Spinning, weaving, dyeing, manufacturing, finishing: through the transformations of the textile industry, there are social, economic and environmental considerations. Here is the opportunity to see this pretty sweater designed differently.

No more sweatshop sweartshirts

“It’s strange to say as an entrepreneur, but I really advocate for degrowth,” Lila says without batting an eyelid. It must be said that the industry in which she works has created a social catastrophe: the vast majority of employees in spinning and garment factories, mainly women and children, are underpaid and work in deplorable conditions. “This is the case in clothing exporting countries like Bangladesh or Indonesia, but there are also sweatshops in Canada and the United States that take advantage of the situation of immigrants,” she says.

Behind a cheap garment lies a certain source of exploitation. Always cheaper, always more: this is the business model of a gigantic industry of continuous renewal of wardrobes. This is fast fashion , an ephemeral and disposable fashion based on the business model of mass production of cheap clothing.

Raising awareness among the general public is therefore essential. “My goal behind Montloup is to offer different and thoughtful products. It is also to educate,” explains the young entrepreneur at the age of 30. “That’s why I keep a blog, and my job as a teacher at the same time fulfills me even more in that respect.” Knowing the practices of brands, ensuring that the factory is socially responsible, tracing textiles from the seed…

For eco-responsible fashion

Because that's not all. Fashion is an industry that pollutes enormously. Clothing producers are credited with emitting 1.2 billion tons of CO2 per year, which represents up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions . That's the same proportion as those generated by air and sea traffic combined! It is estimated that a pair of jeans travels up to 65,000 km from the cotton field to the retail store, or 1.5 times around the planet. It is also the third largest consumer of water in the world after wheat and rice cultivation.

Lila is committed to eco-friendly materials in a highly polluting industry. “Ecology is no longer a choice, but an imperative,” she says. “It’s also really important to me that it’s done as locally as possible, because I think it’s one of the interesting solutions today to reduce GHGs and combat global warming.” The transportation issues related to the current pandemic, which have notably caused supply problems and a shortage of organic cotton from India, have only reinforced Lila’s ambition to obtain her raw material nearby, from California and Texas, for example.

Montloup designs and manufactures its fabrics in Montreal from ecological fibers (with a small percentage of synthetics for elasticity and stability, until it finds other alternatives to be 100% natural). Once knitted, they are sent to a dyer in Ontario for finishing, since "it's another specialty, they're not the same machines." Lila is therefore actively participating in slow fashion , this new mode of consumption and production that favors short production and distribution circuits.

Knitting, an art as old as the world

In the factory, old circular machines knit. Because Lila wants to go back to the source – to create local, sustainable, ethical, socially and ecologically responsible fashion – she doesn’t do everything by hand, like a patient spider. She is also a knitting teacher at the Centre des textiles contemporains de Montréal , where she learned manufacturing techniques. “I was also lucky to have Joe, an outstanding mentor,” she confides. “We met when I was working as a production manager at another company. I was 26, with a degree in textile design under my belt, and I wanted to learn how to make fabrics, technically. Joe wanted to share what he knew. He had been through all the major upheavals in the industry since the 1960s, when the manufacturing sector was the largest in the city. I needed a relationship of trust with someone who was solid in the business to go out on my own.” He is the one who supported me since the beginning of Montloup, in 2018.”

Lila loves creation and she takes this art profession to another level. Her mother is also an artist, and has integrated textiles into her practice. Her grandmother made her clothes. "I was attracted to the costumes, to the finesse and delicacy of the fabrics. This long-term work starting with a simple thread..." Then, Lila bet on life. Meeting the right people at the right time, training where she could learn the old methods of creation and the basic mechanics of making fabrics, and putting her heart there to be able to convey her values.

“The rest, business management, accounting, I learned on the job. It’s another form of creativity. In short, I managed to create the job I wanted. My dream is to be able to knit and include finishing, but on a small scale, to have my own laboratory to do my own tests and to be able to supply small collections of specific fabrics.”

Lila Rousselet hides upstream of the making of clothes; hidden behind the great designers, she is nevertheless the queen of the fashion show, the one who ensures a fashion of a new humanity.