canada...even the fabric!
But could they do it? 
Would the infrastructure handle their business? 
Could they compete if they went all Canadian? 
Who are Brodie and Michelle and what is Blondie Apparel? 
Let's go inside and find out.

Enjoying the podcast? I am fiercely independent, and rely on listeners like you to help me stick around.
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review in Apple podcasts?! I would be so grateful.

Transcript

Blondie Apparel

[00:00:00] Miranda Black (2): What's This Place? podcast turns one this week. That's right. I launched my first episode with Sharon Smyl from Collected Joy a year ago this week. Huzzah! I'm going to celebrate! 

I'm giving away some Made in Canada merch. Now to keep this podcast, evergreen, if today is past September 29th, 2022 skip ahead, 30 seconds. And if it's the week, this episode was released: you can win one of three entirely made in Canada garments from Blondie Apparel. Enter the What's This Place? podcast first anniversary giveaway. It's a tongue twister. 

By going to Instagram or Twitter, each has different rules. Or the old fashioned way if you don't do socials: email me a screenshot of a review you wrote on one of the episodes. Use the address Miranda@theodore1922.com. This week, I'm talking to Blondie Apparel. 

Who I discovered through Sharon Smyl, the owner of Collected Joy and my very first guest on this show. She runs a gift store, empire three stores here in Toronto. But prior to our interview, I had no idea how much of her stuff was made here in Canada. 

[00:01:11] Sharon Smyl: But you can't tell you don't walk in and see like maple leaf shaped maple syrup in here I don't have anything themed. You will come in and you'll be able to decorate your house or find really great cards or a great pair of mittens or whatever that are fantastic.

That just so happened to be great. So we made and locally made 

[00:01:28] Miranda Black (2): After the show we got to chatting. And I mentioned that back at my store, I had looked high and low for a 100% Canadian made t-shirt. Fabric thread and all, and I couldn't find anything. I used to ask my manufacturers in Toronto and Montreal, if we could do a 100% made in Canada garment and the answer always was. The mills are dead. They're all closed up. Canada. Doesn't mill anymore. 

But Sharon scoffed at this, she was like, 

uh, there are mills in Ontario. I sell their stuff. 

You should talk to Brodie and Michelle from Blondie Apparel. Now because I'm a fabric junkie, I was a little skeptical that fabric milled in Canada could be as soft and luxurious as something coming out of Europe. Was it going to be boardy and thick? So I went to Sharon's store to feel the fabric for myself 

It's nice. This is lounge wear. They don't have a men's line yet, but that's where you come in, follow them on socials by the women's wear. So they have the capital to branch out into, men's 

Tell your friends to listen to this episode

[00:02:32] Miranda Black (2): . Brodie. And Michelle started out making hats and scarves. 

The scarf seemed to be like the gateway drug to female entrepreneurship on this podcast. Anyway, they decided to put everything on the line and start producing garments made entirely in Canada, but could they do it? Was there an infrastructure? Could they even compete in casual basics by going all Canadian? Well, we're going to find out. So who are Brodie and Michelle and what is Blondie Apparel? 

It's so nice to have you guys on the show. This season I am really focusing on sustainable retail. Like how can we be better shoppers if that's even possible?

[00:03:19] Michelle: It is. 

[00:03:20] Miranda Black (2): Oh, Yay. I love to hear that. Can you tell me a little bit about your company? I don't know who wants to go first, 

[00:03:27] Michelle: all you, bud. 

are brodie and Michelle from Blondie Apparel. this whole thing out as just like a couple of friends, having some drinks. I'm doing like sewing some scarves. had no idea or no plans to it into what it's turned into. And I feel like we're really lucky that it's gone this way. So we design 

And make women's clothing. 

 We are doing our first unisex crew this fall, but 

[00:03:53] Miranda Black (2): Oh, good. 

I was going to ask you about menswear. Cause I come from men's squares. 

 And I was a little bit jealous for the men there for a second. 

[00:04:00] Michelle: We have had lots of our guy friends and our husbands ask us if we do men's. And so this is little thing to keep them happy our thing is. It's all a hundred percent Made in Canada. So like different companies say that differently, but for us Made in Canada is absolutely everything. So it's. 

our tags and our, , our thread and the fabric. So it's, it's really, really Canadian. 

[00:04:21] Miranda Black (2): That's really huge. It's really impressive that you've figured out a way to do that. Did you start as a hundred percent made in Canada? 

[00:04:30] Michelle: no, not a hundred percent, but , once we built our business plan, it's been. The thing that like guides us, through everything. Like , we want to stay a hundred percent Canadian. , Yeah, it's definitely your guiding force. So when we first started this, we were. Buying fabric from Canadian fabric suppliers. All imported from overseas. And we were actually sewing everything ourselves as well. And then we started just through growth. We decided to, you know, 

I get some help with manufacturing and then also switch over to. Fabric as well.

it's always been in Canada, but just like some of the supplies that we've gotten have recently been changed to a hundred percent.

[00:05:10] Miranda Black (2): that's a huge feat. So. When you go out, you want to support local, right? So you're like, oh, I'm going to shop local. You go out to your. Store down the street and you get your little product home and then you look at the bottom and it says, Made In, China, Vietnam Bangladesh. we. . 

Maybe our shopping local, but we're not getting our product locally as Canadians. We're still not doing that, but you guys have figured out some sort of secret sauce. Like, there are a lot of brands. 

That are designed in Canada. But then they ship all their production overseas. So why, how did you come to that? And what was the big prob what do you think the big problem is for people not taking that route. 

[00:05:55] Michelle: Like we constantly. Are getting emails from Chinese companies looking for us to shift our manufacturing over to them. is a lot of pressure. can be very, very tempting. Like for us, it's almost the same as that. End consumer right. Like if, if you're looking at something and you're like, well, it's a lot cheaper. If I do this. 

This way so I can save the money there. I mean, it's the same with us. We could shift production to China. there's obviously a lot of like logistical challenges with that, but for sure. We'd be making way more money could offer the product to, , consumers , for less, it just doesn't feel right. Like Michelle said, when we hammered out our business plan, it made it very, very clear what our priorities were and what we were interested in and where we wanted Blondie to go. I think it's tempting for a lot of people to do it. It's the easier route because you don't have to be so granular with your numbers and making sure that everything's. 

 Still going to turn a profit. But, I mean, ultimately it comes down to like, what sort of impact do you want to have on the planet? And it was a non-starter for us. We were never gonna make stuff in China.

[00:06:56] Miranda Black (2): Nice. 

[00:06:57] Michelle: We're both. Definitely like a little bit like. Having it here and being able to control things control it in a sense that it's closer. We have like a relationship with our manufacturers.That is. can put a face to a name and like you chat with them and everything. I don't know how I would be able to do it. If 

If it 

[00:07:15] Miranda Black (2): Oh, you'd have 

[00:07:15] Michelle: overseas. 

[00:07:16] Miranda Black (2): have to fly back and forth from China, really. Like that's the only way. 

It to keep control over your process. When I had my store, I had shirts made. I don't know if you know, there's Lipson shirt. There are manufacturers here in Canada that they make stuff. They. Cut so and make stuff, but getting the fabric made in Canada, that's a, that's a bigger hurdle. And you've you guys found that at first you're getting your fabric you're sourcing it from wherever how did you figure out. Getting a mill in Canada. Where did you find, how did you get connected? Some Canadian mills. 

 So we'd been with our manufacturer for a number of years. we're on the edge of where. Ordering so much fabric, let's just inquire to see what minimums are for the mill. So, we had help from our manufacturer 

[00:08:11] Michelle: Who is the tight knit and that Industry and, , reached out to a couple. And, our first one that we went to, was a little bit of a hiccup, but we've landed on one that is.

very.

very. 

[00:08:23] Miranda Black (2): tell me the hiccup. Tell me the hiccup. 

[00:08:24] Michelle: That's such a nice way of putting it considering. Absolute nightmare. 

Yeah. was just like a combination of inexperience and then like having to deal with men. , and just like, yeah, it was this massive learning curve that we were on. We connected with this mill. And then we were like, okay, we want to order all this fabric. And it was a lot. And for us, when you're ordering the fabric, there's no second chance at it. Like it has to be perfect. Otherwise your full season is. 

Dan. And so. So it was, it ended up at the, at the manufacturers and it was like flawed, I would say,

[00:08:58] Miranda Black (2): Oh, my God. 

[00:08:59] Michelle: was awful. And so then 

[00:09:01] Miranda Black (2): The fabric itself, the fabric itself was flawed.

Oh, God. 

[00:09:06] Michelle: then it pushed us into trying to negotiate with the mill, on what the appropriate compensation for such a big. A hiccup. 

Yeah. mean, it was really difficult. And I think just our uncertainty combined with the fact that we're women made it really difficult. Their rep came here and sat in the basement our studio and it was just the most awkward. Thing ever. And, but we did, I think we won in the end. We, I mean, 

Like we still, we had to compromise, but we did definitely, um, like get compensated for the mix-up and it kept us from making that choice again, and we were much more. In tune with what questions to ask when we were looking for a mill. You know what. 

Sort of red flags to look for. 

[00:09:50] Miranda Black (2): Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:09:51] Michelle: it's not a cop for it, but it was definitely painful at the time. 

[00:09:53] Miranda Black (2): the mistakes, you learn a lot with the mistakes, but it can be very dangerous to your

business. Do you.

[00:10:00] Michelle: When you're small. Yeah. 

[00:10:01] Miranda Black (2): are the mills, is it a bit of a male dominated, like old, not male dominated. Everything's male dominated. Um, Is it old, old world? Mentality.

[00:10:12] Michelle: so far that's kind of what, what we've been experiencing.

[00:10:16] Miranda Black (2): noticed, I noticed the same thing. Dealing with men's wear. 

And nothing against the men's out there, but it, it is, uh, It's a bit of an old world mentality and you show up as women. 

[00:10:28] Michelle: Yeah. 

[00:10:29] Miranda Black (2): There's a bit of a communication. , I don't 

[00:10:31] Michelle: Yeah. It's a little intimidating, for sure. Especially Being two younger females.you're like, I'm going to be strong here. the more we've done it, the more confidence we've built like the questioning, some of the questions could be stupid, but I'm like, is still new for me. So let's just. 

Go for it. The relationship we have now with our, with our mill is really good. And it is still, sorta old school, like you've been saying, but I think as a woman, learn how to manage those relationships and how. sort of adjust. I mean, it's crazy that have to, but you definitely learn how to shift the way that you communicate And so , when you're having your fabrics made. You're designing the actual fabric before you go in, or , you take what they're able , to give you. 

 We can actually , design the fabric in terms of like the content, , right now with our mill. We're still kind of testing the waters. We do have some of our, custom fabrics that we have okay, we want 67%. Of this, and we want 27% of this.

[00:11:32] Miranda Black (2): Are you talking like the composition, like cotton? 

[00:11:35] Michelle: Yes.

[00:11:35] Miranda Black (2): Yeah. Yeah. Okay. 

[00:11:37] Michelle: And then we'll get into more of the designing part of it in terms of the weight, but also the on it. , like for spring or for fall next year, we're going to do some more. the heathered look, So if you're, heathered look is. 

cotton and 50. 80% polio. Polyester it. It looks different than 70. 70% cotton. And 30% player. 

So we're able. Able to design things. Like that. For sure. 

So tell, tell me what does it matter if my clothing is made in Canada or made in China or made in Vietnam? It's cheaper for me. I really want to get down to people's resistance and it's going to come down to money. Right. I can buy one shirt for $10. That's made in Bangladesh. , Or five of those. I can have so many more shirts in my closet, or I can buy one from Blondie Apparel for $55. What benefit does it have to me? It's a hard for me anyways. a really difficult mentality to break because it's been like years. And years and years of and business, like ingraining that in people, but it really needs to just be, about buying less and buying smart. 

 We just need to think about things before we buy them. And then think about how long they're going to last. And even beyond that, mean, I feel like if you can just if everyone can get their mind around, just consuming a bit less. 

[00:13:02] Michelle: then supporting that decision has all these things like fair treatment of workers and less pollution in the planet. And all of those things, , I'm not sure that people are as compelled, Bye. that they can't see directly. But. they can just understand that less is actually more. 

think we'd all be way better off. 

[00:13:21] Miranda Black (2): . And what about like, am I really helping employ Canadians? When I buy Blondie Apparel? , 

[00:13:28] Michelle: I mean, they really is. There's so many more Canadians being supported when something doesn't ever leave the country, like from the very beginning of production, it's anyone that works for us in our studio. And it's. Ken par driver that shows up here at the door, he's Canadian and the manufacturer, all the employees there and the mill and all the employees there. It's. 

Like our tag people in our bag, people in our, our web team. And like, 

[00:13:50] Miranda Black (2): I did read that clothing more than any other industry. The end product. It has way more funnels of employment than really any other product because you have. The dye, the fabric, the. 

the. 

tags, like you say, like there's so many components that go into making a garment that the touch points, I don't know. I think it was like a hundred people are touching your garment before it gets , on your body. 

[00:14:19] Michelle: believe it , it'd be really interesting to write down every single one. I'm still even thinking of like, I there's a lot of, a lot of Canadian companies that touch us and there's things like our mailers our hang tags. We want those to be Canadians, like we could get them in China, but we, so every single touch point we're looking for Canadian partners. 

[00:14:38] Miranda Black (2): It's going to boil down, back down to money, right? Like if for someone to not do it, . The only reason that I can kind of get out of you guys would be money. 

[00:14:46] Michelle: And , I don't know if anyone's like me. If I. I spend $65 on a t-shirt I'm going to take care of that thing. It is being looked after. If I buy a $10 t-shirt. it's like. Whatever it was $10. You're not going to take care of it. 

if it wasn't really an investment for you.

[00:15:04] Miranda Black (2): Yeah.

[00:15:05] Michelle: And I think that that is like a. When you're considering. Buying 10 t-shirts versus buying one. You're going to take care of that one. A little bit more than your 10. 

[00:15:13] Miranda Black (2): Because it's disposable. It's it's. 

Almost literally disposable. I don't use the word literally very often, but it's, it's created. 

To be disposable, which cotton should never, should never be disposable.

[00:15:28] Michelle: Yeah. 

Like for us to buy things and then just donate it It's so easy to do that and everyone does it, but there's no, thought going into where it goes after that. what impact it has afterwards. I mean, all you have to do is watch some documentaries about it and the mounds of clothing oversees it's really, really gross now. It's not feasible for everybody to spend $65 on a t-shirt. And so that's fine as well. We're definitely not like buy from us, that's the only solution. It's just, if you need to buy. The $10, $25 a t-shirt just. 

Don't buy 20 of them buy one and take care of it and where it. As long as you can, buy more than what you need. Just be a smart shopper.

[00:16:10] Miranda Black (2): Yeah.

it's definitely, we're not talking about people who are living hand to mouth. We're talking about people who have a little means. , and they're still shopping as if they're living hand to mouth. 

[00:16:21] Michelle: I honestly feel like if you have the means to support Canadian and buy quality clothing and buy less of it, you're obligated to, I think there's, there's two different groups of people here and the ones that can should and sorta offsets the people that can't.

[00:16:35] Miranda Black (2): Yeah.

 can we talk for a moment, just a little bit about textile waste, we. Touched a little bit on it. When we talked about the end consumer dumping stuff off which gets shipped over to poor countries for them to deal with it.

[00:16:49] Miranda Black (2): But there's also, textile waste in the manufacturing of goods. . I just wondered if you guys. Think about that. If it's part of, , the Canadian mill experience, if it's built in already, did they tell you what they do with their textile waste? Does it ever get even brought up in the industry?

[00:17:07] Brodie: Totally.  It's definitely something that's like top of mind, we used to be we would make things out of the scraps of fabric that are unusable. Yeah. In some of our, , styles, like scrunchies or headbands 

, and that's something that we've done, like from the get go, just because we we can, sew, so why not?

Why not try it. 

[00:17:26] Miranda Black (2): So you already you already knew about that byproduct before you started. 

[00:17:31] Brodie: Yeah. And when we first started because we weren't making as many pieces, we were able to kind of like piece work, everything on the fabric to waste, like hardly anything.

[00:17:40] Miranda Black (2): yeah. 

[00:17:40] Michelle: So when you're, you're placing your pattern on it, you can really be thoughtful and make sure that there's as little waste as possible. And I think that's the benefit of working with Canadian small manufacturer as well. They're very, very conscious of it too. And so they're constantly trying to do the same, which is nice.

[00:17:54] Miranda Black (2): Yeah. 

[00:17:55] Brodie: A lot of the time too, if we have different sizes, they'll say oh, an extra small will fit into an extra large, so bump up your quantities for those or make them equal kind of thing, just so that you get less waste. Which is good for the planet and good for like costing .

[00:18:11] Miranda Black (2): So, so it's something they were aware of. That's built into the Canadian textile experience. Is that because of our history of just having to be so, sort of financially, because we're competing against cheaper, manufacturing, which is so much cheaper, because they tend to use slave labor.

Let's not sugarcoat it. and here we don't use slave labor. \ So is that built into their structure already? 

[00:18:37] Michelle: I think it is. I think. They're just more aware of it. And as business owners themselves are the same as, us , they want to make sure that they're having as small an impact on the planet in a negative way as possible.

 It's just that train of thought where I think manufacturing overseas is just kind of like get it in and get it out. And don't even think about the amount of waste. I'm sure there's some manufacturers over there that are conscious, I think Canadian manufacturing as a whole is probably just more aware of their impact on the. 

[00:19:07] Miranda Black (2): Canada used to have a very strong, textile industry where you guys aware of that history before you started, or are you more aware of it now?

[00:19:16] Michelle: Not really. Not really. Yeah. Like how long ago do you think that would have been. 

[00:19:20] Miranda Black (2): Well, just from the research I did, even in the nineties, 70% of our clothing was made in Canada. 

[00:19:30] Michelle: Wow. 

[00:19:31] Miranda Black (2): Yeah. It's only big. That's huge. Right. And it's not that long ago. I was thinking that I was going to be looking into the seventies.

[00:19:37] Michelle: Yeah, 

[00:19:37] Miranda Black (2): In the nineties over 200,000 people were employed in Canada in the textile industry and now it's something like 20,000. So it's been really gutted. 

[00:19:47] Michelle: Right. , 

[00:19:47] Miranda Black (2): so, when you guys say. That you're helping all these other industries survive.

 I don't even know if you guys are aware of how true that is, how many people you really are, helping employ. , 

[00:20:00] Michelle: it's a weird thing. Cause , I feel as though we didn't really. Like, I think that we made the decision. It wasn't based on any pressure from outside or anything.

I think it was just that's how we wanted to leave our mark and it, it wasn't like we were jumping on a bandwagon or it just felt like that's what we both wanted. And we're both interested in the environment and we're both interested in doing good and not necessarily just making a ton of money.

And so I think it was like for us anyways, it was just like, yeah, of course, of course, this is what we're doing. Yeah.

[00:20:29] Miranda Black (2): When you see a company like Joe fresh, which is let's call it Joe stale,

 Joey rotten. when you see a company like that, what do you think it would take to bring a company like that to bring them home? Is it really just like, Joey rotten, you can no longer get rich by exploiting young girls and women overseas. 

[00:20:59] Michelle: I mean, it's so hard.

Cause I think you're always going to have those companies that act like total assholes and , it's just the way it is. I think the problem comes in when there's people that are blindly supporting them, and not making themselves aware of what's going on. because there are so many terrible things with Joe fresh and H and M I mean, I get it like it's convenient and it's cheap.

You can run in and get your groceries and get yourself a new outfit. Like I totally get it. And there's a place for it. It's just that like insatiable appetite for that type of clothing, I have years ago bought things from Joe fresh and I made a vow to myself.

Cause I swear to God, every time I washed one of the things, it turned into a whole different piece of clothing, it was just junk, the problem is our appetite for it, which isn't our fault. . We've been trained to want, to just consume, consume, consume.

And so I think it's shifting that focus educating people on thoughtful buying and, you know, maybe buying less. And so, ultimately. You know, if a lot of people got on that bandwagon, then Joe fresh would start to see their sales drop and then maybe they would be like, you know what?

We need to rethink this a little bit. 

[00:22:05] Miranda Black (2): It's re it's. It really is up to the consumer more than more than we think. And hopefully, maybe we shift a couple of hearts and minds and what would happen if somebody like Joe stale came and said, I'm going to get my textiles made here. Are there enough mills to even support that kind of industry here in Canada? 

[00:22:27] Michelle: I think that's like even the bigger question, because it really is like, I mean, even we don't want everybody manufacturing, all their stuff in Canada. What we want is everyone manufacturing less stuff. Um, and then it could be supported by Canadian textile industry.

But ultimately the biggest thing is just like, can we, can Joe fresh to stop making a million of this one skew? There's no need for that. 

[00:22:50] Brodie: We put out two collections a year. And Joe fresh would probably, I don't even know how many collections, 

[00:22:56] Michelle: it's insane. I think I Googled that a while ago with H and M and how many collections they put out in a year. And it was shocking. I remember the number of being like. 

[00:23:05] Miranda Black (2): It's 24. So that's two collections a month. That is that like women's men's children's 

I'm not sure. I just saw that it was 24 and it boggled my mind too.

Cause. Wait a second. That's more than one a month. Nobody needs to rotate their closet twice a month. That's crazy. 

[00:23:24] Michelle: Well, and I think like our customers, people that have ordered from us repeatedly, they understand it and they, they really, really get it.

And we get messages from people being like, oh my gosh, I've had my east end sweater since whatever. A long time ago and they're still wearing it. It's still one of their favorites. That makes us so happy because we don't want it to be, you know, like something that you only like for a season.

And so we really designed for two sort of seasons, but everything is really, season-less it's stuff that you can wear all throughout. Especially here in Canada, because you know, summer evenings are cool. So you can still wear a nice sweater. 

[00:23:56] Miranda Black (2): Yeah. 

[00:23:57] Brodie: And even if something is donated.

A piece of ours we'll continue to last, right. So even if you're buying it, second-hand. It'll last longer than your $10 shirt. 

[00:24:07] Miranda Black (2): Yeah, I'm a real fabric junkie. I love the hand of garments. So when I went to feel your stuff, I was really intrigued.

Like, is it really going to be as soft as made in Italy or wherever? And it was soft, but also it felt really durable. 

And I thought these are legacy pieces that will be in thrift stores for years to come. 

[00:24:30] Brodie: Yay.. Yeah. We try not to be too. on-trend right. So something that is in a thrift store, will keep going in terms of style, . 

[00:24:40] Miranda Black (2): Do you guys have, have your clothing patterns, habits changed since you owned a business? Since you're more aware of the manufacturing process? 

[00:24:49] Michelle: Like as far as us buying like buying clothes. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Cause I actually used to own a clothing store and so you're just constantly seeing all this stuff and I used to work for, we both actually used to work for Jacob.

I don't know if you remember Jacob, Jacob. Yeah, we worked there. So I feel like our entire paychecks just went towards clothes. So for sure things have shifted. Like most of my wardrobe is a few lines. Like I'll support other Canadian lines as well as where our own stuff, for sure. But I mean, I have east ends and t-shirts from us that are years old and I still wear it.

Yeah. I mean, we're surrounded, but we're not like, Ooh, I need this, I need this, I need this. And we have it right here to take, but we understand that like for every one we take it's, it's just, you know, is it is a really necessary. 

I listened to the Smartlist podcast and John ham, John ham was on and they were laughing cause he was wearing his t-shirt from high school and they were like, wow, it's really lasted.

[00:25:41] Miranda Black (2): And I thought, of course stood his cotton. Like what are you? People are trained to think that a t-shirt. Like even five years or 10 years, a t-shirt lasts for 20 years, 50 years, people's mentality does need to change around that. what have you learned that surprised you that you didn't know before you started.

[00:26:02] Michelle: I think like, I don't, I mean, it's weird because I think for me it was , just the men thing. Um, and like how, , I dunno. I felt like I probably lived a very privileged life in the country and I never really was exposed to that. And then just all of a sudden, in, in the process of getting our fabric manufactured, it felt like we were sort of at a disadvantage and not a huge amount, but it just felt as though had we been.

You know, uh, man, we would've probably been treated a little bit differently, so that's maybe the most surprising for me, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I think too, um, same with it's like, wow. , I don't think that we were really expecting. Yeah. For me it was how accessible some of the fabrics are versus when you get them made at a mill, like how long it takes. You really got a want this color. You really have to know if this color is going to be good.

Whereas when you're buying like in stock fabric from a wholesaling fabric company, It's kind of just like, yeah. That, yeah. That, and you get like 10 meters of it. You love it. You hate it whereas whenever we're buying fabric for ourselves, it's. Hundreds of meters of fabric. So you're, you don't just get like 10 meters of it.

Yeah. And then the time that it takes to, when you're buying from a wholesale company, they're basically picking the they've already gone through all the trends and they're kind of dictating what you're going to do and it's sort of a.

Not a sure thing, but it's an easier, they're narrowing down the choice for you, for us. We're picking from Pantone colors. And so you have to really be confident in your color and, it's not dictated by another company, but also just to get a sample of that fabric or to get your fabric, it takes months like, it's a long process we're working on fall 20, 23 right now.

 Yeah, it's not as quickly. Yeah, that makes sense. It's not as accessible. Like maybe that was my biggest thing, because for a few years we were able to be like, oh, I like that Stripe. And then like a week later we have it. Yeah. Which is very convenient for some things. But then it kind of goes into the thing again, of like, do we even need it?

Or , Are we just doing this because we're, we're sick of these colors or something, you know what I mean? it goes into the mind of the consumer again, like, if we think consciously and not like over buy. 

[00:28:20] Miranda Black (2): it's a lot more fearless entrepreneurism when you're building it from zero, as opposed to when you get the fabric, you have a little bit of a leg up now you had to make a huge leap of faith that you could do.

[00:28:34] Michelle: Do that or predict that, or make a trend I'm going to use quotes for trends. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's why when it didn't work out, like when we had those hiccups in the very beginning, we were like, oh no, what are we doing? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:28:48] Miranda Black (2): Well, how did you come back to it? After the hiccup, you could have said, you know what, this is too difficult.

 What was the force behind that? 

[00:28:56] Brodie: Yeah. So we had to at the get go, and then the one was the, the big hiccup. But the second one would, who we're still with now was kind of like the light that we were like, okay, this is how it could be. This is how we don't want it to be.

And so like, Steered into the direction of like, this is how it could be. And, and simplified things. We were like, okay, maybe we went too many too quick , yeah, we stuck with what we knew we loved. Now every collection we kind of, add a little, something 

like this collection, we added like a slub fabric because we were like, you know, 

I love slub fabric by 

[00:29:30] Miranda Black (2): the way. Yeah. Yeah. If I, if anyone out there doesn't know slub fabric, it's got a softness to it. , the drape is really nice.

[00:29:37] Michelle: Yeah. So what we're taking a little bit more risks now, everything comes back to our mission we want to have fun and we want to maintain our Canadian, you know, Canadian roots.

And so every decision, comes back to that. And even if it's difficult, like when we have. Difficult time with that. Um, mill it, we definitely had conversations about whether or not we should just bail on this or not, but it you know, as long as you have that strong mission, it makes decisions easier.

And for us, it's been a real saving grace. 

[00:30:04] Miranda Black (2): You're almost like pioneers again, the industry was so was so gutted. , now it's has to get rekindled, W, what advice would you have for someone? Maybe there's a designer in Canada that is getting their fabrics made over sea.... What advice would you have for Joe Mimran to get his stuff...? No. What advice would you have for someone who wants to shift their production home? Bring, bring it home. 

[00:30:28] Michelle: It's like, yeah.

It's yes. Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it do it. 

[00:30:32] Miranda Black (2): Why, why are you so, 

[00:30:34] Michelle: it just because it's just better for everyone and it's better for the environment. It's better for the consumer. It's just, it's a, it's the right choice for sure. If you can do it, then you should do it. , I think. I mean, it's going to be painful also. I have a little bit of advice in that department just brace yourself. Cause it's crazy, but it's worth it in the end. And it's so nice for us. , I feel like we're so proud to be able to say that everything from our thread to her, , finished product is Canadian.

[00:30:59] Miranda Black (2): So it's a great feeling and it's worth the struggle to get there. And you sell across Canada, right? 

[00:31:05] Michelle: I think we're in almost every province. Now, even if we just got a store in yellow knife.

[00:31:09] Miranda Black (2): Whoa. Wow. What's the store in Yellowknife? Let's get a, give a sh do you remember 

[00:31:14] Michelle: It's called For Women Only? Oh, you know what I think I know about that star. Cause I was just looking for stores in other provinces. Is there anything else that I didn't touch on about, running a sustainable fashion business , in 2022? Oh man. I feel like we covered some really great. 

You had some great, thank you. thank you so much. You guys Have a good day. Bye bye. You guys.

So what's it like to work in the garment industry work in one of these factories? One day. I'd love to interview someone from overseas to get their perspective on making the mountains of clothing that we kind of take for granted here in Canada. But for now, I figured I'd talked to someone near and extremely dear to 

He was revered by my clients as someone who could perform almost magic work on their suits, tuxedos and jackets. He can make a bespoke garment from scratch and he could probably do it with no machines at all. My tailor from Theodore 1922. The one and the only Pasquali Bonjourno. 

[00:32:15] Miranda Black: Why do you find that like, why are Italian Taylors so good?

[00:32:19] Pasquale Buonjourno:  Because they started at six, like me 

[00:32:22] Miranda Black: did you get paid to do this? 

[00:32:24] Pasquale Buonjourno: No, not even a penny. What are you talking about until 17? I didn't get a penny. But to go back to what I was telling about the, the, the children, each tailor shop, they had five, six children, all ages. From six years old, seven years oldup to 16, 17 years old at 16, see 17 play away. , that's why many tales they came out. You know, that, that period of time after the war, like, you know, 

[00:32:51] Miranda Black: Did you feel like it was child labor at that 

[00:32:54] Pasquale Buonjourno: time? No. No. We didn't even know what, what meant, right? that word? Yeah. We didn't even 

[00:32:59] Miranda Black: know, with the, was it, 

[00:33:01] Pasquale Buonjourno: it was, it was against the law too. Oh, it was.

Yes, because I remember once a year, maybe every two years someone was coming a stranger from wherever to and master Taylor.

Hurry. We up, hurry up, get out, get out from, from the back door. Like, oh my God, because someone is coming to check out or whatever, you know, we didn't know, we were happy to go to be free go out side and play, you know,

huh. But I repeat, we didn't expect us to, to, to get paid. Right.our own parents they pushed us to go there and to learn something like, you know, if you didn't learn many of them, they fail at, uh, 14, 15.

They left without knowing anything. 

[00:33:42] Miranda Black (2): That's next week on What's This Place? podcast. Here come the requests. It really does help me gain some credit in the podcast world. If you'd give me a review or some stars on your app. Check out the show notes for all the ways you can follow Blondie Apparel, Collected Joy and me to keep that shop ethical spirit going throughout your week. And if you want to book a closet, consult wherever you are in the world, I'm a click away. 

I'll see you next week.