Sustainable style
Leanne Marshall of label Leanimal is the fresh face of Portland’s eco-friendly fashion scene
By Britt Julious
Published: March 5th, 2008 | 2:45pm
According to Leanne Marshall, designer for new label Leanimal, Portland is leading the frontier in fresh, eco-friendly fashion. “It's definitely safe to say that the majority of Portland-based lines are eco-friendly or use sustainable practices in their businesses,” Marshall says. For Marshall, this includes sustainable and recyclable textiles, such as bamboo knits and hemp twills, combined with traditional textiles on a 50-50 basis. “I would like it to be greater than that eventually,” Marshall says.
Although less traditional, Marshall says that the textiles for her a-line bubble skirt dresses and romantic dress coats are in fact easier to work with and softer in texture. The only problems are with the natural off-white color. “I love to work with off-whites anyways, so it's not much of a compromise,” says Marshall. Besides her use of recyclable materials, Marshall also likes to incorporate thrifted textiles into her designs and give them a “second life.”
A former ballerina, designing her own costumes was a natural progression for Marshall. “I wanted ballet costumes that no one else had,” she says. Her love of design led her straight to college. Marshall earned a full-year scholarship to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. “That really put my dream into motion,” Marshall says. “I don't know if I would have gone to school if I hadn't gotten that scholarship for the first year.” After graduation, Marshall moved to Los Angeles where she quickly got a job working in the industry. However, the pitfalls of working on someone else’s creative vision discouraged her. “I quickly realized that I didn't want to do it unless I was the one making all of the creative design choices,” she says. Marshall quit and moved back to Portland, working as a graphic designer to pay the bills while creating “one-off” designs from time to time.
Marshall recently left the graphic design business after five years. However, her time spent working as a graphic designer proved immeasurable in her work for the Leanimal line. Marshall still uses programs to help plan out the rich palettes for her designs and collections, as well as constructing her own look book and website. “[Graphic design] was and still is a tremendous asset,” says Marshall.
As a whole, Marshall’s designs embrace femininity enthusiastically. “I love decadent embellishments and always will. I also have a tendency to pleat everything I touch,” she says. “I'm trying to curb that a little lately.” Her touches of femininity are evident in recent pieces such as the Wesley dress, an off-white hemp stretch dress with an empire waist and bubble hem, or the Bella coat made of organic cotton with an avant-garde collar and defined waist. Although in recent collections, her designs have been more architecturally interesting, Marshall still values fluidity in pieces. Marshall says, “I always think about how a garment will move when designing and I love the contrast of something really structured combined with something that will be very flowing.”
Inspiration is found in the most unlikely of places, Marshall says. “I like to find inspiration in the most ordinary everyday objects: a heater vent, a speaker, mini blinds.” Her latest collection was inspired by a vest pieced together by scraps of fabric. As for the future, Marshall is looking to add to her team. “I really need to hire someone. The control-freak in me loves doing everything myself, but I'm at my limit and I can't get it all done anymore,” she says. Another goal, one familiar for many young designers, is to show at New York Fashion Week. “I'll be working towards that until I get there,” she says. “I want to do this forever.”
View the complete Leanimal line at leanimal.com
Issue #35
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