While the recession forced many apparel retailers and designers to reign in their endeavors in hopes of protecting their brands and more importantly, long-term survival, it had the opposite effect on Sarah Van Aken. Van Aken always dreamed of designing a women’s line. By taking her family’s teachings about social consciousness and her love of  Philadelphia as inspiration, Van Aken is fulfilling her dream with SA VA, a unique brand of locally created sustainable clothing for women.

 

Growing up on a dairy farm, Van Aken learned the true value of what it meant to live a sustainable life; her family made their own clothes and grew their own food. Van Aken wanted to get back to her roots by running a business underpinned by socially conscious and sustainable practices.

 

Like most success stories however, her career path took some interesting turns. In 2005, Van Aken was eager to start a women’s line, but due to a lack of funding, she set her dream aside and instead created a custom men’s shirt brand, called Van Aken (whose startup costs were much less capital-intensive than needed to launch a women’s clothing brand. Van Aken also found a U.S. custom-shirt manufacturer that stocked the basic fabrics, so her initial costs were limited to marketing the brand and stocking specialty fabrics).

 

The shirts got so much recognition that in 2006, New York City’s Gotham Bar and Grill’s executive chef and co-owner Alfred Portale approached her to create custom uniforms for his team. The partnership opened the door for Van Aken to create a successful business customizing uniforms for some of the most recognized names in the restaurant industry. By 2008 however, the tide began to turn. The Great Recession had hit in full force at the same time as her orders were growing.

 

“While I was using textiles from Italy, Turkey and Egypt, which were beautiful and affordable, the cost of gas was sky-rocketing, making air shipping of goods inefficient,” she said. Re-evaluating the economic climate, Van Aken realized the time was ripe to launch an affordable sustainable brand of apparel for women. She wanted to produce the line domestically and in the process create benefit for others.

 

A Philadelphia resident for 10 years, Van Aken says she couldn’t have asked for a better place to make her dream come true. Unofficially called the “Biggest Small Town in America,” Philadelphia has a strong “buy local” food movement, and the city also has made a strong commitment to “green” goals. Its smaller-town attitude also gave Van Aken more access to local government officials and programs that might not be as easily accessible in bigger cities. Add in the pressure from the economy, “and it was a perfect storm,” she recalled. “The city was hungry to create jobs, promote green, and further build its positive reputation. I had the opportunity to help do that.”

 

With the help of a grant, the city of Philadelphia helped finance a 4,500-square-foot garment factory that Van Aken used to train workers to manufacture garments under socially responsible guidelines, and in fall 2009, Van Aken’s new SA VA brand was born. Approximately 90 percent of merchandise is locally made in SA VA’s “Garment Center” from fair trade and ecofriendly textiles. Any products SA VA outsources because it is unable to produce itself must be sustainable in some way, by including fair trade, organic or recycled materials or being made locally or in the United States.

 

SA VA features styles that can be worn for work or play, “from casual denim to dressy jersey dresses” that focus on letting the individual’s own style shine through, says Van Aken. The mid-priced brand is sold exclusively in the company’s approximately 1,000-square-foot retail store, located on the main floor of its manufacturing facility — and online at shop.savafashion.com.

 

With décor resembling a Moroccan courtyard, complete with a serene, neutral pallet and latticework on the walls and mezzanine, the store remains true to its environmentally conscious roots by using fixtures made from refurbished materials. All of her efforts combined pushed Van Aken to seek B-Corporation certification. Before earning this accolade that certifies the business is working to solve social and environmental problems, SA VA had to meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards and legal accountability standards.

 

Van Aken calls the process “rigorous” but also inspiring in that it helped her company set benchmarks for further growth. Van Aken is also eager to give back to the community that helped her fulfill her dreams. In addition to creating jobs for local Philly residents, SA VA supports local living wage ordinances, and has also forged community artnerships with the Career Wardrobe, which distributes work apparel and offers education programs and networking tools to women in transition.

 

The center survives on donations of money as well as gently used women’s professional clothing. SA VA also supports the People’s Emergency Center. Focused on families in need, the group provides emergency and transitional housing, employment and job training, computer skills development, GED and workplace literacy, as well as case management and counseling services. “We are striving to create a new kind of ethical fashion community,” says Van Aken.

 

The young company (which also still supports its custom uniform program) is planning to expand. SA VA will launch a wholesale line this fall, and plans to open a new store by the end of 2012.