Slow Fashion

Three Questions With Candice of Buttercream Clothing

Meet Candice of Buttercream Clothing. I have been a customer and have had the pleasure of working with Buttercream Clothing over the past several years with influencer collaborations, styling how to’s, and even guest writing for their The Cozy Corner Newsletter.

Buttercream Clothing began at the kitchen table and grew to be the ethical, Canadian made brand we’ve come to know today. After having her first child, Candice started baking cakes for friends and family as a means to contribute to family income while being able to stay home with her small children. When searching for a cute, vintage-style apron became an impossible task, Candice decided to sew one for herself. Buttercream Aprons was the first version of Buttercream Clothing and the aprons took off. Clothing requests soon followed when word got out that Candice had some serious sewing skills. Buttercream Clothing was born because the community was looking for locally made, cute and comfy clothes.

The brand quickly grew from Candice at her kitchen table to a full team of talented sewists. They sourced three ethical factory production partners in Calgary to help grow the Buttercream Business.

I am such a fan of this brand and their commitment to local, ethical, well-made fashion right here in Canada, as well as their ongoing efforts to continue to expand their size range. Currently you can find Buttercream Clothing being offered in 6X – XS. You can see previous blog posts I’ve done featuring Buttercream here and here. Their pieces are timeless and functional for day to day life.

1. You’ve recently gone back to the roots of your business model with offering pre-order items instead of ready to wear. Can you share what pre-order is and why it’s a benefit to the planet?

The one thing that is constant around here is change and pivoting! We are so excited to return to our Pre Sale roots while still offering ready to wear (we call this Freshly Baked) launches in the near future. We are finishing up the largest batch of orders for the year from our Boxing Week sale and while we do this, we are definitely happy to offer pre-sale launches. In the near future we will bring back Freshly Baked launches but people can expect to see a lot of pre-sale in the first half of this year.

As you know, Buttercream Clothing started off with just me and my sewing machine at the kitchen table. Pre-Sale has always allowed us to cut, sew, and ship only what is needed. This reduces waste by ensuring we are only ordering, using, and making what we need, or what the community has asked for and resulting in less clothing in the landfill. It is also a great way to allow us to expand our size range in order to meet more needs as we don’t have to produce as many pieces in hopes that they will sell. We are now offering sizes xs-6x (11 sizes).

2. You are a Canadian made, ethical clothing brand. Can you share what it looks like to be an ethical brand and what steps have you taken to make this a priority with Buttercream clothing?

Absolutely. In part, I was motivated to create Buttercream Clothing at the time of the Rana Plaza factory collapse nearly 10 years ago. To do our part, we have always worked with home-based sewists who are paid fair wages and work in their own home studios. When we grew to a size that required help from local factories we were diligent about ensuring their practices, wages, and conditions were all ethical and sound. It means so much to us to ensure ethical conditions and a fair living wage are being met where Buttercream Clothing is being made!

3. Is there a specific piece you’ve designed that you are especially proud of? and why?

That would have to be the Flowy Tank! This tank is such a closet staple. I designed this as a paper pattern at my kitchen table ten years ago and the classic fit has continued to be popular after all of these years! It is a piece that always reminds me of where we started and of our roots in simple, ethically, and locally made fashion.