Here is the gist of my answers to Kathy Smart's interview questions at the Ottawa show.
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I'll be at booth #303 and doing an interview with Kathy Smart. Can't wait!!!
Beautiful, special, self pampering! Love! Dear Anna: I wanted to drop you a line to say how much I am enjoying my new nightgown from IAG originals. The fabric is so soft and comfortable and the workmanship is excellent. I am so glad that I found you! I will definitely order more items. I really like that environmental aspect of the work that you do. (a note from Anna: the nightgown is one which I have brought over from iag Originals... see a post below... to Sanctuary Innerwear) The package arrived and i love the colour. I’m very happy with my new corselet Kerry says it looks terrific. Fits perfectly! Many many thanks! I met Anna at the Halliburton Art and Craft Festival and was introduced to Iag Originals a local (Ontario) Company she started up using Tencel in her hand sewn garments. I bought a pair of her pants and fell in love. By far the most comfortable pair of pants I have ever worn.
I emailed her to see what other colours she had and she emailed right back with a picture of fabric in a light indigo. I asked if she could darken it and “poof” she did and within a few days I had them on! If you want comfortable clothes with lots of style look no further than Iag Originals.ca I get this question at shows. People love the smell of the swatches I take with me and use for my "Stretch and Sniff" promotion. I show them that I spray the fabric with the Re-infusing Spray, a spray that I give you when you purchase a Set, along with the Re-infusing Whipped Soap. So, what makes a scent and what role does it play in Sanctuary Innerwear garments? Scents or aromas are generated by aromatic oils in the plant, such as alkaloids, and we know that essential oils contain them. In the hydro-distillation process, which I use to make the Re-infusing Spray and Soap, the steam rises and most of the oils are left behind in the pot. Therefor, the scent is less intense in my Re-infusing Sprays than it would be in an essential oil. However, there is still a gentle aromatic reminder of each plant that I use in my blends, and this helps to bring the intention back to the mind of the wearer as she goes about her day, and especially after re-infusing. Now let's consider another, less obvious benefit of plants embedded into clothing: the therapeutic benefits. The constituents of the plant which calm, energize, clarify, or warm are actually chemicals in the plant itself. These have dissolved in water and many of them have entered the hydrosol, and therefor, the garment. These are numerous: rose contains over 400 different chemicals, clary sage around 250, and lavender over 100 ("Hydrosols: the Next Aromatherapy" by Suzanne Catty, 2001). Now, I'm not making any claims, but who is to say that these healing compounds are not being transferred through osmosis from the hydrosol (and the Whipped Soap) through your garment to you? Here's what I can claim, however: I am doing everything possible to situate and maintain healthful plant constituents next to your skin and under your nose :) Three jars of 100% pure distillate of herbs (hydrosols). Each jar is the distillate of a single herb (the need to label is great!). Then I blend these hydrosols to infuse the garments and make the Re-infusing Spray. No water is ever added. Sanctuary Innerwear is my second business venture. iag Originals www.facebook.com/iag.originals/ was the first. iag stands for "It's All Good". In this line, I explored Lenzing Tencel fabrics and plant dyes, work which informed Sanctuary Innerwear. I also designed pants, tops, tunics, body suits and vests with styles derived from folkwear with the express purpose of fitting many body shapes. These garments were still shapely with beautiful details, features I have carried through to my present work. I enjoyed displaying my line as if from an 1850's travelling cart called "Anna's Dyed Goods", complete with antique trunks, working water barrel and pump, rocking chair and pop-up changeroom. During this time, I noticed that the same constituents in plants which gave colour also had the potential to heal. I began a journey of learning about herbs through theherbalacademy.com/ and ayurvastra. The chemise and short, which you see in white in the picture above, was the first style in the new direction of innerwear. I'm currently enjoying contemplating the potential of herbs to act on a person's body and mind through their clothing and hope one day to involve more people in my community in this new and exciting venture.
T Rangari, N & M Kalyankar, T & A Mahajan, A & R Lendhe, P & Puranik, Prashant. (2012). Ayurvastra: Herbal couture technology in textile. International Journal of Research in Ayurveda and Pharmacy. 3. 733-736. 10.7897/2277-4343.03532.
www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/7502/ayurvastra-healing-touch-of-herbal-textiles www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/4960/ayurvastra-the-doctor-of-the-future www.forbesindia.com/aperture/slideshow/weavers-of-wellness-wearing-ayurveda/50167/1#photo Lenzing Tencel®is more expensive but better than any other fibre in production now. I've used it as the backdrop for all my pictures. Here's how I know my fabric is sustainable: I send my fabric to Lenzing in Austria and they verify that their fibres are in it. This certifies my clothing, and I show that by hanging the Lenzing tag on it.
The following is verifiable information on the production of fibres by the Lenzing Company(taken from Lenzing's Sustainability Report, 2017, accessed Jan 2019). LENZING™ fibers are part of a closed natural material cycle. Through photosynthesis and without the use of herbicides, pesticides or irrigation, cellulose is produced in eucalyptus trees. Pulp derived from the harvesting of the 10-15 meter high trees produces much greater amounts of fibre than cotton per square metre of arable land. The cornerstone of Lenzing’s fabrication standards is to produce cellulose fibers from pulp without relying on the chemically complex viscose process. As such, Lenzing is a pioneer in the industry with environmentally friendly pulp bleaching. Since 1992, the Lenzing pulp production plant in Austria has produced pulp without using any chemicals containing chlorine, but with oxygen-based substances instead. NMMO, an aqueous, biodegradable, organic solvent is used in a closed loop fibre production process and recovered at a rate higher than 99 percent. The technology satisfies the Best Available Technology standards of the European Union. In this process, water is also recycled, resulting in very low emissions to the environment and much lower impact on water scarcity. Compared with other viscose fibres, Lenzing Tencel shows “substantially better” performance according to the Higg Material Sustainability Index (MSI), and it is Zero Discharge compliant (Annex 6) of OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 (a verification process which involves the reduction of hazards and risks across the entire textile production chain, from fibre production through to the make-up of products, with the goal of moving towards a greener chemistry.”https://www.oeko-tex.com/media/oeko_tex/downloads/pdf_1/DETOX_TO_ZERO_Guideline_EN.pdf) https://www.lenzing.com/en/download-center/filter1/sustainability/filter2/sustainability-reports/ Come see me at the Toronto Yoga show and Conference, March 28-31, 2019 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, booth #1510. This was an amazing show!!! I felt honoured and proud to be here and to show my line to so many people.
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AUTHOR:
I'm the designer and creator of Sanctuary Innerwear, a line of hand made clothing worn next to the skin which imparts goodness from plants through the hand-dyed and infused fabric.
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