Natalie "Alabama" Chanin is an American

fashion designer Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applied arts, applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction, and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by diverse cultures and different trends and has va ...

from

Florence, Alabama Florence is a city in, and the county seat of, Lauderdale County, Alabama, Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the state's northwestern corner, and had a population of 40,184 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Florence is l ...

. From 1976 until its closure in 2005, Tee-Jays Manufacturing was one of the largest employers in the Florence textile industry. Chanin's business now operates as a clothing manufacturer on the grounds of the former Tee-Jays company and is now a part of the

zero-waste fashion Zero-waste fashion refers to a fashion design strategy, that generates little or no textile waste during the production process, particularly focusing on the pattern making and cutting stages.Gwilt, Alison, and Timo Rissanen. Shaping Sustainable ...

movement. Her design company uses

organic cotton Organic cotton is generally defined as cotton that is grown organically in subtropical countries, such as India, Turkey, China, and parts of the USA, from non- genetically modified plants, and without the use of any synthetic agricultural chem ...

fabric in their designs. Chanin's "

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

" philosophy means that patterns and techniques for some of her garments are openly available through books and workshops.

Early life and education

Natalie "Alabama" Chanin was born and raised in Florence, Alabama. At the age of ten, she and her mom moved to Chattanooga. She has a degree in

Environmental Design Environmental design is the process of addressing surrounding environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products. It seeks to create spaces that will enhance the natural, social, cultural and physical environm ...

with a focus on industrial and craft-based textiles from

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

.Natalie Chanin
arts.gov After graduation, Chanin worked in the junior sportswear industry on New York's Seventh Avenue, before moving abroad. For the next decade, she worked as a stylist,

costume designer A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costum ...

, and filmmaker, all while traveling the globe.

Inspiration

Chanin draws inspiration from her academic studies, including ideas about color as espoused by Josef and

Anni Albers Anni Albers (born Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann; June 12, 1899 – May 9, 1994) was a German-Jewish visual artist and printmaker. A leading textile artist of the 20th century, she is credited with blurring the lines between traditional craft a ...

, the Bauhaus artists who fled Nazi Germany for Asheville, North Carolina, in 1933 to teach at

Black Mountain College Black Mountain College was a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The coll ...

. Southern literature and stories have always been a love of hers. Growing up, her grandmother sewed every garment her children wore as well as Chanin's, while also gardening and cooking fresh food. This led to her naturally making a community of her own through Alabama Chanin.You Can Make It There
/ref>

Career

Project Alabama

Chanin came back to her hometown of Florence, Alabama, in 2000 and developed an idea to create a small line of two-hundred unique t-shirts. Chanin decided her hometown was the only place able to envision her idea of reconstructing vintage shirts with detailed stitches, like that of a quilting stitch from the Depression era. This started the development of ''Project Alabama'', which consisted of a twenty-two-minute documentary called ''Stitch'', the two-hundred limited hand-sewn and hand-mended T-shirts, and a hand-made catalog. After taking the collection to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to showcase at the

Hotel Chelsea The Hotel Chelsea (also known as the Chelsea Hotel and the Chelsea) is a hotel at 222 West 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Built between 1883 and 1884, the hotel was designed by Philip Hubert in a styl ...

, it was immediately recognized by buyers from department stores including

Barneys New York Barneys New York is an American brand founded in 1923 by Barney Pressman that operated full-line department stores from 1923 until 2020. Authentic Brands Group acquired Barneys' intellectual property in 2019, and has licensed the brand to Saks F ...

.Five Minutes with Natalie Chanin
/ref> With its successful launch, ''Project Alabama'' became a full production facility. In 2006, Chanin separated from her original business partner, while production moved abroad to India.

Alabama Chanin

The making of the brand Alabama Chanin is the culmination of what ''Project Alabama'' symbolized. Alabama Chanin is rooted in the tenets of the

Slow Design The slow movement is a cultural initiative that advocates for a reduction in the pace of modern life, encouraging individuals to embrace a more thoughtful and deliberate approach to their daily activities. It was an offshoot of the slow food m ...

movement. Known for its "eco-chic" influences, Natalie launched the Alabama Chanin line in 2006. Tied with the

slow design The slow movement is a cultural initiative that advocates for a reduction in the pace of modern life, encouraging individuals to embrace a more thoughtful and deliberate approach to their daily activities. It was an offshoot of the slow food m ...

movement, Chanin is also known for being at the forefront of the zero-waste movement by trying to implement sustainable solutions through her brand. Historical evidence reveals indigenous people, Egyptian

kaftans A kaftan or caftan (; , ; , ; ) is a variant of the robe or tunic. Originating in Asia, it has been worn by a number of cultures around the world for thousands of years. In Russian usage, ''kaftan'' instead refers to a style of men's long suit ...

, and

Pre-industrial society Pre-industrial society refers to social attributes and forms of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, which occurred from 1750 to 1850. ''Pre-industrial'' refers to a time befor ...

consciously tried to make garments without any excess waste. In the past, textiles were treated preciously as they were known for being scarce, which lead to their consciousness of waste. Whereas, after the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

, technological developments were able to increase production and lower costs, allowing for textile waste to be less of a concern. All the garments are made with either organic or recycled materials by the hand of local artisans. The company employs local women aged twenty to seventy, to help sew one-of-a-kind, handmade garments, preserving the region's dwindling tradition of quilting. Any waste fabric is used as an

embellishment In sewing and crafts, an embellishment is anything that adds design interest to the piece. Embellishments allow individuals to express their personal style and identity. Clothing can be a form of self-expression, and the choice of embellishmen ...

patchwork Patchwork or "pieced work" is a form of needlework that involves sewing together pieces of fabric into a larger design. The larger design is usually based on repeating patterns built up with different fabric shapes (which can be different colors) ...

, or

appliqué Appliqué is ornamental needlework in which pieces or patches of fabric in different shapes and patterns are sewn or stuck onto a larger piece to form a picture or pattern. It is commonly used as decoration, especially on garments. The technique ...

as a way of using the

re-manufacturing Remanufacturing is "the rebuilding of a product to specifications of the original manufactured product using a combination of reused, repaired and new parts". It requires the repair or replacement of worn out or obsolete components and modules. Pa ...

process. From low-value waste garments, the new products created here have value imbued through the skills of the workers and the story told through the label.

Production operations

Chanin originally sourced materials solely from local thrift stores, but with increased orders, the company began relying on bulk shipments from

Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

. Pieces are made from 100% organic cotton, often sewn by hand through a group of artisans using a

cottage industry The putting-out system is a means of subcontracting work, like a tailor. Historically, it was also known as the workshop system and the domestic system. In putting-out, work is contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who complete the p ...

method of operation. Certified organic cotton jersey is sourced from select Texas farmers, then sent to North Carolina to be spun into thread, and then knitted in South Carolina before either returning to North Carolina to be dyed. If the garments are being dyed with

indigo InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...

, they go directly back to Florence where they are hand-dyed in a small dye house. At Building 14, Chanin's factory in Florence, workers cut, paint, and prepare for our artisans here in Florence. While machine-made garments are sewn in-house, hand-sewn garments are made out-of-house by select artisans. Every garment is numbered and signed by the artisan who constructs it. At an Alabama Chanin do-it-yourself women's sewing seminar at Blackberry Farm resort in Eastern Tennessee, Chanin stated, "During an average production run, Building 14 (Chanin's factory in Florence) can produce around 120 garments a day vs. the 120,000 dozen that were manufactured a day by Tee Jays, the company that once occupied the space". While garments can range from $248 to over $2,000, the company's goal is not to cater specifically to the wealthy. It is more about honest transparency of garment production and the value of quality handiwork and sweatshop-free clothing manufacturing. In 2015, she expanded the machine-made garments line to include a home goods collection.

Factory + Cafe

In 2018, Chanin opened Factory + Café in Florence which includes a café that has a menu developed by Yewande Komolafe who is advising the café.

Collaborations

Billy Reid and Alabama Chanin Cotton Project, 2012 *Chanin teamed up with fellow neighbor and Florence, Alabama, designer to plant a seven-acre field of cotton in Northwest Alabama. The project took two years of learning and slow anticipation that has come full circle with their limited run of 100% Alabama grown and sewn organic Cotton Project Tees, sold in stores and online by both Billy Reid and Alabama Chanin.Billy Reid and Alabama Chanin Cotton Project
/ref> Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, 2016 *Alabama Chanin led a study to serve as an oral history of sewing in the region

Awards

*One out of Ten Companies Chosen by the

Council of Fashion Designers of America The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. (CFDA), founded in 1962 by publicist Eleanor Lambert, and headquartered in Manhattan, is a not-for-profit trade association comprising a membership of over 450 American fashion and accessor ...

/Vogue Fashion Fund, 2005 *Finalist, Cooper Hewitt

National Design Awards The American National Design Awards, founded in 2000, are various awards funded and bestowed by the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. There are seven official design categories, and three additional awards when applicable. Any supplement ...

for Fashion, 2005 *Winner, Council of Fashion Designers in America/Lexus Eco-Fashion Challenge, 2013

Published works

* ''Alabama Stitch Book'', 2008 * ''Alabama Studio Style'', 2010 * ''Alabama Studio Sewing + Design: A Guide to Hand-Sewing an Alabama Chanin Wardrobe'', 2012 * ''Alabama Studio Sewing Patterns: A Guide to Customizing a Hand-Stitched Alabama Chanin Wardrobe'', 2015 * ''The Geometry of Hand-Sewing'', 2017

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chanin, Alabama Living people American fashion designers American women fashion designers Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Artists from Alabama People from Florence, Alabama 21st-century American women