Flight to Paris

and the magical unfolding story of how my fashion brand was born.

“Are there any other seats available?” I asked the flight attendant in the tiny section at the back of the plane. “I’m sorry, it is a full flight,” he said. I’d just realized that my seat wouldn’t recline and we were headed to Paris from New York. I was exhausted and exhilarated, high on the energy of the moment and was sure I’d want to sleep at some point.

A little disappointed that I wasn’t going to be able to recline, I settled back down in the isle seat next to the well dressed woman seated next to me, who I’d been embarrassed to realize had heard me. She assured me with her east coast charm that those seats were actually the safest in the plane. After the sounds of preparing for takeoff, she asked why I was headed to Paris. I was excited to share that I’d been invited to show my apparel collection at Prêt à Porter Paris, a fashion industry trade show. She turned to look at me with happy surprise and said that she was headed there too and that she was a writer for Women’s Wear Daily (WWD is only the MOST important trade publication in the fashion industry!). OMG what luck, I couldn’t believe it! She said was covering lingerie and had been doing that trip for many years. Immediately we started connecting and she wanted to know my story.

You see, being invited to show your collection as a guest is not the same as applying to show and paying a hefty sum to do so. Prêt à Porter had added a Green section to their trade show to promote and highlight brands that were in the new and emerging space of sustainability. At the time, there were very few brands that were actually blending sustainability with true high fashion and mine was a leader in that space. I had been trained in New York and Italy and then worked for top Italian brands for four years before returning to Portland where I started my line.

Freshly back from Italy in 2005, I was getting to know local folks in the industry when a makeup artist asked me to partner with her to produce a fashion show. I thought about it and said, “Sure, on one condition: it has to be about sustainability.” She agreed and so I started to reach out to the few brands around the country who were in that space to see if they wanted to send collections to be included in the show. To my surprise, ALL OF THEM said yes! So I suddenly realized I needed to put together my own collection for the show. I didn’t have much time, I think it was about two weeks. So I borrowed $2,000 from a family friend, and having just moved into my new design studio, started creating. I didn’t know what would happen once I got a design studio. I just knew it was time, and that there was so much energy and momentum around it that I jumped in and knew something would come into being once I said yes to it. This is how my life seems to work, and why I now know I was primed to follow the path that has led me to the work I do now.

During the process of creating this collection, I worked closely with my mom, Connie Cohen. She was instrumental in helping me understand concepts of sustainability, having written her Master’s Thesis on “The Role of the Arts in Sustainable Culture.” I remember us brainstorming late one night at the dining room table trying to sort out how to communicate the idea of limited resources in a way that was poetic and beautiful; that could inspire rather than scare people into making responsible decisions. We landed on a canary as an indicator species, and came up with a sort of poem that would tell the story of canaries in the coal mines. The fact that my anti-Apartheid Dad was from South Africa with its huge mining industry, added a flavor of meaning to this concept.

My dear artist friend Susanna Battin became the first of my many interns. She helped hand paint the words of the poem onto a series of un-dyed bamboo dresses I designed for the show. I drew a canary and created a silk screen of it that I printed on the backs of all the dresses in different places. When the models walked out, they brought what we later called, “The Canary Story” to life one line at a time on each dress. When they all lined up and turned around at the finale, there was a flock of canaries flying across their backs. It was a powerful message and people were ready to hear it.

At the time, I didn’t realize I was launching what would become my fashion company, I was just following the inspiration and energy of the invitation to participate and lean into what I was passionate about. I had no idea that poem and canary would become the guiding light and icon of my brand, I was just trusting and following my intuition.

Photos by Tim Gunther

DEEP IN THE COAL MINES

CANARIES
GAVE WARNING

WHEN TO TAKE ACTION
FOR SURVIVAL

EVERYTHING IS
CONNECTED

CHANGE
BE STRONG

FIND WHAT
YOU LOVE

LOVE WHAT
YOU DO

LISTEN FOR CANARIES

Photo by Tim Gunther

It was an exhilarating moment. I was excited to bring these two worlds together: Fashion and Sustainability. To make a statement that was so deeply meaningful to me, a tribute to the natural systems on which all life depends using my talent and training for something that could make real change.

There’s my happy smile at the end of the show. Photo by Tim Gunther

Soon I heard from several writers from local and national publications wanting to feature my work and know more about my vision. It was on. Time to create seasonal collections and start a company - and quickly. The canary became the logo for the ANNA COHEN brand and “Listen for Canaries,” the tagline.

It was an exciting time. I gathered more interns to help and started teaching Fashion Design at Art Institute International of Portland while building my business. I could hand pick the most talented students to work with me and that was such a great perk! Sourcing local patternmakers, sample sewers and production proved to be more challenging, but I made my way through and was soon balancing a large team of talent to bring this vision into form.

My Fall / Holiday 2007 collection that I showed at Prêt à Porter in Paris. Photo by Michael Jones

I shared this story and more with the woman sitting next to me on the plane as we ate our dinner and enjoyed wine together. I also shared that I would leave the show early and return to New York to spend a couple exciting days with the executive team at the apparel company, Eileen Fisher. I’d been awarded one of five $10,000 Socially Responsible Women Owned Business Grants. They were flying us to New York to celebrate together, show us a window into how their successful socially responsible business model worked, and to be available for any questions.

When we deplaned, a young girl was in front of us and the woman said to her with a beaming smile on her face, “You know, this is a famous fashion designer!” It was so lovely to experience her calling me that.

We shared a taxi and hugged goodbye, wishing each other well. I was excited to meet up with my team who had already arrived from Portland. Only a few minutes later as I was entering our marbled flat, my phone rang, a number from New York. My new airplane friend had reached out to WWD and another writer on staff wanted to interview me right away about the Eileen Fisher grant. It was published a day or two later and was my second time being featured in the iconic publication. I’ll share soon about the first time, which was also an incredible and magical experience.

This article written in WWD about Eileen Fisher’s $10,000 Woman Owned Socially Responsible Business Grant that I was awarded.

It turned out to be quite amazing to see how Eileen Fisher and her team ran their business. It was so inspiring, organized and easeful in a time when that was not the norm in the fashion industry, which tends to thrive on fierce competition, intense timelines and complex systems. It was amazing and such an honor. Eileen was kind, gentle and strong and I learned so much that deeply influenced me in those couple of days spent with her and her team.

I was following the energy, walking through doors as they opened in front of me and magical things were happening. At that time, my healing work was unfolding through my talent as a designer and visionary dedicated to honoring our natural systems. That evolved over time to include many more chapters that led me to where I am now.

Your story is unfolding as you move along on your journey and this is an invitation to listen to what feels true, good and important and follow it through the opening doors in your life. Many times over, I have learned that this yields amazing things. Thanks for reading!