PH PROCESS
INTENTION
At the root of all products, is the intention.
PH Swim & Activewear is made to get women outside in nature, sweating & finding self-love.
As a surfer & trail runner living on a boat, at every step I’ve chosen what’s best for the planet. No cutting corners for profit. Dedication to innovating the most sustainable product.
These are the earth-honoring design parameters for our products:
~ Be unique. Don’t make anything that already exists, because there’s no room in our landfills. Copies of styles that already exist, for the purpose of filling out a collection or capatilizing on a trend, are wasteful.
~ Make it useful. Multi-functional or transitional will get the most wear.
~ Comfort. We want you to feel empowered in your body.
No restricting stitching or uncomfortable clasps or zippers that could cause a garment to break before it’s been worn til its last day.
~ Locally & Slowly. Working with fellow Woman-Owned Small Businesses.
This builds a thriving community.
FIBER
It starts with a fiber made into yarn then knitted into fabric.
Synthetic polymers, like Nylon and Polyester, are plastic compounds derived from petroleum made by scientists working for large chemical companies that create a range of formulations for different applications.
In our case, chemists invented an innovative biodegradable polymer for the purpose of fabric.
While most swimwear & activewear sheds toxic microplastics, cannot be recycled once blended with another fabric, & takes up to 200 years to decompose in a landfill! (Even Repreve & Econyl)
Our fabric takes 3 only years to biodegrade in a landfill.
MILLING
Working directly with a small artisan mill in Italy in 2018, we were able to create only the exact amount of fabric we needed. This eliminates fabric waste.
The process is much more conscious when you aren’t just shopping for fabrics.
It’s like buying your produce directly from a local farmer vs. a grocery store.
There’s a relationship, conscious consumption, and none of the waste associated transportation, storage, deadstock fabric, or left-over product.
While we’d love to do everything locally, no USA mills are currently working with this fiber.
Italy is also known for their swimwear fabric, artisan craftsmanship, & lack of mass-production.
We love supporting that.
All brands & corporations have had access to this fabric for years.
Most brands shop mass produced fabrics from suppliers.
It takes an extra effort to source fibers, work with a mill, & support new innovations.
PRINT DESIGN
It all starts with a sketchbook.
I hand draw our prints on the sea & have so much fun doing it.
For the ‘Plant Vibration’ print I even hand drew the complicated tile-repeat.
This is a lost art form I so admire. Try to figure out where the print begins & ends:)
I then debate the size of the print, clean-up the sketches on my laptop & test print.
Artists should be valued.
They bring ideas, beauty, & imagination into the world.
Often they’ve spent decades & degrees cultivating their craft.
You wear prints. Do you know who the artist is?
COLOR CORRECTION
I create hundreds of swatches of colors, pair them methodically, test print & color correct them. This is the most time consuming & important part of the process.
Color is Everything. Yummy, vibrant, flattering, earth tones make eyes smile.
You’d think I’m crazy debating between 1 degree of differences in mauve pink. You might not even see the difference, until you put the pairings next to each other. The way colors vibrate next to each other or live in harmony is so impactful.
PRINTING
Locally in CA, we print my art on giant rolls of a wax-like paper. Then heat press it to our fabric. When we peel the paper from the fabric, the artwork has transferred. There is zero water-waste or runoff. Being the first to ever print or sew biodegradable polyamide in Ca, we actually had to experiment to develop the heat & speed settings for transferring prints.
MARKING
Marking is the way you lay the paper patterns on the fabric for cutting. It’s like a game of Tetris to maximize use of the fabric. I design PH’s prints to be the same upside down, so that there is the least fabric-waste possible.
PATTERN MAKING + ALTERATIONS
On the sea, I draft the patterns for our new styles.
My humble tiny boat home becomes a mess of paper.
With your input & product testing, I also altered our yoga capri to be higher waisted & include a gusset!
SAMPLING
Just up the mountain, my mom sewed the first samples for the new reversible Gemini Top & Miramar Bottoms.
GRADING
With a measuring tape I record tons of numbers & create tech packs (pdf documents with illustrations & numbers) demonstrating how a garment should grow from S to M to L.
It’s pretty math heavy.
I actually resized this line to be more inclusive. Our Size Large is now larger & Size Small is smaller. By only carrying 3 sizes, we create less & waste less.
SEWING
I worked with a woman-run sewing facility only 2 hours from home to create this slow, small batch.
Made Locally in Ca means: a low carbon footprint, money circulates locally to benefit our community, no taking advantage of lower wages for female workers over seas, & I can regularly visit:)
PANDEMIC
When the pandemic hit Southern California, our sewing facility had to shut down due to city mandates. Even once allowed to reopen with a smaller staff alternating shifts, there were constant re-closures. If even a family member of staff had covid, all employees stopped working for 2 weeks until everyone re-tested negative. Our warehouse is a single-story, wall-less open floor plan, with ceilings 2-stories high. There’s plenty of room to spread out & large garage doors for air ventilation. It is in a livable town bordered by mountains outside of the crowded, expensive city.
We encourage wellness in women. We will not justify putting a female sewer’s health at risk to create activewear than promotes another women’s health. Fast-fashion activewear is contradictory in that way.
LABELS
On my boat, I hand draw our labels & create their graphic design.
Printed Locally in Ca on 100% Biodegradable Cotton, I adore these mini art pieces & the texture of the canvas.
PACKAGING
PH has always been packaged in recyclable biodegradable craft paper mailers.
We have never individually packaged any product in tiny plastic bags. (Like all brands do!)
By sewing locally, we can simply pick-up product in repurposed cardboard boxes.
I can’t wait to mail you an adorable Plantable-Seed-Paper Thank You Card
with my original art & a love note.
YOU
PH dresses you for your most empowering moments.
You sweat, connect with your body, clear your mind, & find self love.
You get outside in nature & develop an appreciation that transforms into care.
You feel the love put into PH & you radiate.
LANDFILL
You wear them til their last day. Fixing them when you need or repurposing the capris into shorts with a chop. Maybe trading them with friends at a naked lady clothing swap party. Until they’re finally ready for the landfill where they will decompose in 3 years:)