March 18, 2010

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The Ladies of 410 BC

Founded by two college students in Northampton, Mass., and run by a collective of young friends, 410 BC offers hip, handmade silkscreen tees. A lesbian-owned business informed by a craftsperson’s ethos, the company sells clothes you can feel good about buying.

Girlfriends Rachel Goodman-Imhoff and Nicole Giambolvo began 410 BC in 2005 at ages 17 and 18. Rachel started screen-printing shirts in high school and has been perfecting her craft for four years. Her commitment has paid off: 410 BC grew organically as people saw Goodman-Imhoff’s work around Northampton and began to request their own silk-screened tees. “A lot of people saw our designs and random people would ask me to make them a shirt,” she says, and eventually their business grew.

410 BC has flourished over the past two years. The highlight so far, Goodman-Imhoff says, was seeing Tegan Quin of Tegan and Sara wearing one of 410 BC’s shirts at a Boston concert in 2007. Tegan had picked it up at a Northampton show. But Goodman-Imhoff also loves to see everyday folks in Northampton sporting the line. “It’s cool to see other people that I don’t know just wearing a shirt that I made,” she reports.

In addition to its local following, 410 BC takes pride in its unusual approach to business. Goodman-Imhoff describes her style as “very DIY,” an approach she feels lets 410 BC “develop a relationship with customers.” People who buy her shirts “know who they are buying from, and who the products come from, and how it’s made,” Goodman-Imhoff says.

Their personal, hands-on business style is a response to how exploitative the clothing industry can be. Giambolvo points out, “Everything we make is handmade.” Their attention to craft in each item results in higher prices—about $28 a shirt. People do ask about the price, Goodman-Imhoff says, but once she explains that their line is hand-produced, customers are even more enthusiastic about their product. “People were glad to buy when they knew it was being handmade and not outsourced,” she says.

410 BC has a charitable bent, too, Giambolvo adds: “We also come out with a few shirts every season that address a cause, and we donate 15 percent of the profit to a not-for-profit organization.”

As for being in business with her friends and her lover, Goodman-Imhoff reports that it’s all good. “Nicole is really talented,” Goodman-Imhoff says, and her photographs are the inspiration for many of the line’s designs. Giambolvo is equally enthusiastic about Goodman-Imhoff: “I love working with my girlfriend and our friends!” She adds, “We all know how to respect each other’s differences. Most of the time it doesn’t even feel like work, because we’re having a lot of fun.”

Their close relationships and collaborative approach to design lets 410 BC’s staff find a unique outlet for their artistic abilities. Jillian Kron, 19, confesses that she’s “not very good when it comes to fashion.” Her artistic background is in cartooning and sculpture, and she relies on her fellow workers to help her translate her vision into T-shirts. Other than that, Kron says, creating T-shirts is not so different from cartooning or sculpting, and she’s just as proud to see the finished product on display: “It’s like when you get to see your art in a gallery, or when you’re in a competition or a magazine.”

Right now, 410 BC’s wearable art is available in only two stores, Unite in Northampton and Mission Indy Mart in San Francisco. The entire line is available on their site, 410bc.com. Check it out for a shirt you can feel good about.

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