Conscious clothes

Mary Schmaling makes sure you are what you wear

By Sonya Tomlinson

EXPERIMENTING WITH PATTERNS: Schmaling uses a Sequoia as fashion.

We all do it every day — some struggle, for others it’s a thoughtless act in a daily routine — we get dressed. But, “What do we know about the clothing we are wearing? Where it is made? What is killed to make the material? What message is the style sending to you, your friends, family, lovers, elders and the earth?”

Mary Schmaling asks these questions in designing and producing her own clothing line, through her company, Jupiter’s Rising (named for her deceased cat). She goes one step further than those kids who won’t wear leather kicks; she designs clothes the whole body can feel good about.

A native New Yorker and photography major, Schmaling made Portland her home after graduating from the Maine College of Art. In 1999, with business plan in hand, and assistance and support in the forms of loans and grants, she started small: creating her own rainbow-striped decorative tape. Accompanied by the slogan, “Diversity: Make it Stick,” the tape served two purposes: functional and meaningful. Her hopes were that with continued use of the tape, buyers and supporters would “make a conscious effort to celebrate diversity,” a sort of subliminal education through school supplies. (Schmaling stresses that, “Diversity encompasses all races, ages and beings on earth.” The rainbow isn’t simply gay-rights oriented.) The Diversity Tape is now available at 25 stores across the United States and used by businesses, schools, and churches.

Finding a modicum of success in her first endeavor, Schmaling decided to expand on another idea proposed in the grant application: the development of her own clothing line. Marketed under the umbrella of Plan for Regeneration, the clothing line is split into four distinct categories.

Flora Bonita, Spanish for pretty flower, is a line of dresses and finer wear that carries a verdant theme. Plants and flower patterns used in the designs focus on rare and extinct species. When the line is completed and ready for sale, the fabric used will include macro-photographs of leaves such as the Airum leaf, the largest palm in the world, stretching 34 feet across. In using images so enlarged, Schmaling’s hope is “to make something abstract yet still recognizable.” The result is something more like the cross-section we recall from biology class, where the leaf shape gets lost among the detail of the stem, petiole, and veins.

Beyond Description, second in the series, is made for men and women alike, will eventually include pants, dress shirts, and skirts — but is currently a collection of T-shirts. Repeating the technique of macro-photography as the pattern of the fabric, this line features re-occurring patterns that we frequently come across and take for granted. For instance, the black and silver grated mesh of a stereo speaker, or the oval shapes the seeds make in a close-up of a strawberry, or the flow in a corrugated tin roof. This line attempts to redefine stereotypical beliefs of beauty in modern America.

Reacting to the superficiality of beauty contests or current television programming, Schmaling pokes good-hearted fun with simple slogans. Try a fitted girl T with text following a diagonal pattern across the chest, mimicking a pageant banner that reads “I Am Miss America.” Or a unisex T that exclaims, “Gilligan’s Island: The Original Survivors!”

Third is the Freedom of the Species line, which stresses being more socially and environmentally aware, with its string of shirts that make a statement. “Our future is not just fast technology and an ever-present growing corporate rat race,” emphasizes Schmaling.

You can protest animal testing in a long-sleeved shirt that pictures a rabbit and says “Bunnies Don’t Wear Make-up.” But Schmaling doesn’t stop there — the back of the shirt lists all the cosmetic companies that test on rabbits as opposed to those who use cruelty-free practices. Themes in Freedom of the Species range from the injustice of political imprisonment, to the abuse suffered in greyhound racing.

Lastly, Regeneration Creations designs will eventually adorn halter-tops, pants, and dresses. Schmaling again approaches the premise of this line with a question: “Have you ever looked into a peacock’s eye? The peacock is the bird of wisdom in Indian culture. It guards and is a protector. The fabric will express the power and reflect this divine feathered spirit.” Additional patterns will include magnified tree bark from the 3000 year-old Sequoia tree (as seen on Schmaling in photo) and astrological elements.

All of the lines in the Plan For Regeneration series reiterate preservation, attentiveness, and positive appearance. Schmaling explains: “Our company stands for equal rights, equal trade, and social awareness.” Her goal is to use all-natural fabrics, such as organic cotton, a fabric made from tree bark, and blends. Also, thoroughly investigative of the techniques used for her creations, Schmaling is using screen-printing rather than silk screening, as it is more environmentally friendly. She even hopes to spend some time in India with a retail clothing storeowner to gain first-hand experience in traditional clothing construction.

“Ideally, I’m not settling, I’m not selling out to society’s idea of a working world,” says Schmaling of her future plans. Realistic about the risks involved in being president of her own company, Schmaling keeps a good head about what’s to come. “Things aren’t instantly at their blossoming stage, it’s more about starting all the different facets in order to build.”

Sonya Tomlinson can be reached at stomlinson@phx.com.