Small fashion houses sowing sustainability with sewing pattern releases When Michelle Larsen started her fashion brand, she planned on making each item herself, with an eye to transparency, sustainability and fair labour practices. Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press Jul 21, 2024 3:00 AM Jul 21, 2024 3:05 AM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message A woman sews at her home in Lincoln, Neb., on March 3, 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP - Omaha World-Herald, Lily Smith When Michelle Larsen started her fashion brand, she planned on making each item herself, with an eye to transparency, sustainability and fair labour practices. She held fast to those principles as her brand evolved over the years, but she recently flipped her original vision on its head: many people are now making one of her designs. Larsen's line, Fortiv, is one of a handful of small fashion brands that have started selling PDF sewing patterns — blueprints for cutting and marking fabric, and instructions on how to sew those pieces into a garment — in addition to, or instead of, ready-to-wear clothes.
"I had this connection a couple of years ago that it really aligned with my values to make sewing patterns, because it was giving other people the possibility to make things," she said from Vancouver. "There's a layer of accessibility there that I really value." Larsen and her peers see the sewing pattern model as a continuation of their "slow fashion" mission — in .