LAURA LEE LAROUX
AT HER SHOP
AND STUDIO, THE
REDOUX PARLOUR
P H OTO BY TO D D C O O P E R
how to make their product most efficiently. “I could show
them a lot of techniques.”
Breech says that clothing buyers have already
expressed an interest in investing because of the long-
term local economic security a garment house would
provide. “I think the funding is there,” he says, through a
combination of private investors and potential loans
from the city, like the urban renewal funds that helped
Ninkasi Brewing get their entrepreneurial foot in the
door. As Ninkasi has put Eugene on the map in the beer
world, a local production house could put Eugene on the
map in the fashion world. And because we’re asking “Why
not?” why not make it a production house that specializes
in recycled and repurposed fabrics? Eugene could be the
first fashion capital in the world that specializes in
upcycling (converting used materials into new and/or
better products) textiles.
deal with customs and all kinds of stuff that you don’t have
to deal with locally.”
Perhaps most importantly, Eugeneans could purchase
local clothing and accessories knowing that they were not
made under sweatshop conditions, Laroux points out. On Nov.
26, a fire killed 112 workers at the Tazreen Fashions factory in
Bangladesh, the same factory that produces clothing for
Walmart. Located in a high-rise, many employees jumped to
their deaths because of the lack of fire escapes, bringing the
fatalities of Bangladesh factory workers making clothing for
U.S. consumers in the past five years to over 700.
Eugene Fashion Week is back for its third showing this
April, but instead of a bustling production house full of
designers, sewers and apprentices rubbing shoulders,
designers will be working alone in their basements and
shops, or sending their work and dollars outside of the city.
It is time to bring manufacturing home. ■
Besides the potential for profitability, a local fashion
production house would also create jobs locally. Good jobs,
says Breech, like production sewers and machinists that
are typically paid $12 to $25 an hour. It could also be a
training facility, set up for apprenticeships and internships.
“We’ve taken in a lot of people who started learning
sewing skills from us, got exposed to the world of design
and started having ideas and being able to execute them,
therefore moving on from the sewing, production level to
the designer level. It’s a good entry point. It’s a money-
making point,” Chester says.
Yee says producing locally also eliminates headaches
for designers and potentially expensive mistakes. “If you
bring it back local, you have a lot more transparency,” he
says. “If there’s a problem you can stop it. That’s a pretty
powerful thing. I’ve dealt with manufacturers in China, and
if you make a mistake it can be pretty costly. You have to
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eugeneweekly.com • December 6, 2012
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