Yana Dee Blog — Interviews

Yana Dee Inc is now accepting applications for sewers to join our seam team in Traverse City Michigan! This position requires some previous sewing experience. While home machine and hobby sewing skills will be considered, professional apparel production experience, training, or education is preferred. The ideal candidate will already be comfortable threading and using industrial sewing machines.

A: So I wanted to ask you, who or what inspires your choice in clothing? 

M: I like a lot of vintage stuff. I’m always trying to find things that are between the ‘40’s and ‘70s eras. I’m always looking at vintage clothing and getting ideas from what people used to wear, and then I mix that with the now trendy stuff. I like looking at the new clothes that people are making, to see what young people are wearing. So I feel like I end up doing some weird combo of what people used to do, and what people are doing now. And it's fun. I just love clothes. And I love colors, and thinking about putting stuff together. I don’t have a main influence, though. I think [my style] mostly just comes from really liking clothes.

A: Where are a few of your favorite places to get clothes from?

M: I like to thrift. That’s my favorite thing to do, and vintage shops, that’s the place I go the most. I love going to Yana Dee, of course! It is really cool to see what you are doing here, because it is so ethical and the fabrics are so beautiful. And [Yana Dee] was one of the first people I knew that did the re-fab stuff, with vintage fabrics and newer styles, which I’ve always admired and loved. I shop on Etsy, I go to Goodwill. I like getting the deals.