Studio Update: Sustainable Plant Fibres

Photo by emrank

Hama Hama Top by Smoking Lily

Here at the Smoking Lily headquarters, we have been hearing the buzz from our customers that sustainability and ethics in the clothing they choose to purchase is equally as important as design and aesthetic.

Our creations are cut, sewn, and silk-screened in-house, right in our hometown of Victoria, BC. We are very consious of sourcing our fabrics and supplies locally, within BC, or within Canada (in that order!) whenever possible; "shop local" applies to us, too, and is always at the forefront of our minds. With more suppliers and mills offering eco-friendly fibres, more and more green choices are becoming available.

Recently, some of our favorite fabrics to use are hemp, organic cotton, and bamboo. Hemp is sustainable in that it is fast growing and requires very few pesticides and no fertilizers. Organic cotton comes from non-genetically modified plants, grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers, so there is no contaminated surface run-off, and, post-harvest, yields thicker topsoil with higher organic matter content, thereby considerably reducing soil erosion.

Bamboo is one of the most prolific and fast growing plants: it can grow up to one meter per day!! It regenerates on its own quickly after harvest, requires little irrigation, and no pesticides or herbicides (partly due to its naturally occurring anti-microbial and anti-fungal qualities). It improves soil quality, minimizes CO2, and generates up to 35% more oxygen than an equivalent planting of trees. Because bamboo fibres are short, however, they do require processing similar to rayon to be turned into fabric. This process does involve chemicals, but the market is starting to demand cleaner practices, and a handful of companies have led the way into the future by switching to a closed-loop process which captures and reclaims nearly 100% the solvents used; it is only a matter of time before other factories adopt this model, or are left behind.

Some of our current creations that include these sustainable fabrics are: Hama Hama Top, English Bay Dress, Garden State Dress, Suzuki Garden State, Suzuki scarves, Men's Suzuki Shirts, and some of our Onezies and Baby Hats.

Stay tuned for many more of the eco-friendly pieces we are working on for Fall!

Lily Inspiration: Cheesy T.V.

While deciding what to write about today, I came up with a number of options I thought might be of interest. There was a great little article in this week's Westender about Village Vancouver, a fabulous, homegrown network of folks that's all about getting green and getting to know your neighbours. I have also been thinking a lot about an article I read a couple months back about Tomas Maier, the somewhat unlikely champion of buying less who is currently el capitan of Bottega Veneta. Additionally, I've been crushing pretty hard on some colours lately (hello, coral! Mustard!!).

After much parsing of ideas, however, you know what I've really been enjoying recently? T.V.! I cannot believe I am admitting this, but all I want to do lately is veg out and hit up the boob tube when I get home. Awful, right? Wrong! Not with the absurdly entertaining BBC miniseries Sherlock to watch. You got it, the BBC has created an updated take on everybody's favourite drug addicted sleuth--or "high-functioning sociopath," as he describes himself in the first episode--and plunked him in contemporary London.; Watson is even a recent Afghan War vet--weird!

On a vaguely fashion-related note, I should point out that there are some very awesome, high-end wallpapers featured throughout. The tree print paper in the clip above is dilapidated, crumbling old building fodder? Puh-lease!

Vancouver Update: Thanks, Granville!

On a sunny East Van patio, I recently had the pleasure of being introduced to Hilary Henegar, an editor for the online sustainability rag, Granville Magazine. Hilary was kind enough to let me know that back in April, the magazine had featured Smoking Lily in a neighbourhood shopping guide. Granville is a pretty great magazine--I even used to subscribe back when it was a circulated paper dealie--so I was pretty excited that they would have chosen to spotlight little ol' us.

Imagine my delight, upon googling the matter, to discover that we more recently made the cut for Granville's Citizen Style blog in an article entitled, "10 summer Dresses to Love"! Way to go, Market Dress! And how cool is it that they also picked our neighbours across the street, Hum, Twigg+Hottie, and Narcissist? All in all, six out of the ten dresses are available at Main Street shops; good to know we're all on the same page, here:)

P.S. Thanks to my friend, Sean Cranbury (of Books on the Radio fame), for introducing me to Hilary. Not surprising for a social media whiz, he knows all the best people...