Below you will find the questions and answers from the Behind The Brand interview with our founder Amanda and the lovely Nicol of In the Life of Gray. The original blog article can be found here.
Question: Where did it all start?
Answer: "I’ve loved fashion for as long as I can remember and always dreamed of starting my own clothing brand. This dream never really felt like it could be a reality for me so I ended up following a more traditional career path, but I was always hoping this dream may someday somehow come true.
In the meantime, I picked up other hobbies, sewing being one of them. At first, the idea of sewing my own clothes felt very intimidating, but I bought a sewing machine, watched a ton of YouTube videos, and realized right away it was something I really enjoyed!
Sewing gave me a greater appreciation for clothes and really opened my eyes to how much time and effort can go into making clothing. It made me start to really question the fast fashion industry and how clothing was being made at such a quick rate. I dug deeper and discovered more and more about the harmful effects fast fashion has on humans, animals, and the environment.
As I continued to learn more about sustainability, I discovered some really amazing slow fashion brands. I loved their approach to creating ethical, sustainable, timeless clothing that is made to last; the opposite of fast fashion. I started to realize my childhood dream of creating a clothing brand might align with my values by starting a slow fashion brand - so I took the leap!”
Me age 2
Question: Where did the inspiration behind the brand name, Nicole & Rose, come from?
Answer: "Nicole & Rose is a combination of my middle name (Nicole) and my sister's middle name (Rose). When I was younger, playing dress-up was one of my favorite things and I especially loved dressing up my younger sister. She was the model and I was the wardrobe stylist, makeup artist, hair stylist, set designer, and photographer lol I did it all. We had so much fun together and these moments really sparked my creativity and passion and is where the inspiration for the brand name came from."
Left: my sister and me now, Right: styling my sister in my mom's clothes when we were younger
Question: How does your clothing production process work?
Answer: “We currently use the pre-order model as it helps to reduce the amount of waste and excess inventory by only producing what was ordered. It also ensures you get the size and color you want as the clothing item is made especially for you.
Every item is cut and sewn with so much love and care by our small partner studio in Calgary, Canada, which we visit regularly. When choosing a partner studio it was very important they shared the same values, had safe working conditions, and paid fair wages.”
Question: What inspires the designs for each piece of clothing?
Answer: “I wanted to create clothing that made getting dressed effortless and also made you feel like your most authentic, beautiful, radiant, and worthy self when wearing the clothing.
Every item of clothing has been thoughtfully created with comfort, ease, and versatility in mind and the timeless and effortless design allows for them to be worn for many years to come.”
Shop The Worthy Collection here
Question: What made you choose linen as the fabric for all your clothing items?
Answer: “To keep it simple I wanted to start with one fabric for the first collection and I knew it had to be linen! Linen is a great natural fabric and there are just so many reasons to love it!
To name just a few:
- It’s a natural fiber and one of the most sustainable fabrics as the flax plant doesn’t need much water for it to grow and it is biodegradable.
- The fibers are very strong making linen clothing very durable and long-lasting.
- It keeps you cool in warmer weather and warm in cooler weather.
- It’s hypo-allergenic and antibacterial.
- The more you wash it and wear it the softer it gets.
We do hope to expand to other natural fabrics in the future though!”
Question: What does your brand do to be sustainable and what are your sustainability goals?
Answer: “Sustainability is so important to our brand and touches on many different aspects of the business. We use the slow-fashion model and all orders are currently made-to-order to help reduce waste. When choosing fabric we ensure to only use eco-friendly, natural fabrics and all our packaging is eco-friendly too. Also, the timeless design of the clothing helps to ensure the pieces last and are worn for many years to come.
We do our best to minimize fabric waste and are working towards a zero-waste model. We hope to introduce a zero-waste collection that utilizes fabric scraps and find other creative ways to ensure no scraps ever go to the landfill.”