behind the runway…
The fact is, few of us have total freedom to pursue any ideal we choose, whenever we choose. That may not be a popular thing to say, but, there. I’ve said it.
My entry into fashion began as a desire to use my hands and eyes to craft beautiful things — textile designs, I thought, or jewelry. But years in grad school and working full time to establish a foothold in New York meant I would not be going back to school any time soon!
Still, I wanted to pursue work in a visually aesthetic field, and I managed to start a new chapter working in product development (pre-production) at GapBody on the women’s foundations team. There, I met a wonderful mentor and friend and eventually found my way to Limited (later L.) Brands, where a fledging project calling itself PINK was in its test phase. The project went on to become a behemoth of a brand, and I like to think I helped contribute to its initial success.
I learned to become what I believe a product developer is at his/her/their best: an indispensable partner to — and bridge among — designers, tech designers, merchandisers, and production teams, making sure fit and color samples are executed to spec, aesthetic requirements, and cost.
There were opportunities to make use of my own aesthetic judgment, too, as well as my eagle eye for accuracy and error detection. As a print and graphics developer, I learned all about textile print methods and graphic and embellishment techniques. I worked in close collaboration with sourcing teams across geographically disparate countries, helping unify some key development processes, and traveling to Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, and Korea; China, India, and Vietnam, to visit factories and suppliers. I made lasting friendships, domestically and abroad.
As PINK was eventually brought under the umbrella of the Victoria’s Secret production arm (MAST), it became crucial to learn the ins and outs of navigating a large corporate entity with a massive, global supply chain. I also became a people manager during this period and found myself surprisingly at home with its teaching/training/nurturing aspects.
Sometimes a fork in the road takes you to an unexpected place, and this was somewhat true of my time in design management and operations. But I gained invaluable experience along the way, getting to see all moving parts from a bird’s-eye view; learning to build development calendars; and to analyze and problem solve workflow issues and processes.
Toward greater awareness…
I joined men’s product development at Coach to return to a product focus. But I confess, I’m an animal-loving vegetarian who found herself working (uneasily) for a traditional leather house. It was this that sparked my interest in researching sustainable, non-petroleum-based alternatives: apple skins, wine (grape skin) refuse, mushroom, pineapple, and lab-grown leather.
From a pure, carbon emissions measurement, there are arguments for and against leather use, and I don’t think the ethical questions in this realm are simple to answer, or easy to reconcile with action, whatever your conclusion or sources of data. What came to light for me, though, was just how vast is the leather industry’s environmental footprint, and, by extension, the entire fashion industry’s level of waste and consumption in its current state, from so many angles.
And as with all forms of expanded consciousness, eyes once opened are harder to close.
I have long thought of myself as a city dweller — more urban than rural; a lover of art more than of nature, with a decidedly non-granola aesthetic: a taste for refinement and a sense of beauty in man-made things. So I have been slow to recognize myself as an earth dweller, too. I’ve had to peer at the world through a more ethical lens to be able to perceive this. But now that I have, it isn’t possible to unsee.