Sunday Shift clothing and accessories are designed and handmade in Durham, North Carolina from sustainable textiles, low-impact dyes, and vintage materials to be kind to the world and fun for you to wear.
Sustainability
At Sunday Shift, we think sustainability and style are equally important. Our understanding of sustainability encompasses three key principles:
- Environmental impact: We choose fibers and fabrics that minimize resource consumption, like hemp and GOTS-certified organic cotton. We hand-dye our fabrics in North Carolina using fiber reactive dyes that have minimal environmental impact.
- Ethical work conditions: We strive to source materials that are made in facilities that provide fair living wages and safe working conditions for their employees.
- Minimizing waste: We design our products so that they produce a minimal amount of textile waste, source vintage and upcycled materials, and recycle what we can't use.
About Sunday Shift
The name "Sunday Shift" comes from the central piece of the collection: a simple, fun dress that invokes the feeling of a perfect Sunday: relaxed enough for lounging with coffee and a newspaper, stylish enough for brunch with friends, comfortable enough for the farmer's market or a museum.
Our garments are handmade and hand-dyed in in Durham, North Carolina. Sunday Shift clothing is made to wear in real life, in all kinds of situations, for a long time.
Courtney Lockemer, Founder and Creative Lead
Sunday Shift was founded by Courtney Lockemer, an artist and designer who lived in Boston and New York City before settling in Durham, North Carolina.
Courtney is a 2015 Launch Fellow at Visual Art Exchange in Raleigh, NC
Our Materials
At Sunday Shift, we make clothing and accessories from a number of sustainable materials. Here's a list of some of them and what makes them awesome.
Hemp
Hemp is one of the most sustainable and versatile fibers out there. Growing hemp requires significantly less pesticides, land, and water than growing cotton. It's strong, durable, and naturally antimicrobial.
We've chosen some wonderful hemp fabrics to use in Sunday Shift clothing. We're particularly fond of hemp/silk blends, a perfect year-round fabric with a soft drape, subtle sheen, and properties that make it cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Linen
We love this crisp Southern classic for summer dresses and tops. Linen is made from flax, and requires fewer pesticides to grow than cotton. It's strength and durability makes for long-lasting garments that get softer and mellower over time.
Organic Cotton
Soft and versatile, organic cotton is an environmentally-friendlier version of conventionally grown cotton: it's grown without the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides, and uses growing methods that use less water and energy than conventionally grown cotton.
Upcycled
We take items that are no longer wanted for their original purpose and give them a new purpose, diverting materials from the waste stream. Many of these items are from our own lives, and we also source fabrics and more from The Scrap Exchange, a creative reuse center in Durham, NC.
Vintage
Most of our buttons, the thread details on our necklaces, and many trims are vintage, which means we're giving items with a history a new, modern life.