Two groups of U of A grads are creating top-drawer designs

Roots singer Guy Clark put his finger on it. In a society that encourages keeping up with trends and getting the next new gadget, where the things you buy are often made to be used and discarded, he praises “stuff that works, stuff that holds up”—simple stuff you can treasure and enjoy for a long time. Clark might have been singing the praises of the products made by recent U of A grads. Though they’re designing and making different kinds of items—one group makes clothes, the other furniture—these grads share a desire to collaborate in making long-lasting, quality pieces.

Carmen Douville, ’05 BA, Doha Chebib, ’04 BA, Dara Humniski, ’04 BA, and Anna Thomas, ’04 BA, formed the Loyal Loot Collective—the name reflects their aim to create objects to cherish—while they were still students in the U of A’s Industrial Design program. Ever since then the collective has been getting a lot of attention for their beautiful designs.

“We all became friends over the course of the first year of university,” says Douville. “We always knew we wanted to work together, so when a curated show came up, we did it as a collective.”

In 2004 the friends submitted four designs to an industrial design show in New York called “Cabin.” Three were accepted—designs for a rug, a coat rack, and log bowls. Each of the items goes beyond its practical application and combines a unique statement of design with a beautiful object that should hold up for years. As the Cabin show made its way from New York to Toronto and then on to Calgary, the small collective and their evocative pieces starting getting a lot of industry attention.

Since then the four women have created many new pieces and taken their ‘loot’ with them to design shows around the world. Publications including Surface, Azure, and Applied Arts Magazine have also featured their designs, and an upcoming issue of the industry heavy-hitter Metropolitan Homes will showcase some of their items.

In April the collective will travel to Italy where two of their pieces will be part of the 2006 Milan Furniture Fair, the largest and most prestigious furniture fair in the world. Getting there is a dream that came true sooner than expected.

“Our joke when we went to the show in New York was that we’d make it to the Milan Furniture Fair by 2007,” says Carmen Douville. “That was a dream, but we also thought it was a joke.”

In Milan they hope to meet “the one right person,” someone who will want to pay good money for one of their designs or go into production with one of their pieces and pay royalty payments to the group.

Finding a manufacturer and continuing to design and exhibit their work will keep the group busy for a long time. They each have day jobs in the industry but save a lot of their energy for the work they do together. “We all know we could design on our own,” says Doha Chebib, “but it seems natural to want to work together and work towards greater things as a group.”

Working toward things as a group means adapting the design process to take advantage of each other’s strengths as well as relying on the honesty of real friends. “When it comes time to share fleeting sketches and ideas, we know we can be honest and tell each other what’s good and what isn’t,” says Chebib. “We share ideas on how to build our designs, and it’s helpful when all four of us have attempted various building techniques.”

“We all have our strengths and weaknesses,” adds Douville, “so by working together we can balance that.”

Over at the south-Edmonton design offices of the new clothing line House of Virtue, three graduates of the U of A’s Human Ecology program take the same approach to their work.

Janine Russell, ’03 BSc(HumanEcol), started the clothing design company in July 2005 with Tung Vo and Alicia Payne, both ’05 BSc(HumanEcol). Russell says starting House of Virtue was a group decision, and that set the tone for the collaborative approach to their work. “We have our own ideas but we all mesh,” she says.

Payne and Vo draw up the initial designs—“The more we do it the more we learn to use each other’s strengths,” says Payne—and then present them to Russell for critique and improvement. “We all want to do our best, and we know that about each other,” says Payne. Vo echoes her comment: “The end product is the best it can be, with all our critical analysis put into it.”

After less than a year working together, the three have already hit the comfortable point of finishing each other’s sentences and working together toward a common goal: making high quality clothes that incorporate the best of vintage, fit well, look good, and will last. “We are very conscious of high quality fit and finish in our designs,” says Russell. Payne adds, “We want a balanced look, a beautiful look,” and Vo explains, “The vintage is not just patched on.”

Russell worked for the vintage store Divine for a few years (House of Virtue clothes are available in Divine’s four stores in western Canada), and she knew there was a market in good quality reworked vintage—taking the best of the old and crafting something better—and that Vo and Payne were just the designers who could help her see the concept through to completion.

“There’s some beautiful vintage clothing,” says Russell, “but not all of it can be worn as is—because it’s too worn or is stained or has partly lost its shape.” Customers interested in reworked vintage include young people who want the unique retro look, fashionistas who like well-designed clothes that aren’t mass-produced, and environmentally conscious consumers who like to recycle.

Although the jury’s still out as to whether either of these groups will ultimately find the expanded buying market they hope to tap into, their commitment to the pursuit of excellence in design and manufacturing will remain central to their aesthetic approach, as will their allegiance to each other.

“We made a collective decision to pursue something good together,” says Janine Russell of the clothes she’s making at House of Virtue with her former classmates. Loyal Loot Collective’s Doha Chebib echoes that collegial sentiment. “We all know we want to have a future in design together,” she says, “and this seems like the best means to achieve that future.”

—Shelagh Kubish, ’85 BA