Kaya Dorey is on a mission to make sustainable fashion cool.
The longtime North Vancouver resident and Handsworth secondary grad had a “big aha moment” when she realized most synthetic fabrics are not biodegradable or recyclable, save for donating the clothes to charity.
It’s estimated 85 per cent of discarded textiles end up in Canadian and U.S. landfills, according to recent findings on both sides of the border. The average Canadian trashes 14 kilograms of textile waste per year.
Dorey got a taste of environmental sustainability while studying tourism management at CapU. Taking a keen interest in the issue, Dorey followed up that education by taking sustainable business leadership courses at BCIT – and her eyes opened even more.
“What really triggered it, I was doing a project on textiles waste at BCIT and I learned all about synthetic fabrics and how unsustainable they are and how a lot of them are quite toxic,” says Dorey. “Just like fast fashion in general and how we’re making a lot of clothing to last not a lot of time and it’s very cheap so people keep buying it. They don’t really value the clothing. And then it goes to the landfill.”
After Dorey took inventory of her clothes, she realized 80 per cent of her closet contained synthetic fabrics. Thus began Dorey’s hunt to find sustainable clothing that suited her style.
In her experience, Dorey found a lack of green attire in Vancouver. So, she decided to create her own innovative fashion line, hence the name Novel Supply Co.
Novel’s mission? To create, design and develop “rad apparel that shifts the stigma of sustainable fashion.”
“If you say the word sustainability, a big percentage of people get turned off right away,” says Dorey.
Her plan is to get people hooked off the bat with a cool brand and then surprise them when they learn the clothes are sustainable.
Think iconic West Coast images – bikes, bears, gondolas and growlers – printed singly on muscle tanks, adventure T-shirts and cabin crew sweatshirts.
Every article of clothing released is exclusive, as Dorey collaborates with local artists every couple of months to create new designs.
Hemp and organic cotton are the sustainable and natural materials used, right down to the clothing’s hang tags and labels.
“Hemp is by far the most sustainable material,” says Dorey. “It’s very regenerative and doesn’t require as much water as cotton to grow. And there are no pesticides. It’s essentially a weed, funny enough.”
Besides being comfortable, Novel Supply’s apparel is made without any harmful chemicals. “We care about what we put in our bodies, why not care about what we put on our bodies,” says Dorey.
Full disclosure, Dorey had to use a bit of Lycra for the ribbing on the clothes because it’s the current standard material for the stretch factor.
“I hope that one day I can source a fully natural one,” she says.
Novel Supply also prides itself on creating non-gender sizing. It feeds directly into the conversation about body image, something Dorey has been immersed in working in the retail industry for a decade.
“The constant talking about your own body in a negative way, I just hear that every day in the fitting rooms,” she says.
At the end of the day, Dorey wants everyone to feel comfortable in Novel Supply’s shirts, which are geared towards the quintessential North Shore resident.
“That urban adventurer on the North Shore or anyone who likes to play outdoors … the weekend warrior,” says Dorey.
In her downtime, Dorey walks the talk – skiing in Whistler, hiking the North Shore Mountains, and biking the seawall.
Dorey just wrapped a successful Kickstarter campaign, in which she raised $10,000 to produce the first run of Novel Supply’s latest collection. While the majority of the company’s backers were friends from Dorey’s network, 20 per cent of the donations came from countries from outside Canada, including France and Australia.
Novel Supply’s sustainable tanks and tees are currently available for pre-order online. Dorey is also looking at getting the clothes into some local shops aligned with her eco-fashion values.
More information is available at novelsupply.com.
