Making a Difference One Garment at a Time – Journal Accès

Six months a year, Laurence Oligny-Roy lives on Entry Island in the Magdalen Islands where she opened her Nada eco atelier boutique. The other six months, she spends them in her house in Saint-Adolphe-d'Howard, where she devotes her time to the production of clothes made with recovered materials.

Interested in fashion since adolescence, Laurence dreamed of becoming a designer. However, she quickly realized how this industry could be destructive to the environment. “It was a shock, I really wanted to go into this field. I had to find a way to pursue my dream, but in an ethical way, ”explains Laurence in an interview with the Journal.

It was in 2019 that she started her business, after studying fashion design at Cégep Marie-Victorin. Last year, she bought a building that had been abandoned on the wharf at Île d'Entrée and transformed it into a café-boutique-atelier where she sells her clothes and those of other artisans in the region. Despite the isolation of this island, which is only accessible by sea, there can be more than 300 tourists a day who come to visit it.

“My goal was to do the production in the winter in the Laurentians where I have my workshop and to sell it during the summer,” emphasizes Laurence.

Challenges

For the first time this year, Laurence decided not to bring with her recycled materials from the islands, which she usually did. "I didn't think it made sense to bring back recovered materials from the islands and then bring my final products back there," she says. The craftswoman wanted to design her clothes from materials that came from here.

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But she still faces challenges getting recycled clothes from thrift stores in the area. She faces many “closed doors” to be part of the sorting process and recover materials that could be sent elsewhere or thrown away.

Faced with these difficulties, Laurence decided to appeal to the community of Saint-Adolphe to receive clothing donations. "I found it really cool, because the population of Saint-Adolphe is really open and I've already had a few donations," she explains.

single garment

Laurence manufactures both clothes designed from A to Z, with recycled materials, and second-hand clothes that she repairs and refurbishes. She gives them, for example, another look with prints made in linocut.

If many do not bother to repair their clothing, Laurence believes that some parts must be recovered and are of a quality that is even difficult to find these days. “Sometimes there's just a button missing, and no one is going to fix it, even if it's not complicated. It's almost more profitable to make a T-shirt from A to Z than to repair a button, because you have a big factory with employees paid minimum wage in poor conditions,” laments Laurence.

Its products can sometimes be found at Maison Forêt in Val-David or at certain events such as craftsmen's markets. However, it is more difficult with the pandemic to do "pop up shops", which she did before.

If you have clothes to donate, you can contact Laurence: 514 951-6232laurence.oligny.roy@gmail.com| Facebook: Nada eco workshop