Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Annie Miller with The Collective Thread student Zohra Zaimi.
Terri Stipanovich wanted to help women in need. So in 2009, she launched a nonprofit called Faith That Works and began advocating for women’s social justice in Africa. The nonprofit grew into a sewing program called Nala, which provided women in East Africa with free sewing classes and generated their wages through a clothing line. By 2015, Stipanovich had mirrored the program here. After Stipanovich met Annie Miller, the two grew the nonprofit into The Collective Thread, which offers sewing classes to local refugee and immigrant women; it then employs them to make clothes for local fashion startups including Daily Disco and Triflare. Earlier this year, the organization moved from the Central West End into a 6,000-square-foot space on Washington Avenue endowed with both a sewing room and showroom. The new space will accommodate their growing number of clients and students. “At our last free class, we were turning people away,” Stipanovich says. More than 50 women from such countries as Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia have completed the six-week sewing program. “Whether it’s in St. Louis or in East Africa, when you give a woman a wage, she has decisions available to her that she didn’t have when she was dependent on her community,” Stipanovich says. “And you’re not just giving it to her; she’s earning it. There’s real dignity in that.”
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Terri Stipanovich
Why did you create The Collective Thread? I think the most gratifying thing for me is that when you economically empower someone, you see their life changed. We have one woman who, one day, she just started crying. She said, “I’m just so happy. Before I had this place, I sat at home. All I did was think about the war in Syria and my family that’s still there. Now, I’m happy because I have a place to come keep myself busy and a community.” That’s why we do the work.
What is small-batch manufacturing? With the evolution of social media, you see a lot of fashion startups, and they’re marketing and selling on Instagram. So these budding entrepreneurs and fashion startups are looking for what’s called small runs or small batch. You can’t go overseas with less than a certain large quantity, so they’re looking for local manufacturers like us who will do 40 or 60 garments. Some customers might come to us, because they do manufacture large quantities, but they need product development and sample making. We help them with their designs and samples. Then they can take those samples to a larger manufacturer. But most of our customers are small-batch.
How does The Collective Thread go beyond teaching women how to sew? My mission is to elevate the status of women who have suffered unspoken atrocities. Some of our women come from war-torn countries. The nonprofit angle is really to reach out to those who need assistance. I found the best way to do that is through economic empowerment. For many of our women, this is the first job they’ve ever had. It’s a community for them. Healing takes place in creating something beautiful, and they find sisterhood in our shop. The fashion and sewing manufacturing world is a vehicle. Although all of us love fashion, it’s really about the women.
How are you connecting with women who take the class? We have been collaborating with other nonprofits that work with immigrants and refugees. When we have classes, we send out flyers to these local nonprofits like International Institute, Oasis International, Welcome Neighbor. We’re one of the only, if not the only, organizations working with immigrants and refugees that is actually doing on-the-job training and providing jobs. Most nonprofits will give a service like English as a second language or help residents get their drivers’ licenses and other services like that. But we’re actually training people that have never sewn to sew and then providing a job for them.
Why move beyond having your own clothing brand? [When we launched our program here,] it was difficult to run the clothing line and manufacturing and marketing and everything. We were approached by Andrea Robertson of Triflare, who said we need manufacturing in St. Louis. That inspired the whole idea of moving beyond having our own clothing line to producing for local fashion brands.
How can more people get involved? We’re always looking for volunteers with skill in sewing to teach. We already have the curriculum and equipment. We also have internships in design, sewing, business, and more. We’re always offering internships. I have two interns right now. We’re hiring. We do some volunteer sewing, but we need someone in the day to oversee manufacturing. So we’re hiring pattern-makers, sewing teachers, floor managers, and supervisors.
