Vancouver fashion firecracker Miriam Alden is bringing her brand of cheeky-phrased sweatshirts and on-trend threads to Vancouver Fashion Week.
Alden is a fixture in the local fashion biz, distributing a handful of stylishly affordable and mid-range brands through her sales agency, the aptly-named – given her trademark long brown hair – Brunette Showroom, located in East Van’s Parker Building.
Alden’s Fashion Week show is on Friday, Oct. 2 at 7:40 pm at the Chinese Cultural Centre and will include labels she represents, such as BB Dakota, Desigual, Lisbeth Jewelry, Glamorous UK, and Seychelles Footwear, as well as the popular sweatshirt line she recently launched, which feature funny sayings like: “Fries before guys,” “Paris made me do it,” and “I definitely did not wake up like this.”
The bold sweatshirt concept started when Alden and her company’s VP Ryan Pugsley wore sweatshirts with the phrase, “Brunette is the new black.” They made the sweatshirts for their own amusement, as a nod to their wholesale clothing business, and had no intention of launching a collection.
“People would say, ‘That’s so cool; you should sell them,’” Alden says, explaining where the idea originated to create an entire fleet of sweatshirts for the line called BITNB (Brunette is the New Black) Clothing. Meanwhile, in the run-up to her fashion week show, Alden and her team (there’s three staffers, including the main brunette) are enjoying putting together the looks and the music for the event. The styling for the show was inspired by 1960s sex kitten – think Sienna Miller in the movie Alfie with black cat-eye eyeliner and a nude lip.
This is Alden’s second season at Vancouver Fashion Week, which features clothes from local and international designers. What makes Alden’s show unique is that as a clothing wholesaler, as opposed to a designer, she is showing looks that people can go and immediately scoop up from the local boutiques she distributes to, including Plenty, LYNNsteven, Courtney Boutique, Kiss and Makeup, and Wishlist.
Hard to believe, but the stylish and statuesque brunette wasn’t always a fashion phenom.
“I think it’s because I spent the majority of my life in a barn, so I didn’t really care,” Alden laughs.
An equestrian, Alden spent her days riding her horse rather than standing in front of the mirror. The self-described tomboy even played football on her high school’s boys’ team, only hanging up her jersey when the guys got too big to go up against.
But clearly, Alden isn’t afraid to tackle whatever comes her way in the fashion business, which, contrary to popular belief, is a lot more grunt work than glamour.
Alden launched Brunette Showroom six years ago with a small loan from her dad, retired newspaper publisher Brad Alden, which she paid back within six months. Not just surviving, she has thrived, celebrating her company’s sixth anniversary this week. The fashion dynamo credits her father’s business acumen and advice with helping her along the way.
“Everything that comes out of my dad’s mouth is something that is thoughtful,” Alden says. “Anytime I need real advice, even if I don’t want to hear it at all, I know he’ll tell me the truth.”
A pop-up fashion truck that she bought with her friend, Privilege Clothing owner, Donni Rae Edmondson, is her latest project. Called WEST – Fashion Truck, Granville Island is expected to be the first stop on the fashion express, likely around the beginning of November.
In the meantime, between her break-out sweatshirt line, busy wholesale biz, and Fashion Week, Alden already has lots to keep her trucking.
