MEET RACHELLE

I'M RACHELLE, this is my designer profile.

I was a purveyor of ethical, sustainable fashion when nobody talked about it.

When I was 16 years old, I became infatuated with natural, alternative ways of living. A little bit sensitive, and a little bit of a social-environmental activist. It shook me up learning specifically about the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, and the horrors of child cobalt mining in the Congo that still happens today. Among all other tragedies that pollute the earth and its people, I didn’t want to support the cruel manufacturing practices of the modern world across all industries. This ache for the world drove me to learning about alternative business practices — how to implement and inspire them at a shockingly young age.

In my early research 15 years ago, I found that there were very few companies that sold sustainable clothing. Most of them were online with alternative hippy aesthetics. I shopped from all of them. I was wearing clothing made from hemp, recycled plastic bottles, eucalyptus, and organic cotton, while observing the marketable and sustainable benefits of each.

Hiding away in my home economics classroom every chance I could get, I learnt to sew and source my own sustainable fabrics while experimenting with natural dyes at home. I remember ordering bamboo all the way from New Zealand to make my school projects...!

I then graduated high school with a fashion scholarship, using some of the money to buy more fabrics. With those creations, I applied to a grant program with Community Futures. Through the program, I wrote my first business plan. There, I fell in love with business education, and earned a small grant to start my own venture.

Soon after, I participated in Eco Fashion Week Vancouver, and won 3rd place in a contest for making a runway dress inspired by Balmain, using hotel bedsheets. After that, a Canadian magazine founder reached out to me for a placement in their coffee table fashion magazine called the Story of Fashion.

These early experiences inspired me to spend more time studying the business side of garment retail and manufacturing through a mentorship program out of New York, while selling collections that I made with my own hands. The collections went to boutiques in my local region. By the time I was 22 years old, I sold 400+ handmade garments through local boutiques, farmers markets, and festivals.

In 2020, I launched Earth and Elle as a loungewear brand after two years planning it out. I raised the seed money by home-sewing the products I was launching. By the time I was 26, I sold an estimate of 1900 bras and undies that were manufactured at a factory in Richmond, BC. Can you believe that I shipped them out of an 8x10 space that was on a rural property in the middle of nowhere?!

It's a blessing to continue participating in the world of sustainable fashion. I am happy to see many companies in the industry succeed in delivering the message, because at one time the options were far and few between.

In the first stage of manufacturing the brand, my concept was a proven success. I look forward to re-launching and expanding it in the coming years. 

Thanks for being here.
Xo
-Rachelle