With her knitwear, Jenna Falk practices a slow fashion approach, hand-making each piece with love and intention.“My customers are always so excited when their pieces are ready,” Falk says. “They’ve been waiting — and knowing I’ve been making it — and that flips a lot of our conditioning as consumers on its head. The idea that we want everything instantly.”

It was especially important to Falk when she started envisioning Ocean Spray Galiano, that all of her materials should be as ethical and sustainable as possible. The wool is 100 per cent hand-dyed wool from malabrigo yarns, which is sourced from Uruguayan and Peruvian farms with free-range sheep. “There is also a really neat mill called Briggs & Little in New Brunswick and they’ve been operating [since 1857],” Falk says. “I get my roving from there, and that’s what I use to make my West Coast-style, Cowichan-inspired sweater.”

While Falk does have ready-made items for sale, her customized creations
have been especially popular. “What I’ve discovered is that when someone knows they’re buying it from someone who’s making it by hand, there’s that opportunity to customize that isn’t really there when you’re buying from a typical store.”