November 1, 2009

Ranch to runway
Keeping its footprint light and close to home, Imperial Ranch is gaining attention and rave fashion reviews

By Susan Matheny
Madras Pioneer and
Rodger Nichols
The Chronicle

     With a lot of hard work and a relentless drive to succeed, Jeanne and Dan Carver have made a name for their Imperial Stock Ranch far beyond the boundaries of the 30,000-acre spread near Shaniko.
     That reputation moved onto the world stage at the Portland Fashion Week Show Oct. 11, when their collaboration with Portland designer Anna Cohen — the “Imperial Collection” of sustainable women’s apparel — became the breakout hit.
     The line features wool from the Imperial Stock Ranch, which has become a leader in sustainable practices in the state.
     “This is the largest fashion week outside of Los Angeles and New York,” said an excited Jeanne Carver. “There were five collections shown that night, and we got the only applause.”
     The critics agreed. After complaining that fashions from the other four designers exhibiting that night were “too reminiscent of the burlap bag stereotype” and looked “homemade,” reviewer Liz Hummer lavished praise on the Imperial Collection.
     “I felt thrilled to have been there, to have heard the story behind those fashions firsthand and to appreciate the creativity and craftsmanship up close,” she wrote, “’This is what Portland Fashion Week should be all about,’ I found myself telling anyone who would listen.”
     Carly J. Cals of FashionTribes.com said, “In contrast to many of the drab browns seen earlier that night, this collection was awash in creams, reds, blacks, and tans; textured coats and sheer blouses, and silhouettes that proved flattering and feminine.”
     And, she noted, the wool for the clothing was raised, sheared, carded, spun into fibers, knitted, loomed, woven, and the resulting textiles sewn all locally (i.e., within 100 miles of its origin) — thus keeping the environmental impact of production minimal.

The backstory
     The success of the line is the result of collaborative planning, shared values, hard work, and a couple of timely government grants.
     The first, a regional grant from the Mt. Hood Economic Alliance in 2007 allowed Carver to hire Erin Stone.
     Before that, Carver was wearing too many hats, she said.
     In addition to her ranch duties, Carver worked on marketing the meat and wool from the approximately 300 sheep on the ranch, while developing markets for yarn and fabric and overseeing their production.
     Stone had a 20-year career as a retail and wholesale buyer for very large firms, including the May Company.
     “As a buyer, I have a strong financial and inventory planning background,” she said. “I understand price points, and I speak buyers’ languages.”
     Following a wave of consolidations that would have forced her to move to the Midwest to continue her career, Stone and her family decided to move to her childhood home in Grass Valley.
     She looked into raising sheep, and everyone directed her to Jeanne Carver.
When Carver met Stone and learned about her background, she hired her immediately.
     “With her on board, it allowed us to do more things,” Carver said. “She took the lead at placing us at the national yarn trade show and in writing a value-added $100,000 producer grant from the USDA.”
     The national yarn trade show led to interest by the largest yarn shop in London and helped Imperial get into the European market.
     The grant was to do market research, write a feasibility study and devise a business plan. Before, the Carvers had operated by “the seat of our pants and logic,” as Carver put it.
     To expand beyond that production, Carver and Stone concluded, they needed to find a designer.
     An article about Anna Cohen in “Oregon Business” magazine led them to contact her.
     Cohen, who worked for top design houses in New York and Italy before building her own apparel company, was a natural choice for collaboration. Here previous collections emphasized sustainable or “green” clothing, using soy and bamboo fabrics.
     “With her expertise in the fashion industry, and our heritage of 140 years of ranching here, it’s a powerful combination — ranch to runway,” Carver said.
     Cohen said her first trip to the ranch convinced her. In creating her own company, she had used the canary as a symbol of sustainability. Like the canary used in coal mines to test for bad air, it was an indicator species.
     As Cohen met with Carver and Stone in the ranch house that day, they were startled by the appearance of a bright yellow bird, one that Carver had never seen before on the ranch. It stayed for several hours, then departed and hasn’t been seen since.
     A bird book showed them the bird was a wild canary.
     “It was really special,” said Cohen. “I could hardly sleep that night. If I ever needed a sign, there was one for me that I needed to do this.”
     Stone gave credit to Mary Merrill of the Small Business Development Center at Columbia Gorge Community College.
     “She has been unbelievable on this project,” Stone said. “Mary is one of the best business development practitioners in the state. She listens; she helps; she gets her hands dirty; she sticks with you and tries to find other resources. She’s been instrumental in moving this as far forward as it has, including the grant.”
     Luise Langheinrich of Boulder Path Designs in The Dalles also helped with some of the pattern designs for the collection, as the Carvers make it a strong point to develop business locally as much as possible.

New niche
     After a decade of promoting sustainable agriculture and local-grown fiber products, Carver said people are finally starting to listen.
     She said people understand the advantage of purchasing locally grown food, and said the same is true of clothing fiber like wool.
     “I’m getting more and more people wanting a local, regional product other than food,” she said.
     Part of the reason is the growing interest in green products that use “eco-friendly” fiber and reduce the consumer’s carbon footprint because less petroleum is used to ship products locally, than to ship them overseas for production, then back to sell.
     In 1999, after the viability of their sheep operation was threatened due to companies buying and manufacturing wool products overseas, the Carvers developed a new market niche for locally grown lamb meat and wool that could be traced back to the ranchers who produced it.
     A grant in 2000, from the USDA sustainable agriculture division, helped the Carvers launch their new marketing approach. Their success led to them being asked to speak at “Eco-Farm,” the largest organic convention in the U.S.
Imperial Stock Ranch was also one of 10 farms and ranches in the U.S. featured in the book “Sustainable Agriculture in America.”
     And the Imperial Stock Ranch created its own “American Wool Tradition” yarns which were milled without the typical use of harsh chemicals or extreme temperatures.
     “We are positioned to explode now. This has grown beyond our ranch,” Jeanne said, noting they buy bales of wool similar to what they grow, from other Oregon sheep growers.
     If orders pour in after the fashion show, the Carvers will be ready. “We will do the prototypes and development of garments, but will increase production by working with partners within the U.S. to mill, cut and sew them,” she said.
     “That’s why we’re doing this —because everything went off-shore from America, and wool was being sourced outside the country too because it was cheaper,” she said.
     “We’re bringing business back to the U.S. — bringing it home,” Carver emphasized.

On the net:
http://www.imperialstockranch.com/
http://www.boulderpathdesigns.com/
http://www.annacohen.com/
http://www.portlandfashionweek.net/