Made in Quebec
The end of sweatshops?













A Petites Mains employee removes extra threads before shipping the final product; Staff at Petites Mains are predominantly comprised of women who learn industry and language skills at work; At one time, Blank produced their clothing in a basement. They now produce everything in the store, but will have to relocate because of expansion. PHOTO Matthew Gore

When Martin Delisle and two of his friends decided to found Blank two years ago, everybody around them began to doubt their mental sanity. Their family, the banks; nobody would even dare trust them.

Delisle’s idea was quite simple, though. He just wanted to sell basic and modern clothing to Montrealers at an affordable price. And he wanted his clothes to be made here, in Quebec.

Anyone who’s had a look at their closet lately or been a fan of Naomi Klein knows that Canadian-made clothes are an endangered species. Local production is only profitable for a handful of small high-fashion companies who need to wield tight control over production. All the others have long gone to the free zones of China and India and to the maquiladoras of South America.

While the textile sector is finding a new lease on life with its innovation into technological specialization, the apparel industry in Canada is quickly disappearing. After a steady increase during the 1990s, the employment rate in the industry suddenly dropped in 2002, partly due to the suppression of the barriers to multilateral trade, such as import quotas and duty rates. From then on, there were no more restrictions to relocations abroad. Since then, more than 10,000 garment workers are unable to find employment every year, according to Statistics Canada. Institut de la statistique reported almost 18,000 jobs losses between 2003 and 2004 in Quebec alone.

But Blank succeeded. After opening a first store on St-Laurent, the franchise opened a second location in the Village on St-Catherine, which also became its production site. Sales doubled last year. The company now employs 12 workers plus 40 subcontractors and a constantly diversifying collection. It gets most of its profits from wholesale and counts Québécor, Amnesty International, the YMCA and Radio-Canada among its clients.

At Blank, only the cotton is imported. Every other phase of production is completed entirely in Quebec, from weaving to dyeing to sewing. While shopping, customers can observe the workroom, its particular lighting, air conditioning and ergonomic seating through a large window in the back of the store. In spite of all those fancy details, a basic t-shirt costs $20, taxes included.

“We decided to make less profits but more sweaters,” says Delisle.

There will always be production in Montreal as long as there will be independent boutiques —Norma Rantisi

Blank would probably not have known the same fate if it had started a few years ago. It is currently riding the wave of ethical fashion, a trend born in London and Paris out of a growing demand from consumers for a better transparency of products.

In the midst of the self-afflicted guilt generated by a sudden awareness about environmental issues, ethics have become a new way of life. Within the fashion industry, this concept can be applied to the infinite and has become a cornerstone for new marketing techniques.

Oöm is another Montreal-based clothing company entirely rooted in ethical fashion. Their clothes, which can be found in various stores across the city and through wholesale, are made out of organic cotton from India and out of bamboo. Some of the clothing is decorated with a silkscreen accompanied by a positive message. Two percent of sales go to social charities, and like Blank, Oöm clothes are manufactured locally. But the workers are of a very special kind. The company subcontracts the sewing to organizations of social integration, helping immigrants and handicapped people find their footing through ethical fashion.

This process is extremely energy-consuming since workers often lack experience. Founders Pascal Benaksas-Couture and Pascale Clauzier spend a great deal of time verifying the quality of the products and often have to send them back to the manufactures for modifications. But according to Benaksas-Couture, it is worth all the effort.

“It’s an incredible workforce,” he says of his workers. “Without this occupation that we are offering, they would stay at home and degrade themselves, instead of feeling that they are part of the society.”

Soon, Oöm clothes will be certified as fair trade. The company is one of the founding members of FibrEthik, a cooperative that will ensure that cotton imported from India has been produced in decent working conditions. This might cause prices to increase, even if they are already at $40 for a t-shirt. And for Martin Delisle, who refused to be part of FibrEthik, it still won’t guarantee that the workers are welltreated.

“We cannot guarantee the conditions of production,” he says. “Right now, organic cotton can only be imported from China and India. They deal with third parties that we cannot control.” Delisle prefers to wait and search in other directions for Blank, such as the development of organic cotton farms in the United States and hemp cultivation in Quebec.

Oöm can at least make sure that their workers are in good hands. Petites Mains is one of the organizations to whom they outsource part of the production. Since its creation in 1994, it has been helping women—mostly immigrants—integrate into Canadian society. It offers French and English courses concurrently with six-months of job training.

Women are trained into the field through the sewing program. Clients include independent clothing companies like Oöm, which relies on the sewing program for its operations.

Bombardier and Bell Canada are only two of Petites Mains’ regular clients who are ready to pay a bit more for their t-shirts in order to have a better public image.

Petites Mains has to turn away new clients because they are already running at full capacity. In the midst of the crisis undermining the apparel sector, the company seems almost untouchable.

But for the participants, this success can be bitter. Many of them have followed a husband convinced that life would be better in Canada because of political or economical reasons. Some of them are refugees who arrived here without knowing how difficult it can be, without knowing that they won’t be able to use the diplomas that they earned at home, without knowing they will have to start a new life from scratch.

“They are not told about the process of mourning of their country, their professional or social situation that they have

to do when they arrive here,” explains Julie Hannotiaux, a social worker at Petites Mains.

At Blank, Oöm and Petites Mains, everybody is conscious that they are benefiting from an unprecedented craze. Even if it has only been growing so far, nobody knows how it’s going to evolve. While Blank still doesn’t get much consideration from the banks, Oöm wonders what will happen if people stop caring.

“A lot of companies centre their campaigns on the environment,” says Pascal Benaksas-Couture. “What scares me is that those companies, when it won’t be profitable for them anymore, will give up this niche, whereas Oöm has been our raison d’être for the past four years. We don’t rely on anything else to survive.”

According to Norma Rantisi, a professor in the department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University, Montreal is a great place to sustain ethical fashion. She says the city relies on a history of apparel design and manufacturing, and can boost local designers as long as they leave room for originality.

“There will always be production in Montreal as long as there will be independent boutiques,” she says.

But she also warns that although expanding is just the natural thing to do for successful clothing companies, it can also complicate the business. As the production grows, they run into cost problems, and most of them end up relocating. Those who choose to stay have to be extremely vigilant. For them, the biggest challenges may have yet to come.