The Fourth R: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Reware

From the outside, La Gaillarde looks like any trendy clothing store. A display of mannequins and pop art in their window are decorated with Christmas lights.

Inside it’s bubbling with excitement and laughter. A miniaturized cat-walk is set up in the center of the store. Models dressed in recycled clothes are posing while photographers kneel to get low angles. Patrons and volunteers mingle with designers and photographers.

Image from Day Blog

“[La Gaillarde] is a non profit organization. We sell local recycled designs from about twenty local designers who create from different fabrics. It could be old clothes they cut up and re-sew, it could be end of the lines from other stores... The idea is to use creativity to make new products from old products,” said David Alexander Faber, the manager at La Gaillarde.

La Gaillarde hosts events nearly every month. Sometimes they’re cocktail parties, sometimes they’re fashion shows. Friday night was a mix of both, the idea was that the models went to a party, took their coats off, had fun, and everyone was invited.

“We switch [events] from time to time because to do the full fashion show it takes much more of our time. And those events get so packed, people come to see the show and then they leave. So sale-wise it doesn’t work out so well,” said Annie de Grandmont, the director of La Gaillarde.

But there weren’t a lot of shoppers at the cocktail party. Nearly everyone is connected to La Gaillarde. Even the models aren’t professionals, nor do they have aspirations to be. They are just tall, beautiful women who have in one way or another come into contact with La Gaillarde and were welcomed into the community.

Luc Bourgeois is a documentary photographer who walked into the store one day with a camera around his neck. At the time he was just browsing, but now he’s La Gaillarde’s primary photographer.

“It’s almost a family sense, I’m like the cousin or something ... I think it’s important to have places where you can think about the environment and nurture those values. The way people relate with each other and the way people relate with the planet – that needs a place to live and I think this is one of those places,” said Bourgeois.

Recycled clothing isn’t a new concept, but it’s gaining popularity. La Gaillarde has existed in St. Henri for about ten years – seven years at this location. But it wasn’t until two or three years ago when environmentalism became more main stream, that the idea of recycled clothing started to catch on.

“It still has a bit of a bad image, like it’s granola or a hippy thing. Some people still have that in mind. We are trying to make them realize that it’s not. It’s very different, it’s for the planet but it’s a high-end store,” said Sophie Lauzière, a volunteer with La Gaillarde.

The designers are all local but the styles at La Gaillarde are wide-ranging. Some of it is vintage, some of it is casual and some of it is higher-end. Lauzière showed off her dress: a simple black number adorned with a pattern made out of metal zippers. Like most of the clothes here, it’s simplistic yet unique.

Manufacturers donate excess fabric that has been left over. Not that long ago they used to just throw it away. According to De Grandmont, organizations like the Salvation Army are overcrowded with used clothes that no one wants. Designers take all of this and turn it into brand new, modern designs.

“The whole concept in general is so cool because I’m forever having remnants of fabric on any jobs that I’ve done ... you always end up with some extra at the end and it costs a fortune ... I can’t bear to just put it in the garbage because I could use it,” said Stephanie Davis. Davis designs wedding gowns and cocktail dresses for higher end stores in Montreal.

La Gaillarde is not the only store offering recycled clothes, there are about a dozen in Montreal and more in other cities. It seems that although the cocktail party attracted mostly friends and family, recycled clothes are here to stay.

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Infractions

It’s not something you would see performed by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet: Infractions pits dancer against dancer in an intimate struggle to break free of constraints.

Their movement is graceful but harsh, the dancers are beautiful but savage. Infractions, choreographed by Gabrielle Martin, expresses themes of manipulation and external control.

“There’s something I love about doing partner work,” Martin says backstage after a rehearsal, “If you are able to get the physics and the timing and the mechanics of it right you can really fly.”

The piece demonstrates a range of styles and techniques. An aerial dance is featured in a solo piece performed by Martin. It utilizes a hanging apparatus designed by Martin. Another piece is performed by three dancers obscured from the audience by polyurethane sheeting.

Infractions incorporates Martin’s background in ice hockey and judo. The dancers move violently against each other as well as the confines of the stage. It is often unclear whether the dancers are in combat or in love. According to Martin, this ambiguity is intentional: the dancers are not individualized in costume with the intent of making them archetypes of struggle, not specifically human beings in a relationship.

Originally the first piece, The Box, was choreographed by Martin in 2009, featuring Martin and Rebecca Hall. It was remounted a year later with Melina Stinson and Andrea Legg performing.

“The Box is about involuntary confinement. [The dancers] are at times resisting against each other, and at times assisting each other. It is a colder piece emotionally,” Martin said.

Infractions continues from where Box left off, following the beginning theme of confinement to a theme of breaking out in the last piece, titled Pelt.

It is performed in six pieces by four dancers; Melina Stinson, Andrea Legg, Geneviève Bolla and Gabriel Martin with music is composed by David Drury.

Martin is a graduate of Concordia’s Contemporary Dance School where she earned her BFA in 2009. Infractions is produced by Pulse and Puppet, an independent dance company founded by Martin.

Melina Stinson graduated from l’ADMMI, l’École de Danse Contemporaine, and has worked on multiple productions around Montreal as a professional dancer.

Andrea Legg is classically trained contemporary dancer as well as aerialist and choreographer. She is a graduate of the Edmonton School of Ballet.

Genviève Bolla was professionally trained at the Superior School of Contemporary Ballet. At 17 she became a member of the Jeune Ballet du Quebec.

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