Undies go inclusive in Crawl collection
Lucy Lau STYLE
Inclusive, body-positive, and diverse are buzzwords that have only recently entered the highand fast-fashion lexicon (tragically late, we know), but they’ve been at the heart of local designer Tina Ozols’s business since its inception nearly two decades ago. “I had this idea that I just wanted to make clothes and garments that were for everyone,” she tells the Straight by phone. “I didn’t have in mind that somebody specific should be wearing them, or somebody in a certain age group.”
This admirable principle first led Ozols to develop a women’s line of flattering, fit-for-all-body-types skirts, pants, and other apparel, though these days she’s best known around town for her assortment of comfy cotton-spandex undergarments. Offered under the label Oona Clothing—the former word a madeup term that Ozols favoured because it sounds “very much like one for all” and is a sort-of combination of her first and last names—the full-coverage briefs, boxers, boxer-briefs, and hot pants are crafted by hand from locally sourced fabrics at East Van’s William Clark Studios. Coloured in shades like navy, pink, and violet, the undies are decorated with quirky original silkscreened art that depicts everything from hard-shell tacos and robots to owls and octopuses. As a testament to Ozols’s manufactured-for-everyone mission, many of them come in extended size ranges (from XS to 5XL for women) and the Ontarioraised designer takes care to keep prices accessible. “I wanted to make sure that I could offer a local option—a handmade option—that’s at the same price of everything else,” explains Ozols, who completed a degree in fashion design before relocating to Vancouver in 1999. “Prices should be based on the median size of what a company offers. So if the median size has to go up to an XL, then I feel right about doing that instead of just doing a whole other [plus-size] section that sets people apart.”
In an effort to minimize her ecological footprint, Ozols has also created a series of popular “Frankenpants”—multihued and patterned undies for men and women that are constructed from fabric scraps. The 42-year-old makes tank tops, patchwork toques, baby boots, and coin purses from these rescued remnants, too. “The fashion industry—in a blanket statement, as a whole—is a really, really bad industry as far as how much waste is produced and some of the practices,” she says. “So it’s just a way that I can sleep better at night. And I feel good about the fact that I use as much [leftover fabric] as possible.”
Recently, Ozols collaborated with Your Open Closet, a body-positive undergarment store on Commercial Drive that caters to LGBT folks, to fashion a range of chest binders, tucking underwear, and gaff panties for trans women. As with Oona, the aim here was to offer a quality, beautiful product while maintaining affordability for clients. “For many trans people, there are items that they need to feel themselves,” notes Ozols. “And, a lot of the time, these things are either not available or they’re available online and very expensive. And for marginalized people, something that’s very expensive isn’t always attainable.”
The functional garments are finetuned by Ozols, but only available at Your Open Closet, so they won’t be on hand at the designer’s studio during this year’s Eastside Culture Crawl, which takes place at various Vancouver venues from Thursday to Sunday (November 15 to 18). However, visitors to William Clark Studios—home to more than 25 multidisciplinary
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