Porcupine quills and waxed cotton were just two of the natural flourishes that designer Hajnalka Mandula unleashed on the Vancouver fashion scene when she launched her line in 1998. A West Coast harbinger of fashion-forward natural fabrics (and deconstruction, and asymmetry, for that matter), her pieces now fetch on average US$500 in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, proving that sustainable and stylish are no longer antithetical. To spread the organic love back home, she’s unveiled her first boutique, Mandula (882 Homer St., 604-720-3787, mandula.com), in the spot once occupied by avant-garde men’s store Komakino, which has migrated to Gastown. She’s now working with certified organic cotton and wool and recycled military blankets, adding found objects such as skeleton keys, bone and old coins to stunning effect. Heck, she’s even given the store a lick of organic paint.
And it’s catching: Mala Kuja (malakuja.com) in Yaletown does a great job of marrying style with social conscience, in a freewheeling, bohemian-bamboo kind of way. And while soy leggings may not be at the top of your shopping list, they could be, with the funky, extra-long, bunchy offering from local Love, Deming at City of Pula (210 Abbott St., 604-685-4485).
The organic-chic wrap tops, jeans and dresses from Vancouver’s Oqoqo (oqoqo.com) have also been a hit in the U.S., most recently at its new Chicago store, a former Banana Republic.
And finally, if soy and bamboo are too five-minutes-ago-dot-com for you, Vancouver’s Lotuswear (lotuswear.com) is researching a fabric derived from crab shells. Just don’t tell them it pinches.
First published in FASHION Magazine October 2006
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