Why This New Brunswick-Born Designer Made A Coat Lined With $2,000 In Cash
FREDERICTON — With New Brunswick’s help, a Fredericton-born fashion designer is spreading awareness about problems in the Canadian fashion industry.
Designer Dee Silkie’s latest launch is The Money Coat.
The Money Coat is a winter coat lined with over $2,000 in cash. It’s a literal take on a problem many young designers face: money getting wrapped up in inventory. The making of the Money Coat made national news and has over six and a half million views on Tik Tok.
“The Money Coat acts as a statement piece,” said Silkie in a recent interview with Huddle. “It’s a collector’s item. Ultimately, I see it ending up in a museum or in an art collector’s collection.”
The idea behind the art came after the release of her 2017 collection of Kindness Boxers. After initial sales, Silkie found herself with leftover pieces.
“Every day I could see thousands of dollars wrapped up in inventory.”
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But Silkie wanted to make new clothes. An outerwear collection seemed like the perfect fit for Canada. Her concepts came together in The Money Coat.
“I thought it would be really cool to make a coat that visually displayed that issue.”
With her own money tied up in boxers, Silkie turned to social media to help raise the money for the coat.
“I post on Instagram every single day,” said Silkie. “All my followers have seen me go through these struggles in real-time. When I reiterate the problems that I was having as an emerging designer I think it really pulled at people’s heartstrings. They wanted to donate.”
To thank her followers for donations, she would post a video dancing. For donations over $30, she gifted people pieces of the boxer inventory. In four days, she raised over $4,200 dollars.
“People really were wanting to support Canadian fashion,” she said.
Silkie says most of the donations came from her New Brunswick followers. Since she grew up in Fredericton and went to university there, this meant a lot. Even after moving to Toronto after school, she still feels the love from her hometown.
“One of the amazing things about New Brunswickers is they really want their own to succeed,” said Silkie. “I think that there is this certain comradery that we have even when people leave the province, they’re still rooting them on.”
One of the reasons Silkie left Fredericton was because of a lack of manufacturing resources.
“When people think of Canadian fashion they don’t often think of New Brunswick, which is such a shame because there are so many talented New Brunswick fashion designers,” she said.
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Silkie wants to change that. Before her launch, Silkie put together a survey asking 150 Canadian designers how they deal with inventory issues.
“We’re all in the same boat, we’re all struggling, we’re all competing with the fast fashion brands,” she said.
It doesn’t help that young designers don’t have access to grant money from Canada’s arts and culture budget.
“We all feel like there is a lack of government support financially that other industries are privy to.”
With all this against them, local support has been more important than ever.
“There are a lot of Canadian consumers that want to support local, and they want to buy Canadian fashion, but they don’t even know where to look,” said Silkie. “They don’t know what fashion designers exist because we don’t have the marketing budget that fast fashion brands do.”
Canadians can look out for Silkie’s Outerwear for a ready-to-wear collection next. Though the pieces in the collection won’t be lined with $2,000 in cash, they will combine the positive initiatives of Silkie’s work with the practical.
“Not everyone can wear a money coat down the street,” said Silkie. “But everyone will be able to wear the ready-to-wear collection.”