Fleece as a Fashion Statement
by Michele Tipman Stott
If you want to spend time in Canmore, prepare to get fleeced. No, we don’t want to dictate your fortune, just your fashion.
It has stood the test of time. It is for comfort dressing what mashed potatoes and gravy are to comfort food. It comes in every colour imaginable. From plain to patterned, it’s ultimately in style. Whether you’re infant or senior, if you live in Canmore you have at least three hanging in your closet.
Fleece is the perfect fit. In fact, it fits every shape, size and figure type. It’s washer to dryer to closet – which is a good thing since few Canmorites are fond of their irons. It's all-season wear, snuggly in winter under a coat, warm on cool fall and spring days and light to carry in your pack on a summer hike. In some offices it has actually replaced suit jackets.
Fleece pants, jackets, pullovers, hats, mitts, scarves — you name it, we own it. There is even a fleece diaper cover on the market to bring your infants into high mountain fashion.
Peter Ambler of Ambler Mountain Works Ltd. has turned a fascination for fleece into a headwear enterprise, based out of an orange Quonset hut not far from downtown Canmore. “Fleece is cozy, warm, easy to take care of and affordable,” says Ambler, who sells, produces, designs and distributes fleece and knit hats throughout Canada and the U.S.
The trend this year is toward novelty fleeces. The pile of the fleece is raised and three-dimensional patterns are woven into the fabric to create a relief where a flower or other image appears to pop out of the fabric. Also hot, according to Ambler, are basic fleeces with soft nylon shells that aid water resistance and decrease wear.
Fleece 101
Fleece started out as an expensive technical fabric that was the choice of outdoorsy types looking for the best. Polarfleece, a synthetic polyester fabric, was Malden Mills’ answer to bringing inexpensive, popular fashion-forward fabric to the general public.
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Canmore resident Peter Ambler has built a successful hat business on the undying popularity of fleece products.
A Cool Fleece Fact
You know those two-litre pop bottles you take by the bag and boxful to the local recycle depot? Well, you may be wearing them. It takes about 25 recycled pop bottles to make a fleece jacket (and just five to make an extra-large t-shirt, fill a ski jacket or carpet a square foot of your living room). The bottles are ground into flakes, washed and dried. The flakes are then melted and forced into long strings through spinnerets. The fibers are drawn, stretched, crimped, cut and baled. Once baled, it is sent to a mill where it is spun into yarn to be used on its own or combined with another material to make a polyester blend.
Some tips for choosing your first fleece:
Malden Mills produces fleece in weights of 100, 200 and 300, with 300 being the heaviest. Keep in mind what temperature conditions you are dressing for and how you intend to layer your clothing when deciding how heavy to go. Don’t buy cheap, you get what you pay for when it comes to fleece. A decent fleece will wear well, dries quickly and helps wick moisture away from your skin. It washes easily and shouldn’t “pill” for years. Look for optional extras on your fleece like zippers, loops for your gloves and storage pockets for your hands and Swiss army knife (another local must-have), as well as draw cords to control your body temperature. Most importantly, make sure your fleece fits well and feels good – that’s what wearing it is all about!
Michele Tipman Stott is a Canmore-based freelance writer whose wardrobe includes an assortment of cuddly fleece, and whose two cuddly children have also been known to venture forth similarly attired.
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