Liz Alig exhibit showcases alumna's mission-minded fashion
Kim Chaudoin | 615.966.6494 |
Fashion can change the world.
What we wear reflects our personalities, our income levels, our culture and plays a key role in our lives. But fashion can also help preserve our natural resources and provide income for communities around the world.
Designer Elizabeth Roney (’08) harnessed that power to change the world and launched Liz Alig with the aspiration to create a fair-trade, eco-conscious fashion label that was mission-driven.
When it was launched in 2009, the Liz Alig brand was one of the first of its kind in the United States—one committed to ethics while also ensuring a fashion-forward approach. Today, Liz Alig has become recognized for its innovative use of recycled and handwoven materials in a ready-to-wear boutique line.
“We start our design process with our favorite fabrics including recycled, natural and handwoven textiles inspired by traditional techniques and textiles from around the world,” says Roney. “Then we partner with like-minded fair-trade organizations to produce the clothing.”
Roney says a portion of Liz Alig sales goes to organizations that are helping women out of poverty with skills training and sustainable employment.
“Empowering women in developing countries is a way to end the cycle of poverty,” she says.
Roney recently shared her Liz Alig spring 2015 collection and story with the Lipscomb community at an exhibition on April 13 hosted by Rho Xi Delta, the campus fashion merchandising student organization. Designs representing Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador, Ghana, India, Nepal, Cambodia and Guatemala were featured at the event.
A native of Indiana, Roney began sewing in high school. She came to Lipscomb to pursue an undergraduate degree in clothing and textiles, which is now offered through the Department of Fashion and Design in the College of Entertainment & the Arts.
“I had the opportunity while a student at Lipscomb to have incredible internships with designers Jeanne Dudley Smith and Manuel,” she recalls. “Kathy Bates (assistant professor of fashion and design) was always very helpful to me as was everyone in the department.”
The idea for the Liz Alig label resulted from Roney’s international travels.
“I traveled a lot while I was a college student and right after I graduated,” Roney says. “I went to Kenya, India and Honduras among other places and saw the people who actually make a lot of the fabric and items we use in the United States. I saw the extreme poverty that so many of them live in, and I became interested in fair-trade.”
Roney says what struck her about some of the women she encountered on her travels was that even in extremely impoverished conditions they “exude joy and hope.”
“It is women like them whom we have had the pleasure to work with around the world who have inspired our organization to help make a difference,” she says. “We are helping give these women new opportunities through fair-trade practices to equip them to make their communities better places. I am excited to be able to highlight their handiwork in our collection.”
Roney’s mission has been successful as she says consumers are beginning to “understand that sustainable products can go along with good design.”
To date, the Liz Alig line is sold in more than 150 boutiques around the country and recently was picked up by the online retail giant ModCloth.
For more information about Liz Alig, click here. To learn more about Lipscomb’s fashion merchandising program, click here.