Revived and Recycled brings eco-friendly fashion to Thunder Bay
By Clare Bonnyman, CBC News Posted: Apr 21, 2016 8:00 AM
A Thunder Bay, Ont. woman is giving old clothing a second life through her new fashion line.
Revived and Recycled by L. Roy features locally made recycled and reused clothing.
It’s a passion project that started a year ago when Line Roy launched an Etsy.com site to sell her creations.
She’s since decided to pursue fashion full time. She retired from her position as secretary at École Catholique Franco-Supérieur in Thunder Bay, and officially launched her new clothing line the following Monday.
She makes clothing in sizes XXS to plus size.
Roy aims to design unique, beautiful clothing for women that come in “the odd sizes,” she said. “I think every woman no matter what size, no matter where they come from or what they do in their life is beautiful.”
Using primarily knits, she focuses on non-restrictive clothing without zippers or ties.
“You can move with the clothing, it’s comfortable,” she said.
“It’s happy clothing.”
Roy’s basement currently holds more than 200 pieces of recycled clothing and fabric, hung on racks, in closets, and stacked on shelves. All of the clothes have been donated by friends, family and clients.
She uses anywhere from 3-10 recycled pieces to create one new dress, and can use a single recycled item to create multiple unique pieces.
Before retiring, Roy would design clothes every evening and weekend, but is thankful now to dedicate herself to the craft full time.
“It’s so much fun I can’t not do it,” she said.
On her ‘shabby-chic’ style, she said it comes together in the moment.
“I love it so much that stuff starts to happen, I rarely have a plan,” she said. “I just figure if you put something together it belongs together.”
Before her official launch, Roy has sold pieces in Canada, the United States and France, and is now hoping to expand even more internationally.
Clare Bonnyman 