Interview: Heatherjean MacNeil On Creating Ethical Proxy Apparel

By Stacey Gualandi

Twitter: @Proxy_Apparel
Facebook: proxyapparel

Heatherjean MacNeil says she’s on a fashion mission.   This 30-year-old former pre-med student could have started with a simple idea.  But no.   She created Proxy Apparel, an ethical clothing line whose cause is to employ and empower women throughout the world thus the name Proxy.  In Spanish it means one who is empowered!

“I always envisioned that I would either start a non-profit or run a business that focused on women.” Heatherjean

Models in Proxy Apparel

While Heatherjean is new to the fashion scene, she sees a sweatshop-free, fair trade world in her future.   Her Boston-based accessories and apparel line launched online last year, and she is already making a name for herself among the social entrepreneur set.

Proxy partners with existing women-owned “cooperatives” in developing  countries to help create pieces in the collection.  Visitors at last month’s SXSW/Style X got a sneak peek at her Spring “Peacock” Collection.

The entire line will be on display at Proxy’s  Earth Day Gala and Ethical Fashion Show April 21st in Boston.

Heatherjean sums it up simply: “Wear the change you seek in the world”!  I wanted to find out what this “change” was all about and caught up with her right after Proxy’s successful debut in Austin, Texas… 

Interview: Sally Dominguez On Her Award-Winning Rainwater Harvesting Tank

Sally Dominguez is an architect, a designer, and an inventor of products  she thinks will  help make the world more eco-friendly.    Now living in Northern California, she started out designing urban housing in Australia, then launched a line of children’s furniture including the multi-award- winning NEST Highchair.  

When she couldn’t find a rainwater tank to fit under her patio during a drought, she came up with the Rainwater HOG, a slim and portable container that holds 51 gallons.    It can be used for irrigation, emergency drinking water, and greywater recycling.  Her newest invention is the HOGzilla that she’s working on with her husband, Simon.  It will hold 450 gallons.

As well as writing on sustainability and cars, she is a judge on “The New Inventors,” an Australian television show.

I was fascinated by this new HOG tank and in Sally’s tenacity to create one.  I wanted to know more so I asked Sally: