December 22, 2016 Made Tru - Retailer Exclusive Gowns
At Truvelle, quality craftsmanship, mindful design, and cautious production have always been the backbone of our brand. In the past year, we've begun to further our conscious company culture with the goal of having zero waste from our gown production. Starting the year with the launch of our eco-minded sister brand, Laudae, and ending it with more projects in the works than ever, this was definitely a year of change.
In September, we moved our studio and ever-growing staff to a warehouse space in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. We quickly found there was a need to implement some official practices if we were going to maintain that small company mentality alongside this growth. With more team members, our output would be higher and so, at New York Bridal Market in October we took on ten more retailers. It was great for production to be able to keep up with this growth, but this also means an increase in waste.
As with all forms of garment production, the unfortunate creation of waste is a result of our gown fabrication. Many of our unique designs require lace edging leaving the middle of a beautiful roll virtually untouched. Despite our best efforts at conservation, we are often left with fabric scraps long after the completion of a Truvelle gown. We donate fabric off-cuts when possible and are always on the lookout for organizations accepting donations. We knew we still needed to find a more permanent answer to this on-going question — what do we do with our fabric scraps? Cue the launch of our latest project, creating retailer-exclusive gowns using common Truvelle off-cuts.
This project goes a little something like this: we offered ten of our top retailers the opportunity to design and customize a Truvelle gown of their choosing using our popular off-cuts. With the main purpose to minimize waste, we gave retailers a set list of materials and cut styles to choose from. Retailers were able to name their dresses and will be carrying and selling their Truvelle design exclusively in their boutiques. So you’ll only find each shop’s individual design under their roof. Each design is a representation of our retailers’ attention to their brides wants and needs, and each gown has a little something close to the shop’s heart.
We are pretty excited to be able to create something beautiful out of the raw and real effects of garment production, but there is so much more to this project than solving our waste problem. Namely, the relationship we hold with each shop on our roster of retailers. At just three years in, we are honoured to have such a quality list of retailers that believe in our brand. We strive for all of our collaborations and partnerships to be mutually successful, and this aim definitely does not waiver with our retailers. We are grateful to have such dedicated and supportive stores as our direct connection to brides, and this was just our little way of saying thank you.
Keep an eye out for announcements of these designs hitting shop floors in January. Until then, here is a little peek of this special collection.
