Lost & Found clothing lovers are often free-spirited, confident and independent women who have a taste for art and travel. That’s what inspires this clothing line and what designer Sylvia Lee must keep in mind daily.

 

“The Lost & Found brand is for that particular customer that follows the trends but suits it to her own individuality,” Lee says. “We don’t do anything crazy-trendy but we take that into account when we design and we reinterpret it so it suits our customer.”

 

Lee started with Spank Clothing, a Vancouver-based clothing store, in 2008 as the fashion designer for their main brand. She developed a relationship with Jana Ignelzi, the owner of Spank, while working at  Flosport as Spank used to carry the FLO line. From there Lee did some contract design work for Ignelzi under her own label called Lost & Found.

 

The Lost & Found brand is “a good collaboration between Jana and I,” Lee says. “Basically the inspiration comes from what Jana felt was missing from her store.” As a collection, it’s a good mix of tops and bottoms. It entails dresses, sweaters, skirts, shirts with prints, jeans, jackets, pants with a great fit and more.

 

The vision for this clothing line was bringing back the old world vibe and reinterpreting it.

 

Lee, born in Vancouver in 1979, completed her fashion degree program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Richmond, B.C. “Our class was the first class to enter the degree program so we were kind of like the lab rats I guess you could say,” she says.

 

Ever since elementary school Lee knew she wanted to do something creative. “I was always into art, painting and I loved colour,” she says. Lee knew she wanted to apply her creativity somewhere so that she could eventually get a job and thought to herself ‘fashions it.’

 

She had her start as an intern at Aritzia, a local clothing store, where she assisted each person within their own department doing the nitty-gritty jobs. This role allowed her to work under Tina Teng, the now design director for Plenty, another clothing store, who taught her a lot of what she’s doing today.

 

After fashion school, Lee took a year off and left for Asia. She ended up living in Korea for 10 months and travelled around South East Asia for two. Throughout her travels she surrounded herself with art from each country.

 

Upon her return, she took a few random contract jobs. She did some pattern drafting jobs for a basketball brand, a fitting role since she grew up as a tom boy. She also did some fabric cutting in a factory but her first real design job was for Flosport’s brand.

 

“I started off as an assistant and then became the designer so I was there for at least three years total,” she says. “From there I got picked up by Spank.”

 

When the line was first getting started Ignelzi was trying to come up with a name that was catchy but also a name that resonated with her customers and her personal style. Spank’s customers are usually kind of quirky, know what they like and don’t really care what other people think, she says.

 

“Jana loves the vintage and I prefer more edgy designs but between the two of us there is a good mixture of both,” she says. “She loves the designs of the old world and so this is kind of like bringing these back and reinterpreting them…it’s the whole vibe of the brand.”

 

“I use a variety of materials. It’s pretty much what grabs my attention in terms of feel, colour and print,” Lee says. “We do a lot of sourcing in Asia so I go over there and always see so much that my eyes get flooded but I just grab what comes to me instinctively.”

 

Besides Ignelzi, who Lee calls her muse, she’s been inspired by John Galliano, the designer for Dior.

 

“I look to all the big name designers to see what they’re doing because a lot of it does eventually trickle down to what’s in our store,” she says. “Also, I love people watching on the street…a lot of my inspiration comes from the random person that walks by me.”

 

In the future, the main goal for Lost & Found is to expand to wholesaling. As Spank grows, the line will have to grow too and it will eventually move into different market segments. “We’d like to go across Canada so that is something I will eventually have to focus on and study more,” she says.

 

 

The best way to purchase the Lost & Found brand is at Spank Clothing stores located on Commercial Drive, West 4^th and on Granville Street or at the Victoria location on Vancouver Island.

 

To learn more about Spank Clothing and Lost & Found visit http://www.spankclothing.ca/.

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