2009 CFDA Award Nominee Natalie Chanin Shares Her Holiday Shopping List

By Chris Frey
December 4, 2009

Designer Natalie Chanin’s motto is “life is in the details,” and a glance at her handmade collections or a peek inside of her Florence, Alabama company proves that this is a woman who practices what she preaches.

Chanin, the founder and designer of Alabama Chanin, a renowned fashion and lifestyle company with an admirable commitment to ethical practices and sustainability, admits that she “never intended to start a sustainable design company.” Rather, she says, “I simply stumbled into it like the fool falling off the cliff. When I cut up those first t-shirts, I was doing something that I felt driven to do.” Those “first t-shirts” were recycled, reworked, hand stitched t-shirts that she initially created at the same time that she produced a documentary film on the tradition of quilt-making in the American South. The t-shirts garnered attention—and serious demand. So much demand, in fact, that Chanin decided she would relocate permanently from Vienna, Austria, where she was working as a costume designer and stylist, to her hometown of Florence, Alabama, where she could utilize the talents of local quilters and textile artisans to produce merchandise. With that, Project Alabama was born in 2000.

Over the years, the company, which formally re-launched with the name Alabama Chanin in 2006, has grown from a relatively small fashion line into a full-scale lifestyle company selling men’s and women’s clothing, bridal, denim, pillows, bedding, furniture, journals and art objects. Chanin won her first nomination to the Council of Fashion Designer of America (CFDA)/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2005 and was nominated again this year.

To this day, skilled artisans living in or around Florence produce the Alabama Chanin collection. They personally sign each limited-edition piece, each one of which is made using a combination of new, organic and recycled materials. As Chanin says, “from farmer to fiber to artisan to home, our products are ‘grown-to-sewn’ in the USA." Chanin asks her artisans to “love their thread,” yet that kind of dedication comes at a price. So in 2008, foreseeing that the elevated cost of a couture garment could potentially isolate customers, Chanin produced her first book, Alabama Stitch Book, which made her techniques, instructions and patterns available to the public. (Her second book, Alabama Studio Style, is set to hit shelves in February, 2010.)

Also in the name of accessibility and reduced waste, Chanin’s company maintains a Fabric Library, an archive of fabrics from previous projects that can be purchased and used for custom-made garments or home furnishings. Browse the Fabric Library online, where you can also shop for fashion and jewelry, as well as stencils, sewing kits, beads, sequins, and even DIY kits that allow you to make various items on your own.

Although Chanin will likely make many of her holiday gifts herself, she shared her eBay shopping list with us—and she told us how she’d breathe new life into her vintage finds.

Roll over items for details

Weaving Loom

: Chanin is currently searching eBay for a floor loom and loves this vintage model.

(buy it now price, $1,999, above left)

Candle, Snuffer, Scissors Set

: The holidays are a perfect time for lots of candle lighting. This antique snuffer set will help keep the wax mess to a minimum and the wicks neatly trimmed.

(starting bid, $7.50, above center)

Silverplate Flatware Set for Twelve

: This flatware set is perfect for holiday entertaining. The antique wooden chest is not only lovely to look at, but also comes with an anti-tarnish lining.

(buy it now price, $229.00, above left)