Bodkin Designer Makes a Case for LA

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Most New York designers would probably never dream of uprooting their labels and moving them to LA—after all, the entire fashion world revolves around their city, right? Actually, there is a pretty good case for basing an smaller label in LA, one that's recently been discovered by designer Eviana Hartman. The former NYLON editor moved the AW09 production for her eco-friendly label, Bodkin, to Los Angeles, and today she blogs about the reasons why:

So why L.A.? It is the absolute center of the U.S. garment industry, and only getting bigger–you can actually develop your own domestic organic fabrics here!–and the environment is much more hospitable and user-friendly for small designers (at least in my experience). After a two-week period in March where I couldn’t walk due to severe lower back pain from lugging rolls of fabric through ice storms in the garment district, I needed something less stressful. Carbon footprint-wise, the difference may be negligible: many of Bodkin’s stores are in the west, and many of the best organic fabrics are coming from Asia. Or milled here (in California or Colorado or Texas) from Chinese or Texan raw materials.

Plus, there's no shortage of immensely talented local hands to keep busy with the production process—this season's line is being sewed by Burbank's Ann of Magnolia, a local institution that's crafted everything from wedding gowns to Michael Jackson costumes.
· Meet Your Makers: Matt and Gohar [Bodkin Blog]