For former local Sarah Couture, the path from Merritt to the Vancouver fashion scene to her dream of living and designing in New York City has not always been a straightforward one.
“I always wanted to go into the fashion industry, but you’re always told that there’s not much of a career in it and everything like that,” she said over the phone from her home in North Vancouver. “There’s no one really in Merritt to turn to who’s gone that route.”
After she graduated from Merritt Secondary School in 1999, Couture headed to Vancouver to study psychology. But during her second year, Couture realized it wasn’t for her.
“I called my parents and told them I was dropping out,” she said.
Couture finished up her second year of university and headed back to Merritt, where she was born and raised, for the summer to figure out her next move.
As it turns out, that next move led to her pursuing her passion.
Couture took up three jobs to save enough money for tuition to Blanche MacDonald Centre, a Vancouver-based college for fashion design, merchandising, esthetics, makeup artistry and hair design. Couture was headhunted out of school by Vancouver-based design house NETO/French Laundry, where her introduction to the fashion industry quickly accelerated.
“I worked my way up doing designs, all the marketing, and I ended up doing everything,” she said. “I even learned accounting and doing all their trade shows and things like that. It was awesome because I learned everything and it’ll help me now, starting on my own.”
Couture took a break after working there to start a family. During that time, she designed one-off custom pieces and bridesmaid dresses, but realized “the whole wedding thing” wasn’t for her, either.
Now that her daughters are ages five and eight and in school, Couture said the timing is perfect for her to design for herself, with her women’s ready-to-wear Couture Therapy line.
“I always try to design stuff that I want in my closet,” she said. “I’m not old, I’m not young. What does the most average woman want to wear? I want to design things that are nice and feminine, that show a little bit of sex appeal but you always want to leave something to the imagination.”
Couture Therapy pieces are made from eco-friendly fabrics, including silk, wool, linen, leather, bamboo, and even certain jerseys. Couture said she didn’t start her company with an eco-friendly mandate, but ended up with the designation when she was asked to show in Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week last year. The founders of the annual event found her through some Couture Therapy pieces that were in a Vancouver boutique.
“I had been using silks and that stuff, but I’d never really looked at myself as an eco-friendly designer. It just never really crossed my mind. It wasn’t until meeting up with them that I realized it was a good route to go down because I have two young daughters,” she said, adding she thinks it’s important to model environmentally-friendly behaviours for others. “I just thought it would be good to start doing it myself so that I leave something behind for the kids that’s better.”
Couture said eco-friendly fashion involves more natural fabrics, upcycling unused fabric from other designers, less dyes and local manufacturing and design. She said the trend is moving away from its “hippie, paper bag kind of dressing” stigma, although that’s still out there.
With her sights always set on showing in New York, Couture said she’s on track now to make that dream a reality.
Earlier this month, Couture showed a line for the second time in Eco Fashion Week, and said this year’s runway show went more smoothly than her previous one.
“People don’t really understand everything you have to source and everything that goes into it. It is a lot of work. Trying to sew most of the stuff yourself, models rip things or can’t get something off, somebody goes out when they’re not supposed to in a lineup… it gets pretty crazy,” she said. “But it went really well this year. It was nice and smooth.”
Couture said her next move is to continue growing her company, starting with rebranding her website, offering her fall/winter 2014 line online, and getting her line into stores across Canada. After that, she said she plans to show in Toronto Fashion Week and show at New York Fashion Week as early as next year.
