East Bay Profile: Oakland's Kristine Vejar creates community around sustainable fashion

OAKLAND -- For fiber artist Kristine Vejar, some of the last forms of modern slavery are found in the clothing industry.

Hot, cramped factories. Pesticides and highly toxic chemicals. Child labor. Those are the well-documented realities workers, many in developing countries, endure as they dye, cut and sew garments for large manufacturers in low-paying and sometimes no-paying jobs.

Thousands of miles away in her Oakland studio and fiber shop, Vejar -- a self-described "natural dyer" -- is trying to get people to think about those workers and the impacts of the clothing they buy.

"I feel a responsibility -- or the ability -- to possibly change some of that in some way," Vejar said. "For me, it's trying to teach as many people to knit and sew as possible, and trying to sometimes convey there is someone sitting at a sewing machine sewing. This is not a mechanized process."

The 38-year-old Oakland resident isn't alone in wanting to shift the way people think about their clothing.

For years, adherents of the "slow fashion" movement -- named for its focus on sustainably produced wearables that outlive the constant churn of fast fashion -- have been stitching their own garments, upcycling their wardrobes and finding other creative and less wasteful ways to get dressed.

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But Vejar has carved her own path, transforming her passion for sustainability, fiber and textiles into a vibrant community center that's also a successful business.

At A Verb for Keeping Warm, Vejar's San Pablo Avenue shop, people can take classes, attend workshops or sit in on events such as a recent slow-fashion forum that touched on sustainable clothing production, handmade wardrobes and the politics of affordability in the movement, among other topics.

Customers can also buy locally sourced wool and organic cotton yarn dyed at Verb with leaves, flowers, insects and other natural material. And through Vejar's Seam Allowance project, people can pledge to make at least 25 percent of their own clothing, and get the support they need to do it. Vejar's book, "The Modern Natural Dyer," published last year, also teaches people how to dye yarn and fabric at home.

"Kristine has created a special community for makers, sewers, dyers and artisans to work together and lift one another up," fashion designer Natalie Chanin, founder and creative director of the high-end slow-fashion brand Alabama Chanin, wrote in an email.

Community has played a major role in Vejar's passion for fiber and textiles since the beginning.

It was while visiting her grandmother and friends in rural Illinois during summers that the Minnesota native learned to knit and sew.

Later, as an art history major at Mills College in Oakland, Vejar traveled to India and fell under the spell of textile production there, in particular the cloth she saw dyed in huge open-air vats and freshly dyed saris drying on river banks under the sun.

"Textiles just came rushing back to me," Vejar said.

But it was spending time with the Rabari, a group of desert-dwelling nomadic herders from the Great Rann of Kutch who are famous for their intricate and highly symbolic embroidery, that Vejar began to think deeply about clothing and the large corporations so heavily influencing personal aesthetics back home. "It's interesting to think about our consciousness as to what we're engaging with, what we choose to buy and how we choose to dress," Vejar said. " 'What is it you want to convey with your clothing like the Rabari convey?' That was going on in my head and is probably more alive today than it was then."

After returning to Oakland and receiving a Fulbright grant, Vejar traveled back to India and immersed herself in learning natural dyeing methods. Once home, she worked for a Berkeley organic mattress and bedding manufacturer and then began sewing yarn bags for knitters. Vejar also learned how to dye, spin yarn and knit, slowly building the business that later became Verb, which opened at its current location in 2011.

Today, her work extends beyond the rustic yet airy space that includes a classroom and a demonstration dye garden featuring coreopsis, indigo and other dye plants grown by Vejar's partner, Adrienne.

In 2014, she was tapped to participate in "The Possible," a show at the Berkeley Art Museum that turned the exhibition space into a center for creative production. In addition to helping run the indigo dyeing vats, Vejar brought in other collaborators and "expanded the scope of the whole element of the exhibition," said curator David Wilson.

"She really does have this spirit that's interested in serving the community."

Vejar is also helping create business for farmers, including Capay Valley cotton developer and breeder Sally Fox, who pioneered growing organic naturally colored cotton in the late 1980s. Vejar buys wool from Fox's merino sheep, wool later dyed at Verb in rich, earthy colors before heading to customers.

A longtime proponent of sustainable fashion, Fox thinks Vejar has a keen eye for wearables that are beautiful and practical as well as ethical and sustainable.

"Her method is not a guilt trip thing," Fox said. "Her method is 'Isn't this a wonderful way to get to know textiles and history and to help the world be a healthier place?'"

Kristine Vejar

Age: 38
Hometown: Oakland
Claims to fame: Natural dyer, author of “The Modern Natural Dyer” (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2015), owner of the business A Verb for Keeping Warm
Quote: “How insane and how amazing it is that we are able to feed and clothe the amount of humans on this planet. That the earth provides this is absolutely unbelievable. It’s amazing. Truly amazing.”

Across Art And Fashion

Italy's Renaissance capital, Florence, is reclaiming its centuries-old role as an incubator of the interplay between fashion and art.

The new director of the Uffizi gallery has announced plans to transform the Costume Gallery at Pitti Palace, which is also under his control, into a full-fledged fashion museum, while the Ferragamo Foundation this week opens a city-wide exhibit exploring the links between art and fashion.

Under the banner 'Across Art and Fashion', the exhibits opened at the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum with linked events at four other venues.

The complementary exhibits are the first in Italy to comprehensively explore the relationships between two of the nation's most significant cultural contributions, according to Ferragamo museum director Stefania Ricci, who served as the driving force behind the ambitious exhibition project.

In Florence's Renaissance heyday, the connection between art and fashion was even tighter than it is today.

"In the 15th century, there was no difference between artisan and artist," Ricci said, citing Raphael's designs for hand fans and Pollaiuolo's textile designs. "Then slowly the two worlds separated, because fashion was functional, the reality. Art became always more conceptual. But what is interesting is they always kept an eye one on the other."


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INSPIRED BY THE 1800s
Artists were demonstrably inspired by fashion in the 1800s, as is evident in the linked event at the Modern Art Gallery of Pitti Palace. Ricci said featuring fashion of the day was a way for artists to convey modernity in their works, and curators have paired garments from the Costume Gallery with paintings that feature similar, if not identical, looks.

At the Ferragamo Museum, the connections are even more entwined. The shoemaker modeled his atelier after a Renaissance craftsman's studio, and the shoe molds on display alongside original footwear emphasise their artistic nature.

More than a dozen brands are represented in the museum, including a Schiaparelli skirt suit with buttons made for her by friend Alberto Giacometti and a Vionnet silken tunic dress from 1922 featuring geometric motifs, on a rare loan from the Louvre.

The itinerary continues at the National Central Library and the Marino Marini Museum, both in Florence, and the Textile Museum in nearby Prato.

The art and fashion exhibits, more than a year in the making, highlight a budding synergy in Florence. The city's role as the genius loci of modern fashion also caught the attention of Uffizi director Eike Schmidt, a German who last year became the first foreigner to run the highly prized state museum system in Florence including the Pitti Palace collections.

Schmidt is quietly expanding the costume collection, and intends to make it a fashion museum in its own right, focusing on fashion from anywhere on the globe, not just Italy. At the moment, the collection is strongest in the 19th and early 20th Century, with a smattering of 1960s and 1970s pieces. The last big collection is a donation from Gianfranco Ferre in 2000.

The transformation already is under way with an exhibit of Karl Lagerfeld photographs opening at Pitti Palace in June, while Schmidt is on the lookout for new collections on the market. Behind the scenes, he is constructing a new storage area to house all the acquisitions he is planning.

"It's the right place but it is also the right moment to do this now," said Schmidt. "Because there is so much interest in fashion right now."

'I'm the first to admit that the term "plus-size" is pretty silly': Brisbane model Bree Warren criticises fashion industry term for 'any model over a size 10'

Bree Warren is the latest high-profile model to enter the debate on the fashion term 'plus-size'.
The Brisbane native, who is now based in New York, criticised the widely-used label in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph's Body & Soul on Sunday.
'I’m the first to admit that the term "plus size" is pretty silly,' she said. 'Unfortunately, it’s an industry term for any model over a size 10.'
Speaking out: Brisbane model Bree Warren (pictured) is the latest high-profile figure to enter the debate on the fashion term 'plus-size', telling Body & Soul on Sunday that the label for models over size 10 is 'pretty silly'


Speaking out: Brisbane model Bree Warren (pictured) is the latest high-profile figure to enter the debate on the fashion term 'plus-size', telling Body & Soul on Sunday that the label for models over size 10 is 'pretty silly'
The 28-year-old also claimed fans are surprised that she is considered 'plus-size' because of the photographs on her Instagram account.

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She explained: I’m tall, I’m in proportion, I have wide hips, and I’m bigger than the average model but it doesn’t always translate in photos because I’m healthy and in shape.'

Bree, who has modelled for major brands Forever 21 and Lorna Jane, is a size 12 - which is below the average Australian dress size of 14 to 16.

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Plus-size? Bree said fans are surprised she is considered 'plus-size' because of her Instagram snaps, adding: 'I’m bigger than the average model but it doesn’t always translate in photos because I’m healthy and in shape'

According to her profile on NYC agency JAG Models, Bree is 5ft 11in tall and her measurements are 36C/D-29-43.

She continued: 'A few years ago, my job didn’t exist. There just wasn’t a space for this middle range of model. It was either one extreme or the other.'

Bree also suggested the attitudes of the fashion industry were changing as brands are starting to book models for campaigns 'regardless of size'.

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Progress: The 28-year-old also suggested the attitudes of the fashion industry were changing as brands are starting to book models for campaigns 'regardless of size'

Bree previously spoke to Elle Magazine about the emergence of 'plus-size' models in fashion, saying: 'I wish it wasn't about size. I just wish that there was a broad range represented.

'It is so dated to label models based on size, but I don't believe dropping the tag "plus-size" will eliminate the problem. Women need to support each other and stop comparing and criticizing.

'That's what I'm really all about; I don't think it should be one versus the other. It is so important for the next generation to see a variety of body types, looks, and sizes represented in fashion.'

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Representation: Bree previously spoke to Elle Magazine about the emergence of 'plus-size' models in fashion, saying: 'I wish it wasn't about size. I just wish that there was a broad range represented'

Man injured in shooting outside Fashion Show mall garage

A man was injured after a shooting outside of the Fashion Show mall Saturday morning, according to Las Vegas police.

The man was being followed in the mall around 11:30 a.m., and when he got outside near the parking garage, he got into a fight with someone inside of a parked vehicle, Metro Lt. Kendall Bell said.

Details surrounding the actual shooting are unclear, but the man was seen running away, and the vehicle had driven away. The man was taken to University Medical Center in unknown condition, Bell said.

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Changes at Calvin Klein Could Redefine American Fashion

Calvin Klein has announced that Italo Zucchelli, left, its men’s creative director, and Francisco Costa, its women’s creative director, are leaving the fashion house. The photograph was taken in 2011 at a benefit event in New York. Credit Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg News

American fashion may be about to experience its biggest redefinition in decades.

On Tuesday, in yet another example of the upheaval in the fashion world (Hedi out at YSL! Dior still without a designer! Men’s wear in turmoil!) Calvin Klein announced that its men’s and women’s wear creative directors of more than a decade, Italo Zucchelli and Francisco Costa, were leaving the company, to facilitate a “new global creative strategy.”

Both lines, as well as all the other categories of the business — presumably including jeans, underwear, fragrance and others — would be united under one “vision,” with said visionary to be named “in due course.”

The company declined to say what that course would be, though it did say that the men’s collection in June and the women’s in September would be done by the in-house creative team, and that they would not be shown on the runway.

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The Calvin reorganization had been rumored since the end of last year, along with the now-much-repeated-as-fact speculation that Raf Simons, the former artistic director of Dior, was in line for the job.

Mr. Simons, not surprisingly, did not return emails for comment. He was traveling, and, in any case, he has a noncompete with Dior that extends through the summer.

Whether or not he gets the job, however, the news creates the potential for Calvin Klein, a brand that has largely stepped back from the fashion conversation since its founder sold the company to the current owner PVH in 2003 and retired, to start shaping the industry again. Indeed, it’s not exaggerating to say that if the fashion house picks the right person for the job (and Mr. Simons is a good idea) and supports that person, it could radically redesign New York fashion.

Someone needs to.

After all, since the 1980s advent of the Big Three (Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan), the designers that burst onto the international stage

and made sportswear a global phenomenon, American fashion has stayed pretty much the same.





Francisco Costa and Italo Zucchelli Are Out at Calvin KleinCreditHiroko Masuike/The New York Times
As those brands have matured and gradually lost their stranglehold on the national aesthetic, however, whether through retirement (Ms. Karan) or simple repetition, other names have not risen to take their place. The next generation — Marc Jacobs, Narciso Rodriguez, Michael Kors — got distracted by jobs in Europe, and then globalization. The group after that (Proenza Schouler, Rodarte, Altuzarra), though artistically adventurous, is still too small to have much global impact.

But with sales of $8.2 billion in 2015, Calvin Klein could.

That it has not thus far is a function largely of the fact that PVH, which also owns brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Izod, Warner’s and Speedo, has clearly been more focused on the broad appeal and financial possibilities of the accessible end of the market. Even though Mr. Costa and Mr. Zucchelli were generally applauded for their collections, with Mr. Costa twice winning the CFDA women’s wear designer of the year award and Mr. Zucchelli’s winning men’s wear once, they were siloed and had little impact on the broader Calvin business.

There was the sense that the clothes appeared on the catwalk and were rarely seen again. The red-carpet business — and Mr. Costa usually snagged one to two big names per awards show, the most recent being Saoirse Ronan at the Oscars in a bottle-green sequined slip dress — seemed to have little relation to the more intriguing runway.

Indeed, sales of men’s and women’s collections combined accounted for less than 5 percent of the label’s total business. Three years ago, I did a video interview with Tom Murry, then chief executive, for The Financial Times, and he told me, on camera, that the collection lines were classified as a “marketing expense” on the balance sheet. The better to sell perfume, you know.

Ask anyone what Calvin Klein ads they remembered and odds are they would name the Justin Bieber/Kendall Jenner jeans campaign. Collection? Huh? What’s that?

Opportunity: To fill the hole in New York fashion and make an aesthetic statement strong enough, coherent enough and loud enough to echo not only through the city but also beyond.

If Calvin Klein does so, it will signal a real break not only from the last 12 years, but from anything PVH has done.

It’s probably not an accident that this decision to change the creative structure of the company coincided with the advent of a new chief executive. In 2014, Steve Shiffman, the former president of the brand, took the helm from Mr. Murry. New leadership is a chance for new beginnings, especially if Mr. Shiffman finds a design partner whose ambitions go beyond simply the stated desire to increase global retail sales to $10 billion to making a broader aesthetic statement about how we live now.

For all of our sakes, I hope he does.

In the meantime, the talented Mr. Costa and Mr. Zucchelli are back on the job market. Someone should snap them up soon.

ThrowbackThursday: fashion lessons from yesteryear

It’s Thursday! That means your Instagram feed will be full of #tbt pictures – giving you an excuse to show your followers how cute you were as a kid in the seventies while also soaking up some retro fashion inspiration. Here’s how
 Damon Albarn in the 1990s.

Flares

Back then, you wore them with brand-free plimsolls and dimples in your cheeks. Charming, but very difficult for a grown-up with a job to pull off. If you own some flares now (and are never sure what to do with them), a good January look is wear them with a silky pussy-bow blouse tucked in and some ankle boots with a heel you can walk in. One-part throwback, two-parts In Charge for 2016.

Stylist’s choice: Struggling with baggy legs or trailing hems? Buy MIH’s Marrakesh jeans – they have the perfect proportion of fitted leg to flare.

1990s Britpopper

An excellent throwback look that works for now. Then, you wore it like Damon Albarn, with an elfin feather cut and Puma States. Now, the look has been given a reboot courtesy of the Chloé catwalk. So hunt down a retro tracksuit top and wear with a long, printed skirt, which you may well already own. From throwback to Catwalk in one wardrobe manoeuvre.

Stylist’s choice: This look needs that vintage element – visit Beyond Retro, which has a treasure trove of tracksuit styles.

1980’s party girl

Lol. Look at you and your mates with the ageing make-up, diagonal-flapped tops, the perms and the red eye! Did you keep one of your lurex tops in your wardrobe for nostalgia? Good. Because now you can wear it with posh tracksuit bottoms and heels for a smart drinks look. JW Anderson has said you can. As has Lenora Rauch from Deutschland 83. #hautethrowback

Stylist’s choice: Take yourself off to H&M, which has nailed this look with this burnt orange blouse.

Victoriana ruffles

Giant throwback look, this one. But one that fashion people have been known to caption on social media as #throwbackthursday to indicate that they go to art galleries and have noticed that some looks – whether on a Spanish infanta, or on Queen Victoria or in the Gucci catwalk – just won’t go away. In any case, it’s good January styling inspiration, whether you dig out the one you’ve not worn for three years or buy one from Topshop.

Stylist’s choice: If you think ruffled blouses are a bit uptight, then this cream jumper from Topshop is the perfect (and more unexpected) slouchier antidote.

School uniform chic

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Perhaps you hated yours at the time, or perhaps you were one of the lucky ones. In any case, posting a picture of your chubby-cheeked childhood self in school uniform will guarantee you dozens of Insta-likes – and can provide plenty of sartorial inspiration in 2016 as well. It’s all about rethinking basics you already own. Layering a pinafore, or a V-necked jumper, over a shirt, or tucking a cashmere jumper into a double PE-meets-Mrs Prada kilt. And don’t forget how crucial colour combinations were at school – we’re thinking pair navy blue with burgundy for the full Hogwarts effect. 

Stylist’s choice: A cardigan will maximise your layering potential (over a shirt and a thin jumper = perfection) This J Crew version also has a great go-faster stripe.

Grindr, the Gay Dating App, Hooks Up With Fashion

When the monthlong marathon of men’s fashion shows kicks off this week, so will the scrimmage to cover it: the race by newspapers, magazines, television networks, social media platforms and blogs to get a piece of the action for themselves and their viewers.

Joining the melee for the first time will be Grindr, the famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) social-networking app primarily for gay men. On Sunday, the app will live-stream the fall 2016 men’s wear show of J. W. Anderson as it hits the runway at London Collections: Men, the city’s biannual men’s fashion week.

Grindr’s purview has admittedly been narrow. The app introduces users to others in the surrounding area who are looking to make a connection — as often as not, a sexual one. Its buffet of thumbnail-size photos is, by design, bare-bones (and, not infrequently, bare-chested).

Joel Simkhai, the founder of Grindr, takes it easy at home in Los Angeles. The app was born of an idea made possible by technology and a $2,000 grubstake.The Sex Education of Grindr’s Joel SimkhaiDEC. 12, 2014
“Grindr is a very, very visual experience,” the app’s founder and chief executive, Joel Simkhai, said in an interview in 2014.



The J.W Anderson show on Sunday will be live-streamed by the app Grindr.
So, of course, is fashion — even if Grindr is more traditionally thought of as being for those dispensing with clothing than acquiring it.

“I think fashion is a sexy platform as well, ultimately,” said Jonathan Anderson, 31, the British designer behind J. W. Anderson, during a break from fittings in London. “We’re all humans, so we all have to be somewhat sexually attractive to someone. That’s the name of the game, with clothing.”

The designer, who won British Fashion Awards for both women’s and men’s wear designer of the year in 2015, called Grindr “incredibly modern as a platform,” and his decision to put his show on it “a no-brainer.”

Grindr will be the only place to live-stream the show. Users of the app will receive a link and a code to stream the video, which will not actually play in the app itself, but in phone and tablet browsers.

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The show is the first time Grindr is experimenting with fashion content, and most likely not the last. According to the company, it now has one million active users on the platform worldwide every minute, and is aiming to broaden its offerings and its appeal.

In the fall, Grindr hired Landis Smithers, a veteran of Ogilvy & Mather and Old Navy, to spearhead its marketing and collaboration. It made waves in the fashion industry when it signed the powerful publicity agency PR Consulting shortly after. (Not by coincidence, PR Consulting also represents J. W. Anderson.)

Fashion is “a very big topic of interest for a certain segment of our consumer,” Mr. Smithers said, adding that he did not rule out future projects involving music or night life.

He envisions a future for Grindr well beyond the scope of its grabby classifieds, and wants to shed the stigma attached in some corners to using the app.

“There’s a generation out there that doesn’t seem to care if people know that Grindr is on their phone, and there’s a generation that does,” Mr. Smithers said.

“The app is free to download,” he added. “You don’t have to use it for what its prime function is.”