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PHILADELPHIA DESIGNER AND ENTREPRENEUR

SARAH VAN AKEN TO DEBUT SA VA,

A COMPREHENSIVE FASHION DESTINATION IN CENTER CITY

PHILADELPHIA, PA – This September, pioneering fashion entrepreneur Sarah Van Aken will debut SA VA (1700 Sansom Street, 215-587-0004), her Center City flagship store, design studio and adjacent garment center.  The store will feature Van Aken’s own line of women’s ready-to-wear apparel, also named SA VA; her own, custom-designed jewelry; and local and fair trade accessories including handbags, scarves, hats, gloves and sweaters.

Van Aken aims to be the first brand to combine:  high fashion at mid-range prices;  a trail-blazing interactive Web site, where visitors can shop, participate in the design process and online fashion community or find volunteer opportunities to help local women and children;  and social sustainability of her garments, through local production and community outreach.  SA VA will set a new standard for retailers, crafting a lifestyle brand that includes communication between producer and consumer while re-envisioning fashion as a socially conscious industry.

Van Aken’s line will highlight warm, strong colors that evoke all that inspires the SA VA woman.  “Sensual, street smart, artistic, open minded, warm hearted, self-made and one part activist: our clientele is all of these things,” says Van Aken.  “They are women who reinvent themselves every day, and their fashion choices are an extension of who they are.”

SA VA takes inspiration from the arts, distant cultures, urban living, politics and different time periods, as well as from their customers.

“I love breaking the rules!” adds Van Aken.  “We try to encourage a sense of fun and experimentation in our design, to show how our clothing can be mixed and matched in different styles.  We use color boldly, in non-traditional formats and combinations, to enhance design and push the envelope.”

Shopping at SA VA will be by “event,” encouraging people to shop for their clothes depending on their needs:  “Workday,” “Night Out,” “First Date,” “Saturday” or “Dress Up.”  “Ca Va” will be a mini-collection by Van Aken with a slightly bohemian, edgier style.  Sizes range from 2 to 16, and price will range from $40 for a shirt to $350 for a hand-printed, hand-sewn coat or dress.

“A handful of other fashion companies have begun working to integrate social responsibility into their business plans,” says Van Aken, “but SA VA will truly be the first company in America to include such crucial steps as reducing our carbon footprint by producing locally, using fair-trade and organic materials, and creating fair-wage jobs in our immediate community, with a high-fashion line of effortlessly stylish women’s apparel.”

“At least 75% of our garments will be created and crafted here at SA VA,” adds Van Aken, who hand-selects any merchandise that is not designed in-house.  “Anything we don’t make will be fair-trade, organic, recycled, salvaged or natural, and labeled as such.  Our guests will be able to follow the origin of each piece in the store, and they can feel good about purchasing attractive items that are fairly and conscientiously made and sold.”

An important component in the conversation between consumer and producer at SA VA is Van Aken’s innovative interactive social platform.   To create an ongoing dialogue, Van Aken has established a multitude of outlets for her guests to reach her, including a blog following the creation and development of SA VA, a dedicated Twitter account for fashion questions and updates, a “Get Fashion Help Fast” blog for question-and-answer sessions with SA VA designers, flat-screen TVs throughout the retail boutique showing garments in production in the design studio and garment center, and her signature “Shop by Event” format for both the retail boutique and Web site.  Interested clientele can visit www.savafashion.com for links to all of the interactive components of SA VA.

“It’s important to me that my clients feel they can influence the creation of our garments,” says Van Aken.  “At SA VA, we encourage our patrons to bring in, e-mail or tweet photos of their fashion inspirations, so that we can work collaboratively to craft a piece of clothing that is at once uniquely ours and also influenced by their style, likes and dislikes.  If we incorporate that into a piece, our guest can track the creation and production of their ‘signature item’ through the design studio, garment center and eventually into the retail boutique, where we may even name the piece after the guest who inspired it.”

Van Aken is also passionate about sustainable production throughout her enterprise.  No detail is too small to be overlooked; the retail boutique will feature 100% recycled and recyclable hangers, natural fiber packaging and custom-made, reusable shopping bags.  Furniture for the garment center, design studio and even Van Aken’s own office was salvaged from vacant offices or otherwise repurposed.

In keeping with this model, Van Aken also practices what she calls “social sustainability.”  SA VA will create 22 new jobs in Philadelphia within two years, all of them positions that are fairly compensated.  In addition, Van Aken and her team are active participants in their community, regularly volunteering with such groups as the People’s Emergency Center (PEC) through food drives and fundraising, teaching workshops and even creating and selling special SA VA garments with a percentage of their proceeds donated to PEC.  In addition, Van Aken has partnered with the Career Wardrobe; guests who bring in a Career Wardrobe receipt will get a 10% discount on any regularly priced item in the boutique.

“SA VA offers incentives for staff at all levels to volunteer their time with worthwhile causes,” says Van Aken, who herself often spends hours working as a volunteer.  “Our focus is on giving what we can, whether through a few hours of our time or donations of money or gently worn SA VA garments.  We’ll even post regular updates online for our guests, to alert them to local volunteer opportunities.”

Sarah Van Aken comes from a tradition of clothing design; her mother and grandmother used to hand-craft all the family’s clothing when she was young and have worked with her to envision SA VA.  After graduating with a B.A. in Fine Art from the University of Delaware, she worked in garment production at an apparel wholesaler in New York City.  Her first foray into owning her own business came in 2005, when she launched Van Aken Custom, a line of meticulously measured and tailored men’s dress shirts based in Philadelphia.  Since then, she has launched Van Aken Signature, a line of custom-designed uniforms for the hospitality industry, as well as SA VA, her signature line of effortlessly stylish, deeply personal women’s high fashion garments at affordable prices.

SA VA’s garment center is already producing clothing for the store’s grand opening scheduled for August 29th; the Web store will be up and running one month after the opening.  For more information about Sarah Van Aken, SA VA, her other lines or the opening of SA VA, please visit http://savafashion.com.