Where were your clothes grown and sewn? Was the colour grown or mined? Where were the yarns farmed?

How we answer these sourcing questions has a direct impact on our environment, health and well-being. Reconnecting with Ontario’s farm and textile traditions can lead to protecting our watersheds and foodsheds, create climate change resiliency and generate highly-skilled jobs in a creative industry.

Join us for a day-long, collaborative and interactive event, bringing together producers, buyers and stakeholders to identify community needs, address challenges and create a strategy for rejuvenating Ontario’s natural textile value chain.

• Facilitated Break-Out Sessions
• Display Area and Networking
• Lunch Included

August 22nd, 2018

9:00 am – 4:30 pm

Student Centre, Orillia Campus, Lakehead University, Orillia

$40 Members $50 for non-members

*Special Fibreshed Accommodation in Residence – Comfortable and Affordable Rooms*

Overnight accommodation in residence is available on site both Tuesday and Wednesday. Includes parking and continental breakfast in the room price. Double suite (two rooms with a shared bath) $87/night, plus taxes, ($43.50/individual).

To reserve contact directly, Kristen Lampman Conference Services LU 705-330-4009. Ext. 3003. Indicate the Fibreshed Round Table.

Register Here

Slow Fashion Panel Discussion Featuring:

Peggy Sue Deaven-Smiltnieks – Founder and Creative Director at Peggy Sue Collection Inc.

Toronto ON Peggy Sue Collection 

Peggy Sue Deaven-Smiltnieks is currently the Founder and Creative Director of the Award Winning Canadian Company Peggy Sue Collection Inc., a womens Ready-to-Wear, Sustainable Fashion Runway Collection. Her company sources every material and process from the North American Supply Chain that she herself built from scratch in order to create traceable apparel that not only sustainably supports the North American Fibre Industry, but is actively invested in growing it forward in environmentally and socially conscious ways. Previously, she has been a high-end womenswear and menswear designer for lines such as London designer Roksanda Ilincic and the Saks Fifth Avenue 611 line as well as large corporate Fashion Company Li & Fung.

She has worked with Toronto Fashion Week, Vancouver EcoFashion Week, London Fashion Week, LA Markets, and NYC Fashion Week and Markets.

Deborah Livingston-Lowe Textile Designer and Weaver at Upper Canada Weaving

Village of East Toronto ON @uppercanadaweaving

 

Deborah Livingston-Lowe designs and produces custom, handwoven fabric in the Village of East Toronto. Her expertise is in reproductions of 19th century textiles, machinery and equipment from Eastern Canada. Her skills are often commissioned for historical reproductions and restorations, as well as contemporary textile production. Her handwoven fabric features prominently in the award winning women’s wear collection, Peggy Sue Collection Inc.

Romy Schill – Sheep Farmer, Circle R Livestock

Mapleton Township, ON  www.circlerlamb.ca

We are the Schill Family, Ryan and Romy and our 3 little helpers. We are the 4th and 5th generations to farm on our land located in beautiful Mapleton Township in Wellington County. We live and breath farming and spend lots of time in the barn looking after all the animals, growing crops and managing our operation. Romy manages the farm during day and Ryan works at a local custom operator and crop inputs supplier. The kids get to have fun playing in barn and roaming the farm yard, a great place to grow up! Ryan completed an Agricultural Certificate at Lakeland College. Romy has a BSc. in Agriculture from the University of Guelph. Our education and experience on farms and within the farming community gives us confidence to do the right thing for our sheep and our farm. Education and interaction with consumers is very important to us. Many people lack a connection with the farm and we hope to fill that blank. Being open and honest about what we do is key to developing consumer trust, as we grow our flock to 900 ewes this year focusing on meat lambs and lambing year round. We see wool as a value added enterprise on the farm letting us use more of what the sheep produce.  

Nicole Varney – Spontaneous Atelier

Muskoka, ON www.spontaneousatelier.com/

Spontaneous Atelier is the working title of multidisciplinary artisan Nicole Varney. Working within the mediums of textiles, natural pigments, sound healing & herbalism, she tells stories of ecological consciousness through her works. She operates a nomadic natural color studio, working closely with plant allies and the landscape to create localized pigments for designers and individuals. She lives and works in and around Ontario, Canada.

“Living colored cloth deepens our cultivation of relationship to our earth, through alchemical dye sessions we form dialogues through the natural rainbow, unfurling beauty and healing from the source “

Spontaneous Atelier is in alignment with the slow fashion movement, which refer to awareness and responsibility of everyday actions. We believe learning from the past and evolving sustainable techniques is crucial to preserving our earth.

Nicole is a member of Craft Ontario, Upper Canada Fibershed and a facilitator of “My Clothes My World” program at Fashion Takes Action. She holds a Chartered Herbalist diploma from Dominion College, and is a student of DeAnna Batdorff studying Ayurvedic Clinical Foundations.

Donna Hancock – Owner Operator, Wellington Fibres

Elora, ON http://wellingtonfibres.on.ca/

Wellington Fibres is a small business owned by Donna Hancock. We have a farm with 30 breeding Angora goats, which produce mohair. The goats are sheared twice a year and the mohair is processed on site at our own mill. Along with our own product we offer custom processing of natural protein fibres. Our specialty yarns are brushed and boucle. To accommodate smaller producers our minimum requirement is only one fleece. Our goal is to customize our processing to your needs.

 

 

Thank you to our event sponsors:

Alpaca Ontario

Ontario Sheep Farmers

Westlake Knits

Dr. Nicole Klenk, University of Toronto, SSHRC Connection Grant 2017-2018: Regenerating Rural Textile Economies: The role of social networks and social capital in sheep farming.

 

 

 

Register HERE by August 14th to hold your spot!

Screening of River Blue to follow the event.