Interview with Dwayne Vatcher & Brittney MacKinnon of Body of Work

How does your brand reflect your personal values and philosophy, and what inspired you to start it?

Brittney MacKinnon: Dwayne and I met in university and after graduating, we both moved out west to Vancouver, Canada for our first jobs in fashion. Our ambition to start Body of Work came very naturally, we were both deeply interested in bringing ease and beauty to an active lifestyle. Living in Canada, we spend a lot of time outdoors and it deeply inspires our approach to design. We believe deeply in the integrity and quality of Canadian manufacturing so we have been committed to making our products here. The pursuit of beauty is at the centre of everything we do, and it is this sentiment that guides our thinking.

From a young age, Dwayne played competitive hockey and I have always been involved in recreational sports, but our active lives and interest in design seemed to always live in two separate worlds. This is the core idea that we started with, the brand we want to create is the first of its kind, blending an active lifestyle with a truly discerning, aesthetic approach. Canada has some of the best manufacturing facilities in the world and we were both interested in the relationship between craft and luxury so we started the brand with creating custom fabrics in Canada and the brand began to take shape. Here in Canada, factories are smaller and have access to different machines and techniques than the large commercial facilities overseas. This results in a product that has a lot of character. We embrace handcrafted quality that our products have, balancing a desire for precision with the human quality that you get when making clothes here. We have noticed the manufacturing landscape here is changing and other brands are moving their production overseas to improve their margins but producing in Canada is a value of ours that we are committed to upholding.

The desire to inspire our younger selves is also a source of inspiration for us. Growing up, and still to this day, we see very few designers that look like us. We are both mixed-race, the children of Jamaican immigrants and this plays a role in our world view and our influences. I think it is intriguing that we chose to design in a way that is more understated, focusing on craft and the finer details. We do not design streetwear or high-fashion, taking a quieter approach, focusing on quality and timelessness. We want to create the kind of company that we would want to work at, working with people who live passionately, on projects that we would otherwise choose to do in our free time. That is the dream that we are striving for.

What is your process for generating and implementing new ideas in your brand?

Dwayne Vatcher: We share a special relationship with the outdoors, starting our days with a walk through the park on our way to get coffee while discussing our ideas and plans for the day. Living in Toronto, we need to intentionally make time to spend in nature which is why we value it so much. Between the two of us, we play tennis, hockey and soccer, go for runs and do yoga and pilates. These are all elements that we weave into what Body of Work is today, our clothes are designed thoughtfully but are not precious, they are made to be worn in our every-day life. Brittney grew up in the suburbs which offers a unique beauty, in how expansive and quiet it is. I grew up in the city but next to Taylor Creek, a valley that cuts through the middle of the city. I often ran the trails twice a day during my years running cross country and track and field in high school and I still visit these trails today.

City walks offer inspiration as well, some weekends, we spend days walking from one end of the city to the other. On a walk we may see a man, usually older, wearing a striking combination of colours or an interesting pocket placement and it will inspire a design idea. Traveling has pushed this notion further, seeing the way people live in different countries, the way people dress in the city versus in the country. It is very interesting to observe people's relationship with their clothes that are considered to be less delicate, the clothes they really wear day-to-day.

What I love the most is to have my things for a very long time. This has been a value of ours for many years and as a result, it has guided our approach to designing clothes. We each have very small wardrobes, edits of things we have collected for years and we approach developing collections in a similar fashion. I will wear the same pair of pants so often that people begin asking me if they are vintage. I also dress in a way that is so simple that some people may think it is strange that I design clothes. On the other hand, some people notice the nuanced elements that make what we do so special. Some things never go out of style and if they are designed with that intention and made with quality, good clothes can last for decades. We are very disciplined with our small collections, designing only things that we really like, which is a fun exercise every season.

How do you see the brand evolving in the next 5-10 years?

BM: We have been very fortunate to have many people gravitate to what we have created with Body of Work in such a short time. To this day, Body of Work has been built and operated only by myself and Dwayne. In many ways it allowed us to pursue our vision for the brand in a very pure and specific way but we have ambitions to grow our team with other like-minded people very soon. From the beginning, our goal was to create a space that captures the sensory vision we have had for Body of Work. We have always felt that a brand’s essence is not fully realized until you are able to design a permanent space with the colours, textures, sounds and scents that paint a full picture. We have ambitions to open our first retail store in Toronto in 2025 with plans to open stores in Japan and the US in the near future.

This September, we will be traveling to Tokyo for our first pop-up store outside of North America. This will be our first step in creating a direct connection with our customers there. Journalists in Japan were the first people to talk about Body of Work when we launched and ever since, our Japanese customers have been consistently supportive of everything we do so we are very excited to present our work in person.I think the relationship we have with our customers in Japan is a testament to our shared appreciation for quality and the craft of making clothes. During our time in Tokyo this September, we will also be visiting fabric mills and dye houses that specialize in things like indigo and natural dye which we are excited for along with visits to many cafes and bookshops, my favourite places to spend time.

How do you differentiate your brand's messaging in a crowded marketplace?

DV: Body of Work is truly an expression of ourselves which makes it inherently unique, beyond that, we do not think about differentiating ourselves too deeply. I think our ideas are continually evolving and what we do is so nuanced and personal that we connect with people on an emotional level that cannot be replicated.