You may have ventured out on a Friday evening to the Art Crawl on James Street North, or attended the “fashion zone” during Supercrawl and are very familiar with the elegant fashion designs created by Blackbird Studio.
I first learned about this dynamic duo 10 years ago when they were creating fashions for the Hamilton Roller Derby teams and some of Canada’s talented singer-songwriters.
It has been an inspiration to watch them flourish over the years. It is with great pleasure and excitement I am able to share they have officially joined our creative community.
On February 1, 2016, Blackbird Studio will open up a new workshop studio and wholesaling space in the Mill Building of the Cotton Factory.
“We are moving our retail shop to 105 James St N., (this coming Spring 2016). The idea was to amalgamate our workshop studio (currently above Mixed Media) and our in-house studio at 161 James St N, into one fixed address. We’ve started wholesaling our product and have outgrown our current workspaces.”
” After much investigation, we discovered our new storefront wasn’t zoned for the type of manufacturing we needed in our expansion. As fate would have it, we had a Glamour In The Hammer meeting (we sit on the board) and The Cotton Factory came up as a venue.”
“We had been to a few art shows there when it first opened, and the restoration project piqued our interest.”
Lynn and Kerry set up an appointment to take a tour of the Cotton Factory shortly afterward.
“The minute we met with Annette Paiement and Glen Marshall for a tour, we were hooked. The current tenants, the vibe, the sheer size of the place fit in with our “big picture”.
“Seeing the potential of expansion, the location, the actual space we’d be in, the windows, the light…it was a perfect fit for us.”
Before visiting the Cotton Factory, Lynn Bebee and Kerry Wade were looking for somewhere they could work alongside other creative, fashion-based artists and designers. It was an earlier trip to New York City which inspired their newest vision.
“We were at a trade show in NYC this past summer and took in a few seminars and lectures at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology), in regards to the “Made In New York” initiative from their City Development Office. We’ve had this idea of a “Made In Hamilton” small run Cut & Sew/ Fashion Manufacturing operation for quite a while and decided to pursue it, an idea based simply from necessity. We could get our product developed and manufactured in Toronto, but it would be so much better if we could do that here. Hamilton is ready.”
The history of Hamilton also includes a strong textiles trade. In the early 19o0’s Hamilton was not only known as a manufacturer of steel but was a leader in the textile industries. The Cotton Factory (Imperial Cotton Company Limited) was one of the many businesses leading this industrial revolution. Similar businesses included the Cannon Knitting Mills, in fact, the first sewing machine factory in Canada was established in Hamilton in 1860-61 by Richard Mott Wanzer who manufactured the Wanzer sewing machine.
Having Black Bird Studios at the Cotton Factory revisits the noble history of clothing and fashion manufacturing Hamilton.
“Our plan for the next few years is to really drive up business in the fashion manufacturing and production sector. There are so many kids getting out of fashion schools, and so many experienced people laid off the workforce from local industry. There is huge potential connecting the dots between the two and creating a new “Made In Hamilton” fashion industry.”
“People were really skeptical when we opened up a designer shop on James St N., but look at Milli. They’ve been going for decades.
The Hamilton Fashion Syndicate
Lynne and Kerry have begun a new initiative in Hamilton they refer to as, the Hamilton Fashion Syndicate (HFS). The HFS started out as a facebook page for all things fashion. A place where Hamilton-based designers, models, photographers, makeup artists, bloggers, stylists, hair stylists, are able to connect if they need each others services for fashion based events and projects.
“The success of that little facebook page lead us to connections with so many like-minded fashion industry types, the next natural step would be creating a Fashion Annex at the Cotton Factory, eventually providing Cut & Sew facilities, photographers for catalog, or editorial shoots, fashion event(s) and workshop facilities, and other fashion based businesses that we can all utilize.”
