Coming Full Circle: (re) introducing the “new” everyware designs

I started my first business, everyware designs, in 1993, making clothing and accessories in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Alongside making everything from wedding dresses to hemp jeans–hence the name everyware–I crafted washable menstrual pads and period underwear. 

The reusable period product brainchild showed up thanks to a personal confluence of feminist politics, a deep love of nature, and a physical intolerance of traditional disposable pads and tampons. I called them “Lunapads” in homage to the profound connection between the lunar cycle, the menstrual cycle and, more broadly, all natural cycles. 

I loved making the products, engaging with customers and selling the products at live events, where I had a chance to hear women’s raw, tender, powerful stories about their experiences of menarche (first periods), menstruation, miscarriage, childbirth, menopause and everything in between. 

Even in the 90s, menstruation was still very much a taboo topic. Free period products were nowhere to be found. The term menstrual equity (shame-free access to period products and menstrual education, in addition to workplace policy accommodations) would not be coined until 2016 by lawyer, author and activist Jennifer Weiss Wolf.

During these early conversations, trust, intimacy and excitement flourished when women were finally able to share about something deeply personal that until then had been shamed or ignored. It was those moments of true, relational connection that fueled my social entrepreneurship and told my heart that I was pursuing something worthwhile. 

I met my business partner Suzanne in 1999, and in 2000 we incorporated a new company dedicated to developing the market for Lunapads. Following an epic journey, we sold the company in 2023. 

Having established natural menstrual care as a category, grown the business into a founding Canadian B Corporation and achieved groundbreaking strides towards the provision of free menstrual products to hundreds of thousands of people around the world, following the sale I felt called to go full circle and return to my creative roots by “upcycling” my old fashion label. 

This new expression of everyware is all about upcycling, with an emphasis on denim and vintage linen. But beyond the garments and accessories that I make, as it was with Lunapads, it’s equally about stories and connection.

When I embarked on this next chapter of my life, I looked around and discovered that, for all of the remarkable impact I had achieved, I missed working directly with people, hands-on. I rekindled everyware to dive into the profound pleasure of making things: one at a time, and in community. 

Today, as I allow the everyware brand to develop as a “slow fashion” brand, I’m also curious about the potential for analog in other areas: clothing, learning, and yes, even marketing. As we know, word of mouth is by far-and-away the most potent form of marketing, and–and I believe this with every fibre of my being–as we continue to emerge back into the post-Covid times, this kind of person-to-person network can satisfy our yearning for face-to-face connection.

My passion for analog goes far beyond marketing: it’s embodied in the entire everyware experience. From the irresistible feeling of inspiration that lives somewhere between the heart and the anterior cortex, to the sensory pleasure of cutting and sewing, to offering workshops where I support others in making their own upcycled creations.

And the stories! Since I started working with heritage linen in particular, I have been gifted with stories of grandmothers and hope chests, overseas voyages and gatherings of kin to weave, embroider, quilt and sew together. The thread running through all of these stories is an honouring of what is precious: creativity, connection, and the textiles that warm, adorn and connect.  

There is a natural, relational reciprocity that everyware sparks: when someone gifts me with their heirloom linens, I make them something that they can actually wear and use, today. In return, they preserve a precious memory and integrate it into their daily lives, every time they smooth their hands over a skirt or slip on a new favourite jacket. 

A growing group of makers who share my passion for textile-based design are joining forces. everyware upcycling workshops are about spending co-creative time together, learning from one another, and sharing similar kinds of intimate conversations to those that Lunapads inspired. 

This time, I’m noticing a new trend: the sharing is intergenerational. It’s about mothers and daughters playfully working together on projects, and about the stories of ancestors who, before passing on, entrusted us with fabrics they had cared for their whole lives. It’s about appreciating the things that get left behind or overlooked, and devoting ourselves to restorying these precious items, one stitch at a time.    

Way back when I first started everyware, I did not question the basic designer-customer binary relationship: “I make, you buy”. Now I experience it in a far broader, richer sense. While handling vintage fabrics, I often consider the hands who grew the plants that became the material, and those who wove the fabric and then stitched it. There’s a receptivity and a listening for the stories the garments and objects have woven deep inside of them. This is such a rich practice, one that I bring to my upcycling workshops that are about so much more than ‘making things’. This entire process is about repairing ourselves, and our connections to the past and to the Earth. 

This new chapter reminds me of this quote from my 2021 book, The Greater Good: Social Entrepreneurship for Everyday People Who Want to Change the World: “As the years of my career have unfurled, I have come to think of growth patterns and impact in an increasingly expansive, nuanced and organic way that feels, well, radiant. Radiance is a beautiful word that implies transcendence, as well as multi-dimensional impact that may extend well beyond your initial vision, or into ripples that you never could have imagined.”

I came up with the term as a way to describe multi-dimensional impact that goes far beyond the limiting concept of “scaling up” an enterprise. How I am practicing design and business today is a perfect example, and I couldn’t be prouder or happier.