Bradford-based company uses recycled fabric to create stylish fashion accessories
Bradford-based company uses recycled fabric to create stylish fashion accessories
Recycled fabrics are used to create one-of-a-kind bags.
Recycled buttons are put to good use in funky bracelets.
North of the City
July 02, 2008 08:50 AM
By: Kristen Brownell
Sometimes, the seams of your life have to come apart before you can stitch them back together again.
For Laura Jennekens, co-owner of Bradford-based Echoes in the Attic, that’s exactly what happened five years ago.
“I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003,” Ms Jennekens said. “I ran 10 kilometres a day and was one of the healthiest people I knew … I was only 42.”
While her battle with the disease is a distant and unwelcome memory, she credits the crisis for planting “a seed that would blossom.”
After getting through chemotherapy and radiation, she decided to do some of the things she had always wanted to do, but never had time for. Wanting a challenge, she took up sewing. She quickly put her skills to good use in what she calls “a desperate act of recycling.”
“When my hair started falling out, I was scared to death,” Ms Jennekens recalls.
“I couldn’t imagine the thought of not having it, so I cut it off and sewed it to a bandana that I could wear. That’s when I realized that everything can be recycled in some way.” Her yard-long resumé includes interior decorator and fabric addict and it was from this inventory that she began sewing purses.
That’s when the lightbulb went on.
She approached her sewing teacher and now business partner, Vicky Gerke, with the idea of turning recycled fabrics into such fashion accessories as purses, tote and laptop bags. “I don’t really know how the idea came about, except that I couldn’t imagine such beautiful [fabric] going to waste, especially when I had the dream and my partner had the ability,” Ms Jennekens said.
“I’m an avid second-hand shop girl, I hate throwing anything out. And I love handbags, so the whole thing fell into place.” And that’s how Echoes in the Attic was born — an idea that keeps tonnes of fabric out of landfill sites and that would allow her to stay at home with her children. “The business revolves around my two children,” Ms Jennekens said.
A friend impressed with the idea eventually hooked her up with a representative from the renowned fabric producer Robert Allen, who happily donated remnant fabric destined for the landfill. Soon, other companies including Ethan Allen Furniture, Taylor Robyn Originals were donating, literally, tonnes of fabric.
Most recently, the Global Group, which makes office furniture, has been donating with what is called “cruelty free vegan” (used to be called pleather), which takes about 300 years to biodegrade.
For Ms Jennekens, this illustrates the company slogan of “pay it forward” by building a company that recycles and provides gainful employment. While being eco-friendly is more mainstream now than ever before, the women wanted the business not only to make a difference, but also to feel old-fashioned and “evoke the thought that there’s so much great stuff that comes from the attic”.
“We’re sentimental gals and our sentimental souls drive our creativity in choosing materials that conjure memories of childhood,” Ms Jennekens explains.
Her skills from previous jobs, including advertising, photography and interior design, allowed her to envision the final product, while Ms Gerke’s background in fashion merchandising and “guru status” as a sewing teacher rounded out the businesses requirements.
“Everything we’ve done has led up to what we do now,” Ms Jennekens explains, noting the duo is a perfect pairing because of their complementary skill sets.
In 2005, the two women began promoting their business online and, in 2006, they sent information to companies they thought would bite at the idea of beautiful accessories made from recycled, vintage, retro, hemp and remnant materials. The first company to respond was P-Lovers, (short for Planet Lovers), an eco-friendly chain in Halifax that has other stores in Stratford, Port Perry and Vancouver.
The tiny idea that bloomed in a basement has become a national success distributing products to 50 stores across Canada. They also carry pillows and jewelry made from excess buttons and beads. Prices for the home-made products vary from $29 for a small clutch-like purse to $60 for a sling-style purse that rests on the hip.
“They’re really affordable,” Ms Jennekens says, noting when you buy an item “you’re casting a vote for China, for Canada or for home-made and when you vote it’s usually for something that you care about, so you should cast a vote for our environment.”
But Ms Jennekens has not forgotten her battle with cancer. The company makes the Becca Bag, with half the proceeds of its sales going to Rebecca’s Hope for Leukemia Research at Princess Margaret Hospital. The company’s ideology is also coloured green. “Think green, choose green, live on purpose and change the world one responsible decision at a time.”
While their products continue to be in demand all across the country and business, according to Ms Jennekens, is “pretty jet fuelled right now”, she admits a few years ago, she could have never imagined such success.
“We really had no idea what was in store for us,” she says laughing. “We just knew that we were doing our part by diverting as much remnant fabric out of the landfill as possible and that’s all that matters to us. We didn’t have superman goals and think that (we’re) going to save the world,” she adds. “But you can help by doing your part.”
As for the future of Echoes in the Attic, the dynamic duo is hoping to provide lessons “to people who want to dive head-first into our fabrics and make their own eco-friendly bag”. Ms Jennekens says they also “plan to just ride the wave of eco and see where it takes us”.
Echoes in the Attic products can be found at Pomegranates & Clementines in Aurora and Nomi in Newmarket. For more information, visit www.echoesintheattic.com.
Echoes has launched its Pay It Forward Campaign at Southlake Regional Health Centre, which will sell the bags with 100 per cent of the proceeds benefitting the regional cancer program.