Bringing Traditional Patterns into Modern Homes

Sometimes a direct message on Instagram can lead to a business partnership.

Last year, Marissa Freed, president of the former Winnipeg clothing company Freed & Freed International, heard from many people in the company about Indigo Arrows, a booming homewares brand that uses Minimalist traditional designs drawn from Anishinaabe pottery and bone tools. . Freed, the fourth generation to run the family business, was a huge fan.

“I was interested in hearing about them,” says Destiny Seymour, an interior decorator by trade who founded the growing company in 2016. “Even though they had been around for 100 years, I had never heard of them. , so I wanted to see what we could do.”

Their first project was a collaboration on masks, which quickly became a key part of Freed & Freed’s production when the pandemic began. Using one of Seymour’s designs, the face coverings were made at the Freed factory, with all proceeds – over $35,000 – going to the Butterfly Club, an after-school club for Indigenous girls and youth. two-spirited.

But once this project started, the big question arose: what next?

full range of homewares – including table linens, towels, bedding and more again – will be launched.

For Freed, the partnership represents the latest step in diversifying the company’s production, which has traditionally been in the outerwear and apparel industries since brothers David and Morris Freed began manufacturing trousers in knees for Eaton in 1920.

The world of clothing is still the company’s main focus, but in recent years it has taken a modern approach, with the launch of an in-house brand in 2014 in vegan and cruelty-free outerwear, PPE in response to the pandemic – the company is making more than 30 face masks, as well as medical gowns – and soon, home decor.