Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine July 2016 | Page 12

When I was back teaching, I started to
brainstorm some cool shirt design ideas
that had been mulling around in my
brain for a while. I took a local screen
printing workshop and then started to
print my own shirts at home. I would
wear them out and to class and had even
more people ask me if I could make some
for them. It grew very organically from
there and the clothing side of the business grew so quickly that I decided to
no longer offer the yoga props. It’s funny
how a business evolves!

drive the direction rather than the industry. I was just lucky that what I was doing
ended up being what people were looking
for! I have been fortunate enough to have
an outlet for my creative expression and
it’s been amazing so far.

Once my company evolved to the point
where I was able to offer my own cutand-sew pieces, I really wanted to make
sure that that product I created was in
line with my environmental values. I
can’t take credit for being the first apparel
company to offer clothing made from
I didn’t even want to get into cut-andrecycled bottles, but I definitely wanted
sew apparel until a couple of years in
to join in on the movement that had
(and with the help of people with actual
already started. I felt that it was imporbackgrounds in the fashion world). Once tant to make a choice to offer a product
I found a way to put graphics on fabric,
that helped repurpose components of our
then t he floodgates opened up and I rewaste stream. I wanted to make sure that
ally started to design. I loved bringing
not only was the fabric derived from retogether a proper balance of colours and
cycled sources, but also that it would also
graphics into each print. I found that a lot stand up to the technical requirements
of what I was seeing in the marketplace
needed for active use. Fabric technology
was just too busy. Too much pattern; too has really improved over the past few
many elements; too kitschy. I wanted to
years. It took me a while to find what I
create pieces that stood alone as pieces
was looking for but I’m really happy with
of art; pieces that invoked some kind of
how everything has worked out.
feeling when worn. I let my creativity

Office is located in beautiful downtown New Westminster, BC.

Retailers in the area are YYoga, Semperviva, and Giving Gifts and Company.

Or order online
www.myinnerfire.com
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