As a local cohort of youth textile artists ready a fashion show designed to subvert commercial trends, they have flung open the doors to a normally secret operation that buzzes before the launch of avant-garde couture.
A new storefront studio in Sunnycrest Mall will be the publicly accessible creative hub for the Ripped Open anti-fashion cabaret, scheduled to take place on May 4. The retail space — operated by Deer Crossing the Art Farm with support from the mall owners — held its grand opening on Feb. 18. It instantly became the headquarters for a network of more than 20 teens and twentysomethings who are passionate about creating upcycled and repurposed apparel.
“Honestly, we’ve been working on this for years,” said Molly Riepe, who graduated from Chatelech Secondary School last year. “We want to build something where we have the ability to lead it and be respected and seen in a different light. We’re ready to unleash the talent in a contained space, and to provide it in a professional way. What person doesn’t want to come in and work with their hands?”
The inaugural Ripped Open fashion cabaret — held last January in a tightly-packed C3 Gym in Gibsons — ignited a community of young designers. For Sandy Buck, co-founder of the Deer Crossing the Art Farm, it’s a vision she has fostered since moving to the Coast as a youth coordinator in 2007. “They were just building the rec centre at the time,” she recalled, “and there was the swimming pool, but not much else for youth unless we created it.”
Buck and her husband Chad Hershler founded the Rainforest Circus in 2010, connecting a community of performers, costumers and makeup specialists. Its 2024 incarnation — held at Porpoise Bay Provincial Park — featured the highest number of youth participants in its history. The popularity of the first anti-fashion cabaret (pre-show preparations spilled into space offered by Roberts Creek’s Fade and Dye salon) and the summertime circus signalled it was time to set up shop in close proximity to Elphinstone Secondary School.
Buck, Riepe, and Grade 12 textile artist Willow Rody led the charge, painting the Sunnycrest studio while equipping it with mannequins, sewing equipment, and fabric supplies. Twenty-one-year-old Carmen Charbonneau — part of the group’s off-Coast contingent — manages its online presence from her home in Victoria. A wall is designated for visual art recently featured in The Kube gallery’s exhibition of emerging artists. Passers-by can deposit used clothing in a bin outside the entrance, giving new life to old looks.
“I know there’s so much clothing waste that happens,” said Rody, who was part of the design team for the original Ripped Open cabaret. “There are so many ethical dilemmas around fast fashion, which basically uses slave labour and takes advantage of horrible conditions that create cheap clothing. But it’s not sustainable. To make pieces that we love and are connected to us — because we made them — and to use that as a way to make less waste, I think it’s really special.”
Fittingly, the theme for the upcoming fashion cabaret is transition itself. For contributors like Riepe, it mirrors the experience of recent high school graduates trying to make space in the world for their unique forms of creativity. “When you graduate, there’s a lot of things to work through,” she said, “and it’s a really huge transitional period. And art is one of the most effective ways to work through that.”
Buck hopes to find a way to keep the Ripped Open studio open even after the May 4 cabaret, encouraging youth to drop in and experiment with a variety of art forms — or create unique garments for sale. “Then we will slowly but surely be dressing the Coast,” she said, “dressing our community in affordable, sustainable, locally-made pieces.”
Hours of the Ripped Open studio at Sunnycrest Mall are posted at its entrance; details are available by following on Instagram: @ripped.open.anti-fashion.
