Eugene weekly., December 06, 2012, Page 11, Image 11

wear to be both cool and practical. “I’m restricted with the
machinery that I use to produce this stuff and it slows
down the process for me.”
“Yeah, I’m in the same boat,” Laroux says, nodding. Her
clothing at the Redoux Parlour, like shirtdresses and
overalls, sells out faster than she can produce it. Laroux
says that in the months leading up to Eugene Fashion
Week or Oregon Country Fair, there are never enough
hands or machines to manufacture her designs.
“There’s a lot of people in the DIY fashion movement in
Eugene that we know that basically are doing this as a side
project. It’s their art; it’s their passion, but they have to hold
down regular jobs to makes ends meet. If there were
resources like a fashion house, a production house,
available to them, they could actually take it to the next
step,” Chester says. “They could start incorporating their
art into a business. A lot of us who are spread so thin as
designers, we’re kind of at a stagnating state with the lack
of this kind of resource available to us.”
Chester and Laroux say the typical process for taking a
design from idea to fruition is to make a prototype, tweak
it, make another prototype, tweak it and so on until they
have a product that both functions and looks the way they
want it. For help with prototypes, some designers enlist
contracted sewers, many of whom are in Salem, Portland
or further afield.
“If you’re having to run all the way up to Portland every
time to look at something …” Laroux says.
“It’s not sustainable,” Chester adds. They both shake
their heads.
Harding, founder of Circle Creations and co-owner of
The Springfield Model
the new Trillium boutique in south Eugene, is one of those
designers. “I’ve been searching for more [sewers]. I have
about three new designs right now that aren’t done for the
holidays, so I’m definitely behind on that,” says Harding, who
uses Cascade Commercial Cutting and Sewing in Salem for
some of her designs. “There’s nothing large scale in the
area. It’s definitely not convenient.” Lee continues, “We kind
of have a special niche in Eugene. We’re kind of known along
the West Coast that we have a lot of designers and really
good clothing companies. So I think it would be a good fit to
have a production facility here.”
Two years ago, Chester, Laroux, Harding and over a
dozen other local garment industry professionals began
meeting with Leah Murray, a program coordinator at eDev,
a local nonprofit organization that helps micro
entrepreneurs reach their business goals through classes,
counseling and small grants. Chester, Laroux, Harding and
Breech have all used eDev to grow their businesses. Murray
says that when Sew Unique, a former sewing outfit in
Eugene, closed “it left a major hole in the community.” So the
group would discuss their business needs and a garment
production house would always be at the top of the list.
Murray advised them on possible avenues of funding —
microloans, urban renewal funds from the city of Eugene
and even Kickstarter. “They have roots here,” says Murray of
the designers. “Why should they have to leave?”
Breech, Trust Hemp founder and the other co-owner of
Trillium, was also at those meetings. “This idea keeps
coming back. It might be a critical mass moment,” Breech
says. The lack of access to local, reliable production for
local designers has been a “major roadblock to success.”
In late November, Mitra Chester and Laura Lee Laroux
tour T&J Sewing in Springfield, a small production house
that produces canvas tote and bike bags for companies
like Archival Clothing. The windowless concrete building
sits on Main Street, a complete mystery to the outside
world. The only sign of occupancy is “T&J Sewing” hand-
scrawled on the front door. Inside, is a cacophony of
production: the buzz of straight-stitch and cover-stitch
sewing machines, sergers (for hemming and seaming),
grommet and snap machines and T&J’s 10 employees fill
the spotless 7,600-sq.-ft. space with activity. Spools of
colorful thread line white shelves, sample bags dangle
from hooks on the walls and a rack full of paper patterns
flutter whenever someone walks by. After a walk-through
of the facility, and lots of oohing and ahhing over
equipment by Chester and Laroux, the designer duo talk
shop with Terry Shuck (the T of T&J) about what
equipment they would need and how much it would cost
to open a similar operation (Shuck ballparks $200,000
— if the equipment is bought new).
“There’s definitely a need for someone to do
garments. Everybody who did garments here in the past
is gone,” says Shuck, who, along with his wife Julie (she’s
the J), has been in the production business for over 30
years, beginning with the Eugene-based Burley Design
Cooperative, where they worked in cutting, designing,
sewing and machine maintenance. When Burley changed
its business model in the early aughts, the Shucks bought
up most of their equipment and began a production
outfit in their garage. Less than 10 years later, the
business has tripled in size both physically (they moved
into their third and biggest location in September 2012)
and production-wise.
“I get calls all the time from people looking for
someone to manufacture a specific garment. We’ve seen
everything from slings and wraps to dresses and shirts.
We specialize in what we’re doing and this is what we
stick with,” Shuck says.
EMPLOYEE AT
T&J SEWING
P H OTO BY R O B SY D O R • D IG ITAL L AT T E . CO M
The Cost of Homegrown Couture
Chester and Laroux have approached the city with the
idea of bringing manufacturing to town.
“Designers like Mitra and Laura Lee — that’s part of the
creative industry that we all want to have in our town,” says
Billie Moser, the community events manager for the city of
Eugene’s Cultural Services department. “We understand
that there’s a need, and that we need space like that. That
doesn’t mean we have found space like that … but I have
definitely talked to my colleagues about it and the reaction
was very positive.”
Before finding a viable space, local garment designer
and production sewer Jeffrey Yee says a project like this
would need a secure financial investment. “It’s an
undertaking to start a production house,” Yee says. “I think
it’s a great idea, but can you pay for it? How are you going
to pay for it? How are you going to get it off the ground?” If
the project does find funding, Yee says he would be happy
to step in to show designers and other potential employees
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