Raised in Whitehorse and sent to boarding school as a teen, the Yukon-born, Vancouver-based designer Catherine Regehr studied art at Emily Carr College before taking off for Paris to study fashion. She was recently in the French capital once again – this time to promote some of her non-clothing designs at the Maison & Objet interior-design show, where she presided over a substantial booth filled with an array of sumptuous throws and textured pillows. Besides being sold in North America, Regehr’s appealing products, from elegant evening gowns to creative cushions, can be found in Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Japan and China. And they aren’t mass-produced, but rather made lovingly in Vancouver by a dedicated legion of women who sew for her. It was in 1986, after a stint with Anne Klein in New York, that Regehr launched her own fashion line. Since then, many luminaries, from movie stars to royalty, have donned her glamorous evening wear. Nonetheless, it is Regehr’s home collection that brings her the most satisfaction these days. I spoke with the designer at Maison & Objet about her passion for wilderness, how she manages to reflect the spirit of the North in her collections and the appeal of her Canadianness to foreign buyers and consumers.
The Canadian North is a wondrous place. Explain your connection with it and how it inspires you creatively.
I spend my summers in [the northern B.C. community of] Atlin and there’s so much nature there that inspires me texturally that I use in both my fashion and home lines. For example, I have a pillow with this laser-cut geometric design taken from a kayak trip on Atlin Lake. There is all this shale formation under the water that has been washed one way and then the other by the waves. It really looks exactly like the design I’ve used for my pillow.
I equate the Yukon with the notion of the final frontier. It’s just about as far out there as you can go. What you’re doing with fabrications and textures is kind of a final frontier, too. It seems that this area is so ready for exploration.
Well, I’m having a lot of fun with it, especially after years of doing just fashion. The home line has really informed my fashion line to some degree; if you look at what I’m doing now, it’s simpler, but with these textural details that I might not have done in years past. So it has re-energized my fashion. I do think there are endless possibilities, because I create all these textures. I don’t buy them from anyone. I draw them out. I have them made or puckered or laser cut, so I can go on and make the simplest shapes. In fashion, you have to work with all those figures and with all those neuroses. It’s wonderful to take a simple, clean shape and texture it and offer it in a hundred colours. But because of all this, fashion is becoming more interesting to me again, because I can just keep a very simple shape and take my creativity and just work with the details, whether it’s a cuff or a hem.
You’ve managed to get your product out there internationally to such a huge degree. How did you do that? There are so many Canadian designers who never manage to get outside our borders.
Well, I’ve never really had much business in Canada, because I don’t have a market here. I mean, if I had the market, I would be really, really happy. I have always exported more than 90 per cent of my product, right from the beginning. I do the market week shows in New York and Paris. And I’m actually doing more business out of Paris now than New York.
Obviously, the products are interesting and innovative, but how much of a curiosity to others is it when you say you’re Canadian? Do you get a reaction?
They love it, especially when it comes to the home line. Some people may be unhappy about my use of fur. But when I [tell foreigners] that it’s handmade and that it takes a week and a half to two weeks to make – everything is handmade in Canada – they actually love it. I use basically farm fur. And people ask, “Is this from Canada?” And I go, “Yeah!” And they come right over and sit down [to learn more]. They don’t want fur from anyplace else. Of course the design has to carry most of it, but the fact that it comes from Canada makes it a novelty. It’s refreshing. They think that it means better quality if it’s coming from Canada.
You’ve talked about how decor is influencing your fashion, but is it ever the other way around? Does what you see on the runways of the world influence what you do for the home line?
Absolutely. For instance, that crazy new Moncler patchwork fur coat that Pharrell Williams wore? That informed a cushion I did. I thought, “That’s a cool coat. I have to do a cushion!”
What gave you the impetus and inclination to go the unconventional route in marketing and distributing your products?
I think the fact that I did grow up in the Yukon gave me very strong attachments. Even when I went to school in Paris, there were always extremely strong ties to Canada and certainly to the North for me. So I had to decide how I wanted to balance my life. I’ve really enjoyed fashion, but it’s never been my sort of lifestyle. My lifestyle has always been very connected to the North, so I think in some ways that my longevity is a result of always searching for the balance that works for me, which is this crazy balance of diversity: the Canadian North, New York and family. That’s given me the sanity and the space and time. I’ve been taking my summers off for 20 years to go to my house up in Atlin. I’m climbing up there, I’m canoeing and that’s what has given me the stamina and probably the value system to do it my way.
It’s interesting to hear you talk about a value system. It’s what I hear from my daughter, who lives by herself in West Dawson, in a cabin in the woods. What is it ultimately that really feeds your soul up there?
What feeds my soul is the vast open space, without people in it. The sound of the wind, the calm and peace. I grew up there. My first memories are locked into very fundamental things. The camaraderie, the community of people. I’m sure your daughter talks about that, too. It’s a very tight group of people. There is such an interesting diversity of strong, interesting characters that are drawn to the North. And nobody fits into any slot. Don’t come unless you take your makeup off and put your hair in a ponytail and enjoy the individuals! So, I try to bring that individuality and sense of free spirit into everything I do, but especially into the home collection.
This interview has been condensed and edited.