In 2000 , filmmaker-turned-designer Natalie Chanin intiated Project Alabama, a community revitalization project that combines old-world craft with cutting-edge style. In 2006, the project was re-formed as Alabama Chanin to maintain Chanin's uncompromising, community-based vision for the project.

Alabama Chanin is headquartered in Florence, Alabama, a small town in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, where the designer herself grew up. There, the company employs local women ages 20 to 70-- former factory workers, retired teachers, widows, stay-at-home moms, and secretaries-- to help sew one-of-a-kind, handmade garments for her fashion line.

Gathering together to work in circles reminiscent of the region's dwindling tradition of quilting, the women forge friendships while stitching, embroidering and beading Chanin's gorgeous designs. (Chanin initially used only vintage fabrics found at local thrift shops, but now relies on bulk shipments from the Salvation Army to fill all the orders). Chanin prepares her seamstresses for the task with lessons of mindfulness, instructing them to handle the thread with love as they sew. She believes that, "If you love your thread, it brings something to the wearer."

Vogue magazine has called the project "Haute homespun out of the deep South." We call it slow because of the vision Chanin had to tap vital, underused resources in her own backyard, creating much-needed jobs by reviving a time-honored regional craft and in so doing regenerating the local community.

Alabama Chanin >