Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and where the desire to design came from?
I really loved Barbie dolls and I would spend endless hours with leftover fabric from my mom's sewing room trying to make my Barbies their new outfits. I was probably 7 or so when I started doing this, so I didn't sew these clothes, but I remember just using these different fabrics with these lovely and different textures and wrapping them around my barbies to make some very pretty new clothes. So designing has been part of my life ever since I was able to take whatever I had to work with and put together some sort of creation with it....the result was not necessarily a sewn garment, but just a creation...and I continued to do this later on in my life by creating poetry, creating interior designs and some landscaping. I believe this desire to create has its roots in the way I saw my mother’s interaction with her environment in particular with textiles and the construction of clothing. My mom was a versatile and resourceful woman who taught me to recycle and upcycle everything. She was also a talented seamstress and had an impeccable eye for quality and design. She not only designed but did the sewing for all our family when we immigrated to Canada from Italy back in the 1960s... mine, my dad's, her sisters and their families. She made sure that they were not just perfectly constructed but, when taken care of these masterpieces would last forever (well nearly). To this day, I still have and wear some of her clothes and I still have clothes that she constructed 45 years ago. From mom, I learned the basic skills of sewing and styling and how to respect and create a design so that you wear it and it does not wear you.
How would you describe your own personal style?
I would say that generally, my personal style has the 1960s and 70s core mixed with the addition of a little bohemian flair that adds interesting textures, layering etc that aren't normally associated with those time periods: additionally I only use colour complimentary accessories vs matching ones.
All Mayd in Chyna items are vegan and certifiably sustainable and ethically produced, what does the process look like to have each item certified?
To be clear certification is very complex. So what we have is not an item certification for each piece but process certifications and adherence to certified textile manufacturing standards. What this means is that the processes we use are controlled by and come under the following global standards: GOTS, Oeko-tex and Blue Sign. These standards guarantee that the only substances that are used through our supply chain from growing of the fibre to the spinning to the weaving to the knitting and finally to the dyeing are substances that are not harmful to the environment or living beings.
In keeping with this strict adherence to minimize harm and toxicity, we decided to manufacture our own fabrics and labels; to strictly use quality and premium fibre that is organic and certified to a global standard, to strictly use USA made and the most sustainable and eco-friendly notions, trims etc. that we could find, (from our organic thread, to our recycled buttons, to our no heavy metals and recycled zippers, to our recycled hang tags and to our personally designed and manufactured labels) to have a supply chain that we have personally chosen and met, to create and use designs and colours that are timeless, classic and forever fashionable, to source a supply chain that is entirely USA based starting with our ELS (extra-long staple) organic pima and upland cottons to our New York-based sewing contractor.