Anyes de Laat
Sheepskin for All Reasons and Seasons
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Anyes de Laat traces her career back to her talented Dutch mother who instilled her 13-year-old daughter with a love for sewing. If you visit Anyes’s website you’ll learn that the business started 25 years ago when she made a pair of sheepskin slippers for her little girl, and that the business developed very naturally when people started asking for a pair of the well-made slippers for themselves. But making sheepskin items is not quite the same as sewing a frock or two, so just how did this talented seamstress end up creating all things sheepskin and woolknit related?
Anyes’s early career dreams originally took her on a photographic path. Quebec winters are cold, and travelling around her native province in a Volkswagen Beetle to get her photos was a feat of endurance. When her Beetle’s engine refused to give adequate heat she decided the answer was a fur coat. Fur coats and student budgets don’t usually go together so Anyes found a very busy furrier who might want to trade.
The first question was, “Do you sew?” Once that was established the trade was set. “Well,” the furrier said, “I’ll teach you what I know, you can help me and then you can have the fur coat.”
“I also learned about the soothing qualities of wool while working with the furrier. I’m really grateful for what I learned from her,” adds Anyes.
With her warm coat by her side, Anyes completed her photography studies at the Montreal Academy of Arts. The Quebec winters didn’t get any easier so she packed up and set out for British Columbia and a photography career. Fate pointed her in another direction when her car was broken into and, you guessed it, all the photo equipment was stolen. Waitressing, buying more equipment, getting married and having her first daughter put photography in the darkroom.
Luckily one item that wasn’t stolen was a small sheepskin Anyes had from the Quebec furrier. She had plans to make it into a vest but it was too small and languished in a box until mother-love necessitated its retrieval. One of her eldest daughter’s first winter gifts was a snowsuit without feet. Anyes pulled out her sheepskin and created her first pair of sheepskin booties.
Word got around and friends and family asked if Anyes could make booties for their children as well. Soon big folks realized that they would also like to have cozy feet. The orders multiplied and Soul Comfort began warming up the island. The marriage didn’t survive, but the business thrived and provided support for Anyes and her children.
“I’ve received a lot of feedback over the years from the various trade shows I’ve attended. One of the biggest surprises is the misunderstanding is that sheepskins can’t be washed. Everything but our wool duvets can go into the washing machine.”
Two years ago Anyes opened a store in Victoria, B.C. for continuous customer feed-back. Many of her current items have grown out of those conversations. “For instance,” says Anyes, “one day a woman asked me if I could make an item so that her mother would be more comfortable. The medical line grew out of that and similar requests.”
Her dedication to the healing properties of sheepskin is beginning to show some major results. A medical wholesale company is picking up the medical line of products for promotion throughout Canada. More recognition has come with a front-page mention in the Ontario medical newsletter, Homecare.
“I’m quick to point out to people how loving and nurturing wool is. I have a soft spot for our medical line because a simple product can go a long way in providing comfort. Wool prevents many medical situations because it wicks moisture away from the body. Bacteria needs moisture to grow so just keeping a patient dry goes a long way to preventing bedsores. In fact wool can absorb 30 to 40 percent of its own weight in moisture.”
We’re all getting much more proactive about our health. Anyes sees it every day. “There is a big shift toward self-help and preventative medicine. People are becoming much more aware and doing their own research into health issues.”
It is clear that Soul Comfort is about to make the leap from cottage industry to major company. That was all part of the plan. Anyes’s children are grown and she can now devote much more time to Soul Comfort, but a few changes will be in order. For one thing, Anyes is looking for an office manager so that she isn’t doing paperwork on her one day off. For another, it looks like more seamstresses will be added to the payroll to keep up with the growing popularity of her products.
This tri-lingual (English, French and Dutch) wunderkind will not be sitting on her sheepskin. Plans include introducing yet another line to Soul Comfort’s wares. New Zealand possum products are in the fall line-up The animals are causing havoc in New Zealand and need to be culled before the country is eaten up. The warm and luxurious fur products will be a limited run so get your orders in early.
In between all of this Anyes is planning a book that will urge women to trust themselves. She did, and it’s working out well for her. |
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