Written by Stephen Keefe
Photos by Kate Mada
Thousands of tired, young fingers are at work right now, patching together the clothes you might wear later. Cut, printed, marketed, then shipped off into an economy that burns through Adele remixes and Drake gifs like coal, that chases ‘cool’ like it’s the cure for cancer.
Enter Once Again, an ethikwear collective striving to put some humanity back into fashion. The small Montreal label is made up of Louis Aka-Trudel and his girlfriend Lawrence Lambert.
I met up with Once Again in their Mile End studio in Montréal to see the project in person and get a feel for what makes them so different.
Louis stands at 10'5" (give or take) so I saw him right away, sauntering towards me at a distance of five blocks. He has a slow, kind gate, like he’s strolling through his hand-grown apple orchard in the middle of an industrial cityscape. He greets me with a Cheshire cat grin and introduces me to the team, eyes wide and attentive through his giant glasses.
We rode the rickety elevator up to their studio and Louis told me about Once Again’s background — how much of it is based on the art and culture he grew up with in Ivory Coast, how he has a vision to fuse those patterns with themes from Montréal urban art and hip-hop. How he and his team have always respected the wisdom of our ancestors, and how that’s inspired the design and ethical production of the clothes.
On the surface it all sounds like a marketing cliché-material for a feel-good TV commercial, one that flashes the words ‘diversity’, ‘innovation’ and ‘global economy’ in front of b-footage of a homeless man playing saxophone and a guy in a suit dancing in a puddle.
The difference is, Louis actually lives his vision, down to every last bead of sweat he’s poured into this. When Louis says he draws inspiration from urban life and art around him, that means the creation of a hip-hop EP as well that touches on the same themes.
When Louis says he’s inspired to do things ethically, that means he uses fair-trade, eco-friendly textiles in his clothes and garments. When he says he believes in being local, that means those clothes are made in house, with the same creative hands that designed them.
I found myself standing in their dusty studio, the smell from sewing machine motors still hot in the air, measuring tape thrown haphazardly on the table, clothes folded carefully around a boombox on the wall, and began to better understand how and why Once Again came from this duo of grassroots creatives.
Their vision was never clothing per se. It’s just what emerged from this hub of explosive and eclectic creative energy they’ve cultivated — an inevitable goodness that erupted from having so much swagger.
Once Again have already made a name for themselves in Montreal’s street market scene, where they’ve been setting up shop for over a year now. To spread the love to the rest of Canada, they’ve recently launched a websitewhere for the first time you can order their creations directly, not just from a clothing stand in Montreal. From humble, local beginnings, Once Again is staying true to its roots while enjoying the rise to success.
So let’s shine a light on Once Again, the urban collective that sees a future fueled by innovation and creativity, not tired little hands.