GRACE MCNABB, LAURA LEE LAROUX AND IRMA
VEGA WILL BE HOSTING A GRAND OPENING
PARTY FOR SILVER LININGS THIS SPRING
Silver
Lining
Playbook
T
hree women sit in the back of The
Redoux Parlour surrounded by piles
of livestock feed bags, burlap sacks,
scissors and sewing machines. Laura
Lee Laroux, Grace McNabb and Irma
Vega are deep in a product development
session. Brainstorming how these raw
materials can be transformed into popular products in the
Eugene market, they pitch ideas like growler bags and
grocery totes. Laroux creases the fl ap of a messenger-
style pack made from the crinkly plastic of a Haystack
Farm & Feed bag and throws the strap over her shoulder.
The seams of the prototype, she points out to Vega, need
tweaking and the straps should be longer. Otherwise, the
trio appears happy with the bag — one of the fi rst products
of the Silver Lining Production House.
In the winter of 2012, EW reported on the growing need
for a garment-manufacturing factory in Eugene (“Fashioning
An Industry,” Dec. 6). With dozens of homegrown apparel
and accessories designers in town but no local production
house, the small industry was stagnating. Designers faced
a problem: Product demand had exceeded what they could
do with their own two hands but was not large enough to
warrant contracting with a manufacturer overseas or in the
remaining, however small, apparel production hubs of New
York City or Los Angeles, which usually require orders
starting in the thousands. According to an October article
in IndustryWeek, the U.S. has lost 90 percent of apparel
manufacturing jobs in the past two decades.
At that point, an indie apparel house, like the ones that
have popped up in Portland in the past fi ve years, was a
12
MARCH 13, 2014 • EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
long long-term aspiration. Less than 18 months later,
however, that goal has been achieved. With local designer
and entrepreneur Laroux at the helm, this unique group of
women — a sort of perfect sartorial storm — opens Silver
Lining Production House this month in the historic Lincoln
Street Building at 4th and Lincoln. All it took was the right
plan, the right team, the right space and a hell of a lot of
elbow grease.
Strategy Style
“It’s about really helping designers get to what their
next level is. A lot of the time, it’s starting in the production
process,” says McNabb, who has been in partnership and
product development meetings with Laroux and Vega for
the past six months.
The production house is currently in the negotiation
stage with fi ve different regional clients. But more than
sewing and manufacturing clothing for independent
designers’ collections, Silver Lining will eventually be
a multi-function fashion house. The founders plan to
help designers with online sales, product photography,
branding, sourcing materials and navigating trade and
runway shows. As they contract with more clients, they
will hire more production sewers and, further down the
road, start a graphics department.
In a nutshell, they want to cultivate small fashion
businesses. They hope these values come across in their
union-inspired logo, which is currently in the design process.
“It symbolizes fair and equal work practices, which is
one of the reasons we’re really doing this,” Laroux says.
EUGENE’S FIRST GARMENT
PRODUCTION HOUSE OPENS
AT 4TH AND LINCOLN
by Alex Notman
“Made in America,” McNabb chimes in.
“I would love for our logo to basically say to people,
‘Trust in us. We’re going to care for your brand and your
line as you care for your own and try to nurture the growth
of it.’” Laroux continues, “A lot of our mission is to bump
everything up to that next professional level in a way that
allows the community and the country and the world to see
what we’re doing here as legit and real and powerful and
creative, and not just brush it to the side as some subgenre
of hippie tie-dye clothes coming from Eugene.”
A year from now, they hope to see at least one client
success story, with an independent designer’s clothing line
manufactured, branded and selling in stores.
Common Threads
A Maryland native, Laura Lee Laroux studied design at
the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City at the
turn of the 21st century. While going to school, she worked
for a New York designer. “I would take out the trash and see
so much fabric thrown away,” Laroux remembers. Those
years in NYC ignited her lifelong passion for homegrown,
sustainable fashion. After school, she came to Eugene via
New Orleans, where she helped run a post-Katrina relief
kitchen, making clothes from donated fabric and hand-me-
downs on a donated sewing machine.
After settling in Eugene, Laroux worked at Infi nity
Mercantile, which she eventually bought with a partner
and renamed The Redoux Parlour, a clothing store that
sells local designs as well as secondhand apparel. The
Redoux Parlour, which is currently transferring to its new