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Vancouver is home to a thriving fashion industry made up of individuals committed to its growth and success. Get to know these personalities in The Inseam and discover what makes the Vancouver Fashion scene so awesome. Every month, The Inseam’s Eco Edition focuses on the innovators that shape the green movement in local fashion. |
Photo courtesy of Light Activewear
Vancouver is known world-wide for its technical apparel giants (heard of Lululemon?), and has even established a design school at Kwantlen for technical apparel innovation and advancement. Eco fashion is quickly becoming another niche area for Vancouver, and really, it was only a matter of time before the two started coming together. Meet Light Activewear, a local yoga and dance clothing company that is currently in the last days of an Indiegogo campaign for their new We Care collection.
While they have been in business since 2008, Michelle Lei and her sister Judy Lei felt the need to create a new line of clothing that brought attention to more sustainable textiles and garment production. They started We Care, which is sourced from polyester made from 100% post-consumer plastic waste, to bring more attention to sustainable options. Using the Indiegogo campaign to raise money for the expanding the new line and still more expensive textile, they are also donating part of the funds raised to the Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter.
I asked Judy why they felt the need to start a sustainable yoga and dance line, “We believe that the more people are aware that there are many substitutable options out there, they will demand that from big companies, thus bringing sustainable clothing to the forefront of the apparel industry.”
Photo courtesy of Light Activewear
Judy and Michelle both have a strong academic and career past working in design and apparel, so they knew where to source the recycled polyester and took a trip to Taiwan to find one of the world leaders in sustainable technical textiles. “Our garment manufacturer is located in China. Both our fabric and garment manufacturers are ISO certified abiding to the international standards of management.”
The fabulous Lei sisters sent me a hot pink long tank and a Darla jacket, which I wore to my dancer’s body bootcamp at the iDance studio in North Vancouver. They were both surprisingly light, and very soft and easy to move it. I kept the jacket on through warm-up, and then the tank and I got our butts kicked! Being a tallish person, I like that the tank is long and stays put no matter what position you are in. The Light Activewear goods have feminine styling details, attractive colours and prints, so people are going to definitely comment on them. What I’m happiest about is that after graciously accepting comments on how good I look, I can tell people they are made from recycled plastic!
There are less than three days left in their Indiegogo Campaign, and the perks you get for donating are well worth the money, with everything from discount coupons, tees, jackets and pants. While it may seem like there are lots of options for functional active wear around Vancouver, not many of them you can wear with pride saying it was made to high sustainability standards plus helped provide services to women in crisis.
Visit the Light Activewear website and head to Indiegogo to support their We Care campaign.
