Ones to watch: Heidi Ackerman’s hard edged sustainability

If the future of sustainable fashion were laid on the shoulders of wildly inventive Heidi Ackerman, we’d be in good hands. Known for her boldly-printed knits and space-age silhouettes, the designer has found the magic medium between wondrous and wearable while completely disavowing Holly Hobby’s claim to the aesthetic of sustainable clothing.

“I love making my own prints and colours but with sustainable fabrics you can’t always get great graphics, so it’s interesting to use the yarn to create futuristic and experimental shapes,” she says. And yarn isn’t the only thing she spins. She learned to vegetable dye after working on her sister’s organic apple orchard while studying Fashion Design at Ryerson University, and now takes the natural approach to all of her fabrics, including cork, which she’s fused with spare bits of tire to simulate leather.

Soft spoken and bespectacled with mussed-up hair, showy is the last thing you would surmise when meeting her, though Ackerman’s work is just that. Inspired by the frenetic fonts of the Russian Constructivists, her current collection, entitled “Construct This,” features her signature jagged print knit, this time in the form of sexily draped scoop neck dresses and bodysuits. Shown alongside armour-like vests, harnesses and drop waist trousers at Toronto’s Alternative Fashion Week (FAT) last Spring, models looked as if propelled into the future in more ways than one. The designer’s flare for the dramatic was in full check over the summer when she collaborated on Harlequinesque costumes for the Toronto-based opera troupe, Opera Erratica. “I really love doing to editorial show pieces because they’re super creative and experimental, but I also want people to be able to wear my stuff on the street,” says the designer. No doubt a daring customer at that, “[she] would be willing to take risks and enjoy being noticed.”

Heidi Ackerman is available at Thieves Boutique in Toronto.

View the Construct This collection »

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