Tove Wear was established in 2017 and built around an innovative wrap-around denim skirt dubbed "The Maker Skirt". Locally designed by Tove Ohlander, a glass factory owner at AO Glass who wanted women's work-wear with personality, these skirts have jumped into a movement already in full swing: women making stuff and/or making a difference.
"As I started doing this, my influences where brands like Dovetail Workwear, Toad & Co, and of course Patagonia" says Tove Ohlander, Founder of Tove Wear. "Vermont has a lot of really great outdoor clothing brands, and a natural next step is to market all of the hard working women in our State for whom a work wardrobe does not consist of a suit, and I love to be in the forefront of that. I am confident in our supplier, which is a social enterprise in Bangalore, India. We adopted their GOTS and Fair Trade certified eco-system of farms, factories and fabrics from the start, and now we can bring our innovative and sustainable garments to everyone, everywhere."
With an online store and a larger retailer on Manhattan, The Canvas by Querencia, and smaller stores like Woody's in Woodstock, Rebel Heart in Montpelier, and In 2 Green in Hastings and Hudson, this November marks the opening of the first permanent Tove Wear store in Burlington. Located by the entrance at AO Glass in Burlington's South End Arts District, it does stand out as a garment retail spot: it has a factory workshop backdrop.
Tove continues, " What's important is that together with our supply chain, we address 11 of the 17 Sustainability Development Goals set by the U.N. and we are a registered partner on the U.N.'s Partnerships for the SDG's Platform, via The Canvas in NYC." "We aim to work together with organizations to promote equality. Right now you can find the #Equal Pay T-shirt at our store and help the BHS Girls Soccer Team to raise funds for girls' access to sports and closing the wage gap." Today, the color behid the Tove Wear logo is the same red as Goal no. 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
One of the reasons that Tove Wear and AO Glass has been able to open up a store on the Pine Street location is that they hired Sarah Dowey as Marketing and Sales Manager. Sarah is a 2021 graduate from the Sustainable Innovation MBA at the University of Vermont, where she specialized in authentic marketing & circular apparel. Tove says, "She has already done so much for our team in just a few weeks of working with us, and we hope you take a minute to talk to her when you stop in to check out the skirts and aprons!"
The Partnerships for SDG online platform: The Partnerships for SDGs online platform is United Nations’ global registry of voluntary commitments and multi-stakeholder partnerships made in support of sustainable development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The Partnerships for SDGs platform also facilitates the sharing knowledge and expertise among multi-stakeholder SDG-related partnerships and voluntary commitments, and for providing periodic updates on their progress.
The Canvas by Querencia: The Canvas community of over 200 fashion brands is integrated on to one central operating system, a fully developed software platform meant to organize inventory, facilitate collaboration and streamline communication. This is a system for fashion and retail, but serves as the essential framework for a problem solving mechanism amidst an interconnected group of businesses working towards the SDGs. Numerous collaborative initiatives have started within The Canvas community due to existing platforms. This new software further enables efficiency in areas to international cooperation. Each brand address multiple Sustainable Development Goals, which they detail in order to be approved as part of The Canvas platform.
Links:
U.N Partnership https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/?p=38606
The Canvas https://thecanvas.nyc/
Sustanable Innovation MBA https://www.uvm.edu/business/simba_overview
BHS Girls Soccer Team https://vtdigger.org/2019/12/11/burlington-girls-soccer-team-scores-big-with-equal-pay-effort/
Tove Wear https://www.tovedesign.com/
Tove Wear is located at 416 Pine St. Burlington VT.
Phone number 802.488.4455
Email [email protected]