SKILLS PAY BILLS #006
Claudia and Manny spend another long night in the sewing studio reflecting on the past 6 months and how the pandemic has affected their lives and business. They also talk about future plans and what's next for Sew Loka in 2021
At the very beginning of Sew Loka around 2013, we were focused on repurposing and upcycling donated goods. We really wanted to get as creative as possible with scraps.
At the time, people didn’t know Sew Loka – people didn’t trust us. We went through all of our savings just to keep us afloat.
“Each piece that you get from Sew Loka is a story. It’s work from our hands. A lot of it started as a little vision from the designer’s brain.”
Claudia sews unisex jacket
But after two years, we started seeing revenue and starting doing custom projects and tailoring. We did anything for the business to survive. I really enjoyed the tailoring because people realized how good they could look with a really good fit.
Now with the pandemic, no one was getting anything tailored anymore. And with financial strains, people didn’t have extra cash to get something tailored.
So, naturally, we were thinking of ways to branch out the brand, Sew Loka.
I had worked with many designers before, and I realized how people held themselves at that level of like I'm a designer you know and basically like taking images from like the internet to like call them their own. I wasn’t contributing (design-wise) to any projects. I was a tool to complete the projects and that’s it.
But now, I’ve made pieces from beginning to end.
“I’m all-in-one, like a Swiss Army knife.”
If I am not a fashion designer, then what am I?
Because a designer sketches a piece out, then it goes to the patternmaker, and then it goes to a seamstress. I’m all-in-one, like a Swiss Army knife.
I want to create a bridge where we’re learning where our clothes are coming from, so we can begin to build a connection (not only with your clothes) but also with the person that's making your clothes.
When was the last time that you met the person who made your pants?
You'll probably never meet them.
“Clothes are a necessity. We wear them all the time. We’re able to express ourselves in them. ”
Why are clothes nowadays, so disposable?
(Quickly cycling in & out of our closets)...
I think it's a new thing that has started just a few years back with disposable fashion. Now it's not like there are only 4 seasons – spring, summer, fall, winter… At Forever 21, for example, they're dropping new clothes every week or two weeks, I think. So then people are like “Wow I have to keep up with how much new stuff is coming out...”
So people like going there and getting more and more and more – as opposed to slowing down and figuring out where all this new stuff is coming from…
What do you think about disposable fashion?
I think it’s such a scam. I remember Forever 21 had made a shirt that said “feminist” and people got really upset about it.
They were like “How dare you print out a shirt that says “feminist” when it was sewn by women in Bangladesh who are getting paid $10/month. You're taking advantage of women in another country that don't get paid a livable wage.”
They have a point.
I want to be able to have that connection when you come into my shop, you can peek through and see the whole studio (our wall of fabric, our patterns, the scissors, the sewing machines) where the pieces are made. And you can tell things are made here, because it’s a fucking mess, it’s not staged, and there is actual work going on here.
Where do you source your fabrics?
Most of our fabrics are reclaimed, which means that they were either going to go to a landfill or the dumpster. Some of the vintage fabrics were inherited after people passed away. We’re so grateful that people think about us, even after the loss of a loved one.
How does fabric sourcing impact your brand?
I definitely want to make sure that our pieces are affordable too.
Yet at the same time, we don't want to add to the disposable fashion where a $15 shirt ends up in a dumpster somewhere and add to the life of disposable fashion.
We want people to see the value in clothes.
There is a huge added value to every piece on our shelves. We record the process of making it, and people get to see the evolution from scraps to finish. That’s rare and certainly not disposable.
Each piece that you get from Sew Loka is a story. It’s work from our hands. A lot of it started as a little vision from the designer’s brain.
How does the designer, like... design?
I just kind of see it in my head, and then since I work right in front of our wall of fabrics – I get to see everything. And then my mind will start turning gears, visualize one fabric and then think “It would be really cool if we can make it out of that” and then I just do it…
I'm working on a gender-neutral jacket this week and I have two fabrics in mind – one of them is like a magenta, and then the other one is a dark blue denim that looks like corduroy.
The magenta one is really cool because it's very sensory – like you want to touch it.
That's what I like about it. It's so different.
Why is it so important for you to be different?
It goes back to my trauma in Middle School when I was like 12 years old.
There was a mall called Panorama Mall in the San Fernando Valley and I loved that mall because they had Red Zone, which was a cooler version of Hot Topic. Really cool.
I was working with my dad who owned a denim factory and I was earning $10/day.
So, I would save up my money just to go shop at Red Zone at the Panorama Mall.
But, the plaid pants I wanted at Red Zone would be like $100 bucks. So then I was like “Woah, I can't afford that. It's going to take me 10 f****** working days to buy those plaid pants.”
“I couldn’t afford the $100 pants at my favorite store. So instead, I was going to the thrift store, buying golfing pants and sewing them into skinny jeans.”
So, I'm working weekends and it's taking me forever to buy these pants, you know, so I’d get impatient and go through their clearance rack and buy some stuff…
I was really into Camouflage print at the time. So I’m at the mall with my parents, walking down the shops, and I was wearing a Camouflage print shirt. Then, I look at this other f****** lady wearing the f****** exact same shirt. I was like “F***!!!” Remember, I am a middle school kid with no tits, I have no f****** boobs!”
So then I'm like “That f****** lady has boobs and she looks way f****** better in my f****** shirt!”
I was embarrassed. I kind of felt like I was like in a magazine, you know those headlines: “Who wore it better?” I didn't like that. I didn't want to be compared and lose because something I wore looked better on someone else. It traumatized me.
That’s around the time when I started buying a lot of stuff from the thrift store and taking it apart and putting it back together.
Again, I couldn't afford the $100 plaid pants at Red Zone. So instead, I was going to the Salvation Army and buying golfing pants and sewing them into skinny jeans.
So then I had my own plaid pants. No one else had the same clothes as me.
That’s why it is so important for me, the brand, and the clothes at Sew Loka to be different.
I don’t want anyone to feel what I felt that day at the Panorama Mall.