Advertisement

Mental health awareness inspires Wear Your Label Canadian clothing line

Wear Your Label's "Sad But Rad" shirt (WYL)

Two friends in New Brunswick turned a dinner conversation about mental illness into a clothing brand that’s making headlines across the country.

Wear Your Label “is a conscious clothing line with the goal to create conversations around mental health and ultimately end the stigma (in style),” the website reads.

Wear Your Label

Kyle MacNevin and Kayley Reed tell Yahoo Canada how it all began:

“So about a year ago, we were having dinner and we were just sharing about our personal mental health stories. I live with generalized anxiety disorder and ADHD,” MacNevin says.

“And I’m recovering from an eating disorder,” Reed adds.

The two friends bonded over their vulnerable conversation and a mutual love for fashion. It wasn’t long before MacNevin proposed they merge their interests and launch Wear Your Label, a brand that would help start conversations and also give back to mental-health organizations.

They were accepted into a business accelerator program called the Summer Institute through the University of New Brunswick where they further developed the idea for their brand and learned some important fashion skills like screenprinting and sewing from new mentors and supporters.

“Up until this point, it had just been an idea, and this is kind of where we were able to rework the brand and figure out what it meant to us and what we wanted it to mean to other people,” Reed says.

“At Wear Your Label, we create conversations around mental health, but moreover, we design clothing to create those conversations,” MacNevin says. “So the clothing itself is a conversation-starter, but it’s also like a get-well card. Everything about the clothing is designed to make you feel better, whether it’s how the fabric feels, how it fits, the positive reinforced messaging that we use in our clothing, or the tags that tell you not only how to wash and take care of your garment, but also how to take care of yourself.”

Ten per cent of the profits go to supporting mental health initiatives.

The Bracelet Project

They started Wear Your Label with colour-coded bracelets. Each bracelet represented a specific mental-health illness or challenge.

“It blew up,” MacNevin recalls. “We sold out in about a month.”

“It’s just a bracelet,” he continues. “It gives the individual a choice. So if you were wearing a bracelet for anxiety, I would be, like, ‘Oh, my gosh, what a beautiful bracelet.’ And you would have the choice to either say, ‘You know what? It’s from this really cool brand Wear Your Label and this colour means that I sometimes have anxiety issues.’ Or you could just say ‘thanks’ and that would be the end of it. So the choice is there for the consumer to have that conversation through our bracelet project rather than us just placing a label onto themselves without giving them too much choice.“

The Clothing

Since then, the brand has launched a line of unisex graphic tees, tanks and sweaters all with phrases designed to encourage the wearer and spark conversations.

“Sad But Rad,” one tee reads.

“Self-Care Isn’t Selfish,” says a tank top.

And on a sweater: “It’s Okay To Not Be Okay.”

Right from the start, MacNevin and Reed ensured that people who are affected by mental illness are part of each stage of the creative process.

“Human connection is really important in the clothing,” Reed says, adding that people impacted by mental health issues are designing the clothing, screenprinting the designs and sewing on the tags.

Garments are made in sweatshop-free, ethical manufacturing facilities and all screenprinting is done in-house in their Fredericton, N.B. studio.

Role Models

Even their models, dubbed Role Models, are “real people” with personal connections to mental health. On the Wear Your Label website, some of them share their stories with customers.

“It’s been really beautiful to see how many people are ready to ‘wear their label’ and to share their story with the world. And so we’ve really taken that premise and just tried to show that even fashion models or the people you might see on the website wearing the clothing in product shots, they’re all real people and they all have a story to share. So we’re just honoured to be able to share those stories with our followers,” Reed says.

The Details Count

Part of what makes Wear Your Label special — and worthy of its growing cult following — are the details MacNevin and Reed put into their products.

On the garment-care tags, for example, are self-care instructions, written by MacNevin’s therapist, “designed to turn your day around and hopefully increase your decision-making skills and your ability to move forward in your day.”

Suggestions include to stretch, breathe and meditate, to sip tea, “feel your feet and be present,” have a laugh and listen to a favourite song.

And when you order a shirt or bracelet from Wear Your Label, you don’t just get a clothing item, you get a care package.

“One of the things with Wear Your Label is that when you buy something from us online, you get a care package. You get conversation cards, you get information about mental health from the Canadian Mental Health Association, you get a hand-written letter from one of the co-founders. And the package is put together kind of a like a care package you would receive if you were away from home or if you were away from your friends,” MacNevin says.

When it comes to expanding the brand, MacNevin and Reed are careful their cared-for message doesn’t get lost.

“How do you convey that same type of feeling in a retail store? Or how do you go a little bit beyond?” MacNevin wonders aloud. “So that’s the other thing that we’re working on: finding the right partnerships to strengthen Wear Your Label, to make sure that the message doesn’t get lost and that the brand stays as important as it is to our customers.”

Because of the recent press — and the backorders that now need filling — MacNevin and Reed have delayed a planned Kickstarter until all orders are shipped out. When they do launch the online fundraiser in a month or so, it will be to help expand the styles and sizes the brand offers so more people can wear the clothing.

Feedback

MacNevin recalls one of the best reviews he’s heard from a satisfied customer:

“This is the best antidepressant I’ve ever received.”

“To hear that kind of stuff is just phenomenal,” he says, recalling other moving stories from fathers introducing their daughters who were struggling from crippling self-esteem to the brand. “It’s a really nice driving force. So when people are like, ‘What do people say about Wear Your Label?’ ‘Oh, boy, you have no idea. It’s all amazing.’”

Reed adds:

“One in five Canadians will struggle with a mental illness at some point in their lifetime…but five in five have mental health. So what we try to do with Wear Your Label is create something that can help all five in five feel connected to the cause and create conversations for those people in their life, or even for themselves, who are struggling. So creating that care for everyone and not just for those who are directly affected.”

Check out Wear Your Label’s official site here. Or join the conversation on Facebook.