Elizabeth Williams of The Checkroom On Why They Are Embracing Slow Fashion and Renewable Consumption
An Interview With Monica Sanders
Have patience and expect everything to take longer. Slow fashion is an investigative process that takes time. Be transparent to your customers about what you know and what you don’t know about your supply chain as you work to gain answers and forge new paths.
As ‘slow fashion’ grows in popularity, more fashion companies are jumping on the bandwagon. Renewable consumption has been gaining popularity for a while, as people recognize its importance, and many fashion companies want to be a part of this change. In this interview series, we are talking to business leaders in the fashion industry to discuss why they are embracing slow fashion and renewable consumption. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Williams.
Elizabeth Williams is the founder of The Checkroom, a sustainable line of women’s wool outerwear that is responsibly made in the USA from farm to finish. The Checkroom’s classic, timeless coats are sewn in the USA using small batch and made to order manufacturing methods to deliver her clientele a quality coat that can be cherished for years.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?
I have always been interested in clothing as a form of expression. I was a figure skater as a child and fell in love with the art of storytelling through costume. It helped that my mother was a fantastic seamstress that could bring my ideas to life while teaching me how to sew. In college, I studied costume design, and it was through that study that I began to understand the history of our clothing and what “fashion” can say about a generation of people.
Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?
I became interested in outerwear when searching for a new coat for myself. I had a fantastic overcoat that lasted for 10 years. I wore it constantly until it was thread bare. When I went to go look for a replacement for it, I was disappointed by what was available. As a seamstress, it was important to me to find a quality piece that was ethically made. When I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I decided to make one for myself.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Shortly after I made my coat for myself, I started to entertain the idea of starting my own women’s outerwear line. One evening I was at a holiday event at a fancy restaurant, and I checked my hand-made coat with the coat check attendant. She was admiring the quality of the coat and mentioned that she had been looking for something just like it. I told her that I had made it myself and that I was thinking of starting my own line. Sometime during the evening, she slipped an encouraging note into the pocket of my coat and inspired my brand name, The Checkroom.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Empathy. As a former seamstress I think I have a deeper respect for garment workers than most corporations. As I result, I have no problem paying USA garment workers for their excellent craftsmanship and make no apologies for the cost of the craft of making.
Patience. The road toward slow fashion requires patience. In my first year I was not able to get much insight into my fabric supply chain because I was purchasing at such a small scale, I was importing small amounts of wool with no insight into the farming practices used to harvest the wool or actual origin of the fiber. As my company grew, I was able to leverage my orders and ask more questions and make more requests of my suppliers. Today I am working with American farmers that are RWS (Responsible Wool Standard) Certified and American Woolen (one of the last remaining wool mills in the United States) to weave my wool fabric. Today I know about the treatment of the animals, the types of ranches where they graze, I know where the fabric is woven, and I know the people who make my coats.
Resilience. Being a fashion designer comes with many ups and downs. Couple that with that fact that outerwear is so intrinsically linked to the weather, there are so many unpredictable factors that determine my days, weeks, and months. In cases like my own, being stubborn is a virtue.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
I very proud of my commitment to American made along with my partnership with American Woolen and Shaniko Wool. When I first started researching American wool, I realized very quickly that there were only a few remaining wool mills left in the United States. Our garment and textile industries are on the brink of extinction. I am proud to be a part of the movement to not only save our garment industry but place it as a global leader in sustainability. Through climate smart grazing and regenerative farming, wool and other natural fibers hold the power to have a positive impact on our climate and economy. Shaniko Wool is NATIVA Regen™ certified meaning that a progressive approach is being taken to both animal welfare and land management.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that was relevant to you in your life?
I held an internship in college for Fashion Designer, Rebecca Taylor who told me, “The toes you step on today could be attached to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow.” I thought that was great advice and funny too!
Who is your fashion hero or heroine? Why?
My grandmother is my fashion hero. She used fashion to dress for the life she wanted rather than the life she lived. She sewed her own clothes to look like designer fashions, wore costume jewelry, and started her own real estate business in the 1950’s during a time when most women did not hold jobs. Fashion can give a woman confidence and provide gateway into another life, especially through the art of making. Today 80% of garment workers are female and 65% of our clothing is purchased by women. Women hold the purchasing power to lift each other up and support one other through fashion.
Why did you decide to create and use a sustainable business model for your fashion brand?
The only decision that I had to make was to either part of the solution or part of the problem. It’s an easy decision to make. I love fashion and sincerely want it to see it succeed. Why would I want to participate in the demise of something that I love? However, the real decision is where to begin and how to start. There are so many problems with the fashion industry beginning at the microscopic level of the very fiber itself, to the processes used to turn that fiber into cloth, to the waste created in those processes, to the unethical treatment of people, animals, and land. All these problems are worth fixing and need our attention. Many people become paralyzed with getting it all right. For me, it was more important to just get started and chip away at it.
What are three things we should all know about “slow fashion”?
Slow fashion is just that. It’s about slowing down and taking a closer look at your day-to-day apparel decisions. If you are a customer, your job is to closely examine what’s in your closet, who you are buying from, and what you are buying. If you are a designer your job is similar, you are to look at those closest to you in the supply chain and decide who you want to support, and how you can support them. We are all links in a chain, and we are strongest when each of us are doing our job.
Slow fashion does not always mean buying from slow fashion designers. In many cases it can mean not buying something at all, repairing what you own, or buying it second hand.
Slow fashion is about quality over quantity. There was a time in our not-so-distant past that many of our resources were precious and the crafts of making and repairing were essential skills to have. People owned less as a result, and they were just fine.
Can you please explain how it can be fashionable to buy less, wait a little longer, or even repair clothing?
Quality has always been in style. However, the problem is that we are seeing less and less of it, so it is becoming more difficult to find. When you do find a quality piece, it may be something worthy of saving up for especially when you calculate cost per wear. Repairing what you have can be a great way of getting you through until you are ready to make that purchase.
Thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Slow Fashion Brand”.
1 . Start somewhere and avoid “perfection paralysis”. There are so many problems in the fashion industry that it’s hard to know where to start. Find an area that is important to you and start there. Once you have mastered that, pick another subject to tackle, and move onto the next one. When I first started launched my slow fashion brand, I focused on garment workers since that was important to me. As my company grew, I was able to invest more resources into supporting domestic textile workers, and later domestic farmers.
2 . Have patience and expect everything to take longer. Slow fashion is an investigative process that takes time. Be transparent to your customers about what you know and what you don’t know about your supply chain as you work to gain answers and forge new paths.
3 . Stay on top of the latest research, technology, and developments. The study of “sustainability” is still changing and evolving. New fabrics, processes, and means of recycling are changing and developing all the time.
4 . Provide empathy and compassion for everyone in the supply chain. Our planet will not heal without the support of its occupants. Support our farmers and weavers, and garment workers.
5 . Design for your client rather than the earth! There is nothing more wasteful than an item of clothing that nobody wants to wear or that doesn’t function. Sustainability is great, but clothing made in the name of sustainability only with no regard to how it will work for the end user is bad by design.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I truly believe that if we started paying garment workers their true value, we would not only see a drop in the amount of clothing that we are making/ wasting, but a rise in workers above the poverty level. Fashion has the power to do good, but we need to start by recognizing that our clothing is worth more than we are paying for. I challenge anyone reading this purchase some fabric, cut out a pattern, sew up a garment, add up your hours spent, and consider what you would charge for your time spent. That is the true value of your purchase.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can find me via my website: www.coatcheckroom.com
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
About the Interviewer: Monica Sanders JD, LL.M, is the founder of “The Undivide Project”, an organization dedicated to creating climate resilience in underserved communities using good tech and the power of the Internet. She holds faculty roles at the Georgetown University Law Center and the Tulane University Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy. Professor Sanders also serves on several UN agency working groups. As an attorney, Monica has held senior roles in all three branches of government, private industry, and nonprofits. In her previous life, she was a journalist for seven years and the recipient of several awards, including an Emmy. Now the New Orleans native spends her time in solidarity with and championing change for those on the frontlines of climate change and digital divestment. Learn more about how to join her at: www.theundivideproject.org.
