The garment industry needs to take a stand.
We are one of the biggest polluters in the world.
We have to collectively come together
and find ways to solve these problems.
I lived in New York for about 20 years.
I lived in the grind.
I got to a point where I was making all this incredible press
and getting all these great reviews
and traveling the world and showcasing in Paris and New York.
It just felt like more and more product being put out there.
And it felt more momentary, kind of reactionary, too.
Why are we forcing these things on the consumer
that they don't need?
For what purpose? To get editorial?
To get cool people to wear your stuff?
It lasts maybe a moment.
That wasn't gratifying to me.
Some of the horrific things
that you hear about the garment industry
of throwaway clothing, fast fashion,
things that don't last, things that are trend-driven,
you do get to a point like, "I don't want to be part of that.
I don't want to be part of something that's not authentic
or has substance or reason to live."
I finally was just like, "Let's make the move."
And I made the move and I went to British Columbia.
I went to Vancouver.
Right away, when you get off the plane,
you feel it, you smell it.
There's a cleanness. There's a freshness.
And immediately you're kind of moved and energized from it.
There's so many studies, obviously,
what happens when you spend two days in nature,
what happens when you go for a hike once a week.
It really evens things out.
The way you breathe. The way you smell things.
I basically participated in more sports and more activities
than I did in New York in the 20 years,
and it just was a turning point for me.
I still love to make garments.
I still love to design,
but put a different importance behind it
from problem-solving to utilitary function,
things that you need rather than things that serve
a momentary, you know, want.
Like, this jacket was done in 1974.
It's still timeless.
It's something that we still continue
to reference and have in our line,
and I think that that is kind of remarkable
how something so simple, but it has a purpose--
This jacket, actually, is from the '90s,
and you really can't even tell the difference.
I think that's what's impeccable about the design
is that it withstands 20, 30,
hopefully 40, 50 years of design.
With recycled down, have you had issues
with cost or anything when you were compiling?
It's definitely more expensive.
It actually is a bigger challenge on the construction side
because they have to really think about how do we fill each chamber better
so they can still feel like the original?
But with the recycled down, you get the same intent,
- you get the same volume. - Mm-hmm.
- Same quality. - Quality, yeah, definitely.
Same warmth, same attributes.
This collection has really shown us
that we can change our materials to 100% recycled
and not sacrifice on anything.
We're still struggling with finding recycled zippers.
The durability of them just isn't up to our needs just yet,
and we want to make sure we're not making a substitution
that's going to shorten the lifetime of this jacket.
Circular design, to me, is a lot of different components.
How long a garment's going to last,
the performance needs, the problems you're trying to solve.
Immediately, people think it's just about a recycled garment,
but it's more than that.
As designers, we're the ones creating the product
and we have to think in this circular design way
to really make a change--
change the way we think,
change the way we look at the necessity of garments.
Are they more of a moment
or are they more of something that you're going to invest in
and at some point repair or have renewed
or give to someone else that can use it?
The most sustainable you can be with a garment
is to make a garment that lasts a lifetime.
The last 10, 15 years now, I'm at this kind of full circle moment
of design and function,
but things that last, things that are needed.
We can get stressed out about it.
We can say there's doom and gloom.
But there's still a lot of beauty on Earth.
There's still a lot of beauty to see.
There's still a lot of beauty to protect.
We're here now.
What changes can we make now?