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Every person has a style, and every style deserves support. Enter your style strategy cheerleader and founder of BU Style, Natalie Tincher. Since 2010 Natalie has worked with hundreds of personal clients as well as large corporations and a major global news network—and she is here to guide you.
In this podcast, you will gain clarity and insights on how to connect your style with your authentic self through Natalie's style expertise as well as interviews with other style-supporting guests like designers, clients, and other professionals in and out of the fashion industry.
Whether you love fashion, fear fashion, or fall somewhere in between, it doesn't matter. This isn't about fashion; it's about exploring who you are and how to own your unique style identity. This podcast will help you cut through the noise and examine your personal style holistically so you can "wear who you are" every day.
0:00:00 - Doug Phillips
Well, yeah, it's humbling and I can just shut up some more about it.
0:00:08 - Natalie Tincher
Welcome to Wear who you Are, a podcast that takes the fear out of fashion and holds space for everyone to explore how to connect your authenticity with your personal style. I'm your host, natalie Tinsher, founder of VU Style expert, style strategist, and your enthusiastic friend and safe space of support. I believe that every person has a style and every style deserves a seat. With over a decade of experience working with hundreds of personal clients, I've learned a thing or two about how to help others have a healthy and holistic approach to navigating how to build a wardrobe that reflects who you are. So pull up your seat and let's get started. That reflects who you are. So pull up your seat and let's get started. Hello, hello and welcome to another Wear who you Are Wednesday.
It is an industry insider episode where I had the incredible privilege to speak to the immensely kind and lovely Doug Phillips, who is the owner of Conscious Clothing. This episode gave me all the feels, all the Midwest feels, when we recorded it With his partner, rose. Doug built an ethical company in the Midwest with Midwest values, practicality and style. So you'll hear, in this chat we cover a lot of ground. We talk about manufacturing, the difficulties of being a dedicated American-made, slow fashion, organic, brand size, inclusivity and consumer education, just to name a few of the many topics that we cover. I personally learned a lot. I learned a lot about some things that brands are doing that I didn't know. I learned about cool cottons and I was really truly moved by by this conversation, by Doug's story. I think you will be too.
I also break down Doug's style six assessment at the end, and we also see some of his incredibly cool and creative pants. So bonus points if you can guess now what he is or, as the episode goes, start trying to profile what his style six personalities might be through the conversation. Tune in to find out if you're right. And here's the episode kindness, slow fashion and American made with Doug Phillips of the stellar company Conscious Clothing. Well, hello, doug. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat today from my homelands in the Midwest. Where exactly are you calling from?
0:02:27 - Doug Phillips
Awesome Hi. Yeah, I'm calling in from Grand Rapids, michigan, so Southwest Michigan.
0:02:33 - Natalie Tincher
Where is it? On the mitten?
0:02:35 - Doug Phillips
Oh, on the mitten, yeah, it's going to be over by, like under your pinky down down a ways. So you're familiar with Detroit. That's in the southeast, we're kind of in the southwest, so about an hour from Lake Michigan.
0:02:49 - Natalie Tincher
Nice, my sister's in Livonia outside of Detroit. So, I know the Mitten reference very well yeah for sure, everybody does it, yep. So you are based in Michigan. You and your company are based in Michigan.
0:03:07 - Doug Phillips
Absolutely. Yeah, we do everything here, which is pretty rare these days. So, yeah, we design, cut, sew and ship everything right from our studio here. I love that.
0:03:21 - Natalie Tincher
And I just really generally love the ethics of your company and I was so happy to connect with you and how much education that you provide and that you are exactly the way, who you are ethos of kind fashion, practical, but you still get creativity. So tell me first, let's start with your personal story and connection to that and connection to that.
0:03:47 - Doug Phillips
Oh my gosh, yeah. Well, geez. This all started well, really started with my wife, who started this about 23 years ago when she couldn't find kids clothing that was organic. So she was like I'm going to do this myself. And she loved sewing and found some early pioneers in the world that would supply those types of materials and she found organic cotton and hemp fabrics and started making stuff for her kids. And, sure enough, yeah, friends started seeing it, oh, that's cool. And then she started making adult stuff and they wanted things and before you knew it, she had opened an Etsy shop some years later, around 2006, and had a presence on there selling nationally.
And then I met up with Rose about 15 years ago and I was here in Grand Rapids, which is known as Furniture City, making custom furniture frames for industry. We've got Herman Miller and Steelcase and all these giant players in the world of furniture here and I was buying and selling kind of Eames chairs and fiberglass chairs, mid-century modern things that people just had on their porches around here. I had a photo set up and could take great pictures and list them on eBay and so, anyways, I was doing that and I got together with Rose and I said you know what you need better photography with your clothing. And I bet it would just take right off and sure enough it did, and this is when she still had the Etsy shop.
Absolutely so. This is, yeah, 2006 era. You know early days of all that, and you know Instagram wasn't around. It was a really different landscape in the world of advertising and promoting and how it all happened. So I jumped in with better pictures for her and it just started taking off more and more and, before you know it, she had said hey, I'm doing a sale for Earth Day, and I continue to do that. Now we do an Earth Day sale once a year. It's like our biggest sale of the year to honor that day.
And she said I just need help for like two weeks. And I said, okay, so since I owned my own company, I could push pause. And so I helped her. And then I just I really got to see all the amazing good that this was doing and it was really obvious all of a sudden like this does so much more good for the world and for people and it just makes sense that I should do this.
And so, yeah, I just kind of jumped, jumped full-on into it. And next thing, you know we we're like, well, let's get serious. So we came up with a five-year plan which was get married, do a bunch of shows to save a bunch of money, because we would also do that too is be on the road going to festivals and like Ann Arbor Art Fair and some of the bigger music festivals that happened around the state, and we would vend and sell on Etsy and we're going to save a bunch of money and add a studio under the back of my wood shop, and so that's just what we did, but we also added in there, fall off a ladder and break my foot while building the studio and get pregnant.
0:07:09 - Natalie Tincher
As if you didn't have enough on your plate.
0:07:10 - Doug Phillips
right, yeah, totally yeah this was just perfect timing, and yeah. So we built the studio, and then I was then a stepdad to three older kids and then we had one of our own, so four kids and we decided, well, we'll move her from her home in Rockford, which was just north of Grand Rapids, to our location here. And then we added on to our house and because you know you want to move a whole family into a home before you add on to it, yeah, ideally Sure If you want to make things harder.
Ideally Sure If you want to make things harder right, oh my gosh, yeah, it was just crazy, but yeah, just just so, so much fun and just the whole. The whole premise, or one of the big premises of what we were doing was, aside from all the great things it did for people, was our life and our day-to-day life and the fact that I got to hang out with the one I love and, and you know, listen to the music we want to listen to all day, every day, and um, we're big music hipsters, always find a new stuff and and just, uh, loving to hear all the new music that's out there and um, and making beautiful things, and it was, it's just the most beautiful thing. So, yes, all your clothes are made with love and intention and all the things, yeah, and as they should be right.
As they should be. Absolutely yeah, and just every year, year over year, it was like better than the next and we were just trying to keep up. So this was you know.
0:08:48 - Natalie Tincher
So this was around what time, then, when you were, when you're reaching your peak, when was that?
0:08:52 - Doug Phillips
When we're reaching our peak. Well, I would say it really kind of started and we just never looked back about 2010. And it kept climbing and climbing. And then we're talking 2020, 2021. So, right right at the beginning of the pandemic, it was just like best year ever was 2021. And we did all this with zero advertising. This was strictly just making a great product out of the best materials we could find and showing people that we are the ones who are actually doing this and we're doing it at our studio, and, and you know, with love and intention, together, and, and, and by this point, 2021, we had about eight people helping us, and what did they comprise?
0:09:35 - Natalie Tincher
What were their roles?
0:09:37 - Doug Phillips
Oh geez, we had, you know, somebody who ran all the the, the web interface, somebody who did customer service, packaging and somebody who did cutting, somebody. We had a pattern designer maker that would take the ideas and make patterns and grade them all by hand, and and then a whole team of sewers and a general manager, and then me I did everything from. You know, I did, I still do. You know all the books and and I'm the janitor, you know, and everything in between. So you know, if something happens to a sewing machine, I'm fixing it or figuring out ways to do things. I'm actually making machines, made our snap press machine to be run by an air controller, and so it's hands free and safe.
0:10:24 - Natalie Tincher
And then tell me then when you hit that 2020, so you've got all these people working for you and I know it was really important for you to keep people gainfully employed and you were busy how you told me, when we were connecting before, an interesting story about how you navigated COVID and keeping people employed.
0:10:43 - Doug Phillips
Oh yeah, absolutely yeah, it was like it was amazing. Well, we were big on you know again, what is your day to day life like? And that extended to everybody that worked with us as well, and we just saw this need, that we had a lot of people that had other things going on in their life, you know, and we said, well, why don't we set you up with industrial machines at your home and you can have a home studio and work from there and then do all the things in your life you need? So, for example, I got our general manager has a duplex with elderly parents next door and had to take new appointments and do things. Well, this works out perfect. So, and had to take new appointments and do things. Well, this works out perfect. So then COVID came and it's like we were COVID proof, because I just went around town and dropped off and picked up a tote bin of garments once a week and it was so amazing.
0:11:36 - Natalie Tincher
I love that visualization of you like popping up like a little bandit dropping it off and swiping it. It's such a fun little visualization and like Midwest and like front porch life, like dropping it off and swiping it. It's such a fun little visualization. And like Midwest and like front porch life Like I could picture it in my neighborhood in Logan's Word, Indiana. It's fun.
0:11:53 - Doug Phillips
Yeah, yeah it was, and it just worked out so great for everybody. Everyone had their autonomy and they were safe and they were still working, While everyone else was like our office is shut down and we don't know what to do.
0:12:07 - Natalie Tincher
Well, then I want to jump over. And then, in that time too, you were building this business with Rose and, if you don't mind, sharing this is such a legacy of love for you what was happening personally around that time, oh my God.
0:12:23 - Doug Phillips
So it was Christmas of 2019. She had gone in for a routine breast exam and the day after Christmas we got the news that she had triple negative breast cancer and so and we didn't know anything about that and quickly she became just one of the world's best researchers on it. And, yeah, and by the following February, we had, you know, our first surgeries and things were not. Things are not looking good. And then it was March of 2020. And it was locked down and now, all of a sudden, massive changes for everyone, and including our home life. So at that point, the last two of the older kids who are still here, they went to go stay across town at their dad's because we're going through chemo on a lockdown.
0:13:19 - Natalie Tincher
You've got to be super, super safe. It was not a good time for immunocompromised. I mean, yeah, absolutely.
0:13:26 - Doug Phillips
Yeah, it was unbelievable, and you know so we had. We had some pretty bad odds right out the gate, but we said, not us, we're gonna, we're gonna beat this, we're gonna do it. And so we just did everything you could. And but, yeah, what? What an insane time to be going through that. And, yeah, so then 2021, the following year after the lockdown, it was just the best year ever. And we're advertising and things are getting worse for her health. And until 2022, august yeah, a couple of weeks from now is the two-year anniversary she passed away August of. Yeah, a couple of weeks from now, as the two year anniversary. She passed away August of 22.
And and then things started to slow down, not just for us, but for everybody.
And so, if you weren't questioning how the heck you're going to do it, you know then, well, you really were now with.
You know, I didn't only lose my wife and the love of my life and my best friend, but also my business partner. So then it was a monumental task figuring out well, how the heck are we going to do this thing that we've built and I didn't want to see it go away. It does too much good we've built and I didn't want to see it go away. It does too much good, there's just too many beautiful things to just let it dissipate into nothing, which it very easily could have. So thank goodness I got an amazing committed team that stepped up and one of our sewers she also runs a program at the community college for industrial sewing, teaching industrial sewing and she said I think I need to step in and like be a general manager of sorts. So then it all of a sudden shifted from being you know this thing that the whole premise was love and enjoying your day to this like soul searching how the hell are we going to do this?
0:15:26 - Natalie Tincher
and like, oh, now you know, now we got to, while you're grieving and figuring out like all of those things like you said you're grieving for the personal loss and you're grieving the loss of your business partner and your collaborator and you know and having to lean on your, your community and it sounds like they also stepped up.
0:15:46 - Doug Phillips
Yeah, and you know she was the designer, so hello. What the hell am I going to do? But she left us with such an amazing catalog and our stuff is so classic and the designs are simple and just really have a wonderful, easy aesthetic, and we have such a large repertoire. We have got a lot of great stuff to pull from and manipulate and we have an amazing creative team that loves stepping in to do that stuff.
So, yeah, me I was never that. That's why we made the perfect duo. I could do all the other things. And she was the design brain behind this and, yeah, she was just a force, you know, just one of those personalities everybody loved to know and be around.
0:16:38 - Natalie Tincher
She had the X factor.
0:16:40 - Doug Phillips
Well, she's in rooms.
0:16:42 - Natalie Tincher
Now, right, I know that some of her pieces are being featured at a museum.
0:16:48 - Doug Phillips
Absolutely it's. The Grand Rapids Public Museum has an exposition at that intersection of fashion and nature and how that intersects, and a lot of that comes into natural textiles. I love that Great segue Doug, I'm ready to talk about.
0:17:20 - Natalie Tincher
He was just like you threw me the lob and I'm ready to hit Because I would love to talk about textiles and education and I know so much of your mission at Conscious Clothing. Is this educational component of just helping people understand kind of the next right thing? Or small steps to meet people? You know where they are? So what is it like to watch organic made in America companies? Like what's the climate there with organic made in America companies right now?
0:17:49 - Doug Phillips
Oh gosh. Well, I'm sure you may have heard it's a struggle with the economy being how it is. They say we've landed softly, but I know inflation is just killing everyone right now. It's a hard scene. So, yeah, I mean around Michigan even we've seen some friends disappear. Our Detroit denim had good friends that just decided to hang it up. Couldn't do it anymore. One brand I loved that did organic underwear ARQ yeah, they're done. Organic underwear arc arq um, yeah, they're, they're done. I'm sure some of the major designers you you might be more familiar with uh called it quits this year too.
0:18:32 - Natalie Tincher
Mara hoffman that one was a big loss for for the industry yeah, luxtra and die and some other brands.
0:18:41 - Doug Phillips
so yeah, there's just, that's the climate. And what do we all have in common? Well, we all make stuff organically and a lot of it made in America. So it's it's the labor and the cost of goods, that's the deal, and luckily I I ran things like a pirate here for so long you know, I was able to get the building paid off, so we don't have that hanging over our head. So I think that's a big factor, that's helped us hang in there. That's huge for overhead right, absolutely Like in your margins and costs.
Absolutely. And if you can weather the storm when it's hitting hard like it is right now, and just survive, and then every and things start to come back around, you'll be there.
0:19:33 - Natalie Tincher
Well then, I want to talk about that. I know one of your ways also that you're able to continue is that your buying process, in terms of things being in stock or cut to order. Can you explain a little bit more about that?
0:19:50 - Doug Phillips
Yeah, absolutely Well, we really started around here. They call it lean manufacturing in the furniture industry, but it's basically a pull system of you get an order and you make it, and that's kind of how we started. It was so busy. We started doing small batch production where we would, you know, fulfill orders and make a few more just to have on hand. And so now, as things have cooled, we're back to the pull system of just kind of making stuff as needed, and so it's always just a balance of what's going on in business, because I would really love to do small batch more, cause it just keeps sewers sewing and it's more efficient for them and it just it just works out nicer. But yeah, when it's slow and you do what you got to do and you only make what you have orders for, and I think that's so important for people listening to hear in this world of like get it tomorrow.
0:20:55 - Natalie Tincher
And I know when we, when we were chatting, we had a little chuckle about the fact that we're so into instant gratification with clothing instead of stopping thinking of. You know the way I do it with my clients like, let's look at your next six months. What do you have? What do you actually have in your closet? What do you need? And if they really take that time to be intentional, then they can take those. You know what is it? Three to four weeks or however long it takes to sew it and then think of how exciting it is. Like I ordered this and now I waited and it's like Christmas and here it is yeah.
0:21:30 - Doug Phillips
Yeah, it shouldn't be an issue for most people in most circumstances, but I think one of the biggest things we get is people needing stuff for vacations Like I don't, for whatever reason they're like. I'm going somewhere and I really want this. I love it. That's great, but we should have planned a little more.
0:21:48 - Natalie Tincher
Did you know yesterday you had that vacation, or did? You know, three months ago you had that vacation.
0:21:52 - Doug Phillips
Yeah, and I love to spoil people too. Um, we'll, we'll, uh, we'll go. You know what we're gonna fit you in. We're gonna make it happen. We're gonna do it because we can.
0:22:03 - Natalie Tincher
You know yeah and a lot of times we can there's no reason to that.
0:22:06 - Doug Phillips
So, yeah, if we get a, somebody emails us with a request. We really do try to make dreams come true because, uh, it's fun well then, how many sewers do you have?
0:22:16 - Natalie Tincher
doing this behind the scenes.
0:22:18 - Doug Phillips
Gosh, we got probably five different sewers right now that do stuff. So we've got you know, and it's great because everybody's kind of trained on different aspects of the company, so they're cross trained and so, depending on what we need need, somebody can be cutting for an afternoon and then the next day shift over to sewing, and other people still are on that at-home system. So they just show up once a week now. Now I make them come here so just to kind of be a part of the team and interact and and uh and.
And it gets lonely too, being in your studio by yourself. You know we noticed that during covid. Yeah, that human interaction part, so people that so outside of the studio, they love coming in and just catching up with the team and uh. So, yeah, we have people coming and going, uh, once a week and then other people that are just taking care of things as needed here and um, whatever we need. So, yeah, cross training is another huge thing of keeping an agile team. So, yeah, when things slow down and and to, yeah, just, people got their life and stuff going on and pretty much everyone here is super creative in some way and, you know, are doing their own fashions or doing modeling and are doing different things. So so it's just great to give that opportunity to, you know, not have such a structured work environment that it's five days a week or beat it we don't need you.
0:23:46 - Natalie Tincher
That's what I love, is we talked about it and it's that you don't. You you've created a culture where there's there's openness to have that work-life harmony where people can say you know what? I have a doctor's appointment today. I remember being just so impressed and it felt so nice to hear you say yeah, you've got to take care of your ailing child. That's okay. In creating the anti-hustle culture in this, we're all in this together.
0:24:15 - Doug Phillips
Absolutely, and that, you know, that was such a paramount thing for me and Rose was. You know what is your everyday like, what's your everyday existence? Like you know, I had a dad that just had a miserable job and did it for a pension at the end of it, 30 years later, and it's like I am not doing that. You know, every day is going to be great, and I wanted to give that to everyone that we work with too is like I want your day to be awesome, too, and be what you want.
0:24:44 - Natalie Tincher
You know so my father in law says. His catchphrase is it's a great day to have a great day, and that reminds me of that. Like it's a great day to have a great day, and that reminds me of that.
0:24:55 - Doug Phillips
Like it's a great day, to have a great day. Let's make it a great day, absolutely for sure. And yeah, yeah, and just everything we we do just touched on so many great notes with with that, and I really love just all the stuff we we do. There's so many, it's like an onion. There's so many layers to it.
0:25:21 - Natalie Tincher
Oh, I mean, we could talk for days. I want to do. I do want to talk, though, about this culture that you're building, and especially in a world where you know women's rights are in question and feeling supported. You are a man surrounded by women. Now right, Tell me what perspective that gives you on women, women's fashion in particular.
0:25:39 - Doug Phillips
Yeah well, yeah, it's humbling and I can just shut up some more about it. I think you said it teaches me sometimes I can shut up and let them speak.
0:25:50 - Natalie Tincher
Sometimes I can shut up and let them speak.
0:25:53 - Doug Phillips
Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. You know a lot of that's out of my wheelhouse, you know, and I have the vision to get this out and this organic fashion out to as many people as possible. And that's kind of our mission with our education and our resource page and doing this museum exhibition and just, yeah, really trying to educate people and help share how important this is. You know it's such a big industry and you know there's all kinds of exploitation and women's rights abuses and human rights abuses in some of these other countries that big companies get things manufactured at, and just being a providing an opportunity for people to, you know, see how it can be done and become a part of that and kind of go on this journey with us by supporting that with your dollars. So you really try to offer a lot of education, because that's just important and that's what I want to see in my community. So we have a resource page where we try to inform people on stuff we find that that's valuable.
Got a link to like the True Cost movie, which everybody who wears clothes should go see, and you really, yeah, you should, yeah and gosh, like the Fiber Shed if you love natural fibers. There's an amazing organization and so, yeah, I just really want to be more than a commerce website. I just really want to offer something of value to people and help people feel seen that maybe don't feel seen. And we've had so many opportunities through so many different avenues. One of them was inclusive sizing starting to go to 6X on our clothing and meet people in the body that they're in at this point in time and offer things for everyone to feel their best and to look great.
0:27:58 - Natalie Tincher
What are some of the responses you've had to that of, you know, people feeling of all sizes, feeling like they have a place to land.
0:28:07 - Doug Phillips
Well, I think I told you one of them that wasn't really directed at us, but it was anger just at what is, at what has been this idea of beauty and what is beautiful, and meanwhile people are here living their life in the body they have and maybe don't fit that stereotype. Yeah, we've gotten a lot of messages and comments of people really thankful that we're here doing this, but also I've felt that there's a lot of anger, a lot of anger and hurt, just plain old hurt from the system that is and the aesthetic that is aesthetic that is.
0:28:57 - Natalie Tincher
I hear it all the time with my clients, or even just people who first hear what I do, and they are disarmed by the fact that I'm kind, which is wild to me and makes me so sad, and that's why I love connecting with our other. I call it, you know, our kind community to say you know, I'm sorry, this industry has alienated you and I love that you are creating this space for people to hopefully have a little sigh of relief and walk into the room metaphorically of conscious clothing to say, wow, I can shop here, like my size is here.
0:29:29 - Doug Phillips
Yep, exactly, yeah, we get so many comments like thank you for showing somebody that looks like me. You know, we just we get that one all the time and yeah, it always. Just, I'm just floored that women have to deal with that. I'm glad you've given them a space for it.
0:29:50 - Natalie Tincher
Thank you On behalf of all of the women listening. Thank you for that. I want to hear a little bit more too, in terms of your company. You have something called a maker's box.
0:30:02 - Doug Phillips
Oh yeah, the maker's box. This is fun. Well, you know, you cut stuff, you got scrap and I got tired of seeing it thrown in the trash can and I said, gosh, this is great stuff and we would save stuff aside. Trash can and I said, gosh, this is great stuff and we would save stuff aside. And we started doing patchwork, which just today, actually, it was released on our website.
So that's a big collection of yeah, the 2024 patchwork collection is out, and so we were making stuff with it. And then, but still, you got more, there's more, there's more. And what are we going to do with it? Well, we saved it and we would bundle it in boxes. We have two different size boxes, and makers of all types of things will buy these and have all kinds of organic scraps and different colors and different types of material to craft what they do with it. So we do a competition once a year and we have people submit images of what they've made with the scraps, and it's always so incredible. I love doing it. Yeah, it's fun.
0:31:05 - Natalie Tincher
And how is the competition going now then?
0:31:08 - Doug Phillips
It isn't right now. It's something we do usually in the winter months, because people are usually inside crafting a little more, at least here in the north. You know it's summer, you go outside, so so people can keep a lookout for that yep, for sure, we'll have that coming up soon.
and um, yeah, then we do like, uh, we'll pick like the top several things and then it'll be people's choice on our Instagram of what they think is the best and then they win a gift card. Whoever wins, to the shop Anything to keep it out of the landfill.
0:31:41 - Natalie Tincher
Well, and that's one of the processes I know that you have, that I was reading on your website is that you have these scraps, but before that I think you used the word you Tetris style all of your garments to make sure that you have as few scraps as possible.
0:31:57 - Doug Phillips
Yeah, absolutely. And so now we just got software for making what they call a nested marker, where it does it, you know, with a computer algorithm, to Tetris all that, and it makes a marker which is a cutting pattern that you can lay on top of fabric and cut. But again, that's more for when we get back into small batch production, whereas right now we're doing it by hand and as needed.
0:32:23 - Natalie Tincher
Um so everything you buy, someone has touched and, like you said it's, it's made with love and you can. You could probably name the face that made it when you get it absolutely, yes, absolutely what are your most popular items? Are your best selling items?
0:32:41 - Doug Phillips
oh gosh, probably our weekend pants, that's. That's one of the best ones. And then we just started offering that in a full length. It was a crop length, um, especially covid time. It's kind of more of a loungy. It's a hemp and organic cotton jersey and it's just kind of a lounge pant. That's wonderful.
0:33:00 - Natalie Tincher
And how do you source your fabrics normally?
0:33:03 - Doug Phillips
Well, I try to get everything from the US, which is so hard to do. So, you know, I try to get organic and made in the USA. So all of our French terry is organic and made in the USA and dyed here. One of my favorite product lines we have is our Fox Fiber. It's called. It's from Sally Fox. She's just an incredible story all on her own. And she does color-grown cotton, which I didn't even know this up until when I met her.
0:33:34 - Natalie Tincher
I learned this from you last week.
0:33:37 - Doug Phillips
Tell us why I was so fascinated.
Yeah, here's the news flash. Yeah, color Grown Cotton. So cotton is not only white, it does grow in colors and most of them are pretty earthy colors, kind of greens and browns and pinks and yellows colors, kind of greens and browns and pinks and yellows. But Sally has been propagating seeds in seed plots for 30, 40 years and trying to get the best genetics to get the brightest, best colors. And so she's doing what would happen naturally over a long span of time and speeding that up. And she cross breeds it with a variety called Sea Island cotton which has a longer staple length. So when they're weaving fibers, the color grown cotton naturally has a shorter staple length, what they call it so about an inch to an inch and a quarter, and the Sea Island is a bit longer, like an inch and a half. And the sea island is a bit longer, like an inch and a half, and when it's longer it's easier to weave into a usable material.
0:34:38 - Natalie Tincher
So and it doesn't tell as much for listeners it's there you go pro tip sea island cotton. If you're looking, it's a when there's a longer staple length.
0:34:46 - Doug Phillips
That means that it won't pill and it'll be more durable yeah, a lot more durable and, um, so I just love the fact that you can get colors without using any kind of dye. So cool, yeah, so that we have a bunch of Sally's Fox fiber materials on our that we make stuff out of and have on our site. And, yeah, and just also like our friends from Detroit denim, we picked up a roll of dead stock from them when they went out of business. So now we have a cone mills denim which milled in the us, which is really cool. Yeah, and it was. It was there, and what are you going to do with it? So we bought it and offer it good well then, what about?
0:35:27 - Natalie Tincher
I want to um double click on that and talk about your athletic wear, because athletic wear is a a tricky industry, but I know that's one of your best sellers, so tell me about the fabrics and how you crafted your athletic wear line.
0:35:42 - Doug Phillips
Absolutely. Yeah, there was just such a need for that and we were starting to make that. So the stuff we have is organic cotton and hemp blend and it has only 4% Lycra, which is the lowest in the industry that I've found anywhere. So you will find most major brands. They are a hundred percent um acrylic.
So and the big problem with that again is that um laundry net and now all of a sudden you have microplastics going into our watershed, which ends up in the collective watershed and in fish and then back into people and along with that you've got major brands putting stain repellents which are highly toxic chemicals, in the crotch of leggings. So right against your sensitive areas with chemicals that are hormone disruptors. So we are not doing any of that here and we are doing it again just the best way possible with the best materials we can find. And the hemp adds to the strength and helps it not wear out. And, yeah, the low amount of spandex in it 4%, you know helps keep its form and stuff while in use. So just trying to do things again the best way we can.
0:37:05 - Natalie Tincher
Well and I think that's a good to you know sort of wrap up this about the production and learning things of just in that vein, like, how do you meet people where they are, Because we're not all going to be perfect in terms of consciousness, sustainability ethics, what's your advice? To meet people where they are and the advice for people who feel maybe a little overwhelmed by all of this world of sustainability ethics and it's a lot.
0:37:37 - Doug Phillips
It's a lot to jump into, yeah for sure, and I think the most important thing is just knowing that you can make a difference by voting with your dollars and supporting brands that are trying to do the right thing. And one of our goals is eventually, I'd love to become a nonprofit and post on our site all the other brands that are doing the same thing and trying to support causes that are meaningful beyond just making a profit. And yeah, that's again with that education. We're trying to do is just sharing that. Yeah, you really can make a difference, and we still have the internet and we can communicate and communicate your values with people you love and why, why you do this and why you care.
And you know, I and it's like there's so much stuff here already and we know that, so it's like we want to be an opportunity for people to get something that is done all the right ways, or the best ways we really can, and put that into your wardrobe and and, um, you know, utilize what you have around. These, uh, these core pieces and a lot of our pieces are meant to be just that kind of a core that you can build on, and you can build on it with our stuff, because all the colors work with each other and it's designed that way, you know and of course add in some flare pieces and interesting things that you're creating your own tetris and legos with your pieces, as you can put the lego set together in different ways and you have new things.
0:39:07 - Natalie Tincher
Then you have new styles, using what you had or just really selectively saying you know what? I want? That one or two things, instead of buying 10 pieces that are going to disintegrate and potentially were not made ethically and humanly by one really great thing that's going to last you long years, years, years, years and years down the line.
0:39:29 - Doug Phillips
Absolutely, absolutely. And I've seen that because, you know, after doing this for so many years, we've grown with our customers too, and they've gone from you know, being young to then becoming a parent and to you know just different phases in life, and so we're trying to be here for people through all these different phases. Yeah, we have a cropped version, but we also have a full length version. Yeah, we have a cropped version, but we also have a full length version.
0:39:55 - Natalie Tincher
Yeah, so like maybe, before, like you wanted the cropped in one phase and then maybe you want the full length for a different phase and then maybe you'll go back to the crop Like the choice is yours. So if our listeners do want to enjoy some conscious clothing. Do you have a promo code you could share? No-transcript, that's so generous, Thank you. We will also link that and share it. And now I want to talk about your the BU style way and talk about your assessment.
0:40:36 - Doug Phillips
So we had Doug take the trenches. It's like, yeah, I really do have my uniform, so it was great. But I'm still creative and I still am expressive. So it's so funny answering the questions and going down I'm like, yeah, well, I'm this, but I'm really this too. So I'm like, oh, this will be great to see how it turns out.
0:41:03 - Natalie Tincher
That's the beauty of it is, we aren't just one thing, and so I will share Doug um results, where he scored the highest and relaxed and then followed really minutely by creative, and then one step down from that was soft, which I called, and it's so. But you are that warm space, so soft? Is that like welcoming, loving, you know, nurturing environment? You've got the creative flair, if, um, people may not see it, but I want you to hold up and we can talk through some some cool, creative genes.
0:41:37 - Doug Phillips
So because you're you have an interest in motorcycles yeah, interest in bikes and so I was sharing with natalie um, I put together a pair of patch pants that have all the different bikes and things that I've worked on throughout the years and it's just. That's one of my creative style pieces. It's just so cool, unique to me and that is truly wearing who you are.
0:42:07 - Natalie Tincher
It's literally wearing on your pants and then the relax comes through in that jeans T-shirt head down, like just want to be comfortable, get things done Totally. So that was super fun to get to know you and then it's fun to see those results come through in your assessment.
0:42:25 - Doug Phillips
Yeah for sure.
0:42:27 - Natalie Tincher
I want to wrap up, then, and even double click a little more and seg into our fun new segment that we're adding, which is our 10 in 2. So we're going to do 10 questions in two minutes. Are you ready? I love it. All right. Question one how?
0:42:48 - Doug Phillips
do you define your style, my style, something that expresses who I am and is functional, perfect. I think that's something A trend you'd like to see disappear forever. Oh gosh yeah.
0:43:09 - Natalie Tincher
I would probably have to say pants that are falling off and like, yeah, that's it.
0:43:12 - Doug Phillips
Say no more. Three things you can't live without. Oh gosh, I, I would have to say a creative space to be creative in. Uh, love for sure, and community your current obsession my current obsession has got to be our white pine fabric. That's Sally Fox plaid. It's awesome. You should check it out.
0:43:36 - Natalie Tincher
So cool. All right, what's your secret talent?
0:43:40 - Doug Phillips
My secret talent that nobody knows about is glassblowing. I do glasswork.
0:43:49 - Natalie Tincher
What a renaissance man you are. A cause that's important to you.
0:44:01 - Doug Phillips
Oh gosh, I would have to say the clothing and clothing manufacturing. Yeah, clothing manufacturing, do-gooderness yes.
0:44:12 - Natalie Tincher
Yeah, I love that. I love that it's a new phrase. Doug the clothing awareness do-gooder.
0:44:16 - Doug Phillips
What do you notice about someone when you first meet them? Their spark, their spark for sure that, vibe.
0:44:21 - Natalie Tincher
What are you most excited about at this time in your life?
0:44:25 - Doug Phillips
Oh gosh, at this time in my life, probably most excited about just being here, just being alive, after being through so much and so much loss. And, yeah, just like finding my way and living it. I love that. And how do you relax? How do I relax? Sudoku puzzles aren't bad.
0:44:48 - Natalie Tincher
Yeah.
0:44:54 - Doug Phillips
And what's your?
0:44:54 - Natalie Tincher
affirmation for today uh, definitely, love yourself. The most important right, it starts with loving yourself yeah um, I love that.
Thank you so much, doug. This was just for me such a special conversation, connecting. I love I mean I have a soft spot for midwest that's where I'm born and raised and it just is such, so refreshing to see what you're doing, how conscious clothing is just bringing in community and love and good vibes and creativity, and it's, it's truly beautiful. So, thank you, and I would love to make sure the listeners know how they can connect with conscious clothing. So if you want to share, we'll link it all, but if you want to share here, the best way to connect.
0:45:35 - Doug Phillips
Yeah, absolutely Just a conscious clothingnet. And whynet? Oh cause somebody hascom hostage for a million dollars.
0:45:45 - Natalie Tincher
I had to do a dot style. It's great, you can do all the dots whatever.
0:45:48 - Doug Phillips
And nobody cares yeah.
0:45:50 - Natalie Tincher
Nobody cares now and it's kind of cool. So we'll also link your Instagram and people can follow, stay tuned to or join your um maker's box challenge coming up and, uh, we'll also link the promo code. But thank you again so much and I'm so excited to be connected and do all the good things moving forward.
0:46:11 - Doug Phillips
Yeah, you too, Natalie. This is awesome. I appreciate you. Thank you.
0:46:16 - Natalie Tincher
Thank you. And there you have it, our relaxed, creative, soft Doug Phillips from Conscious Clothing, just making me feel connected to my Midwest roots. I'm so excited. I was there recently, so it was just like fun to touch with that again. To those of you who tried to guess what style personalities he is, did you get it right? I also hope you enjoyed our 10 and 2 segment. That was a new one and it was just a bit of fun and a really great way to get to know somebody. So both of those will be recurring segments when we have guests on the show, so you can tune into that Just by way of announcements.
Other new things in my BU style world An article just dropped on my LinkedIn that's a response to the recent books American Flannel and the book Making it in America. If you didn't guess already, the theme of the month is manufacturing, as you heard a lot about here, and we have a hefty new blog post that dropped on our website as well to complement this conversation that we had with Doug. So we are chock full of resources for you and it's all about this. One is all about manufacturing, the supply chain, pricing, how to identify quality items. So some great resources on top of all the great resources Doug just shared with us. You can find it on our website by going to who makes your clothes and why you should care about it, on our BU style, going to who makes your clothes and why you should care about it on our VUSO website, which we'll link. And speaking of our website, I just wanted to share a personal excitement that we have a shiny new website, so it may look a little different if you visited before. I'm so excited about it as we've refreshed this podcast, our aesthetic and everything. We're just trying to get more intentional and try to make things user-friendly and connect with you and be able to really grow. And we are in such a growth period for BU Style and I'm so grateful for my team for being a part of it and for you, and we will see you next time with more exciting things.
Thanks for joining another Wear who you Are Wednesday. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. Be sure to follow along for episode news updates and other bonus style insights on Instagram through my business account at Bustyle. That's the letters B-U-S-T-Y-L or my personal account at Natalie underscore Tincture. And don't forget to subscribe to Wear who you are wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thanks again and see you next time.