We don’t always think about what goes into the making of our clothing and accessories. But we do think “I love this!” or “It’s so comfortable.” Both things, along with travel, agritourism, and artisans come together beautifully in Columbus, in this farm to fashion article by Betsa Marsh.

A ballerina models a Malvar-Stewart gown and glass headpiece at a Columbus fashion show. Photo by Will Shively.

Following the curly path from farm to fashion in Columbus

Really, can couture be too haute? I’m daring to mix Dior with Chanel, and let the fashion houses fall where they may.

Wrist-deep into a bag of Dior, I’m luxuriating in snowy fleece in the studio of fashion designer Celeste Malvar-Stewart in Columbus, Ohio. She was lucky enough to be at Ohio’s Chaotic Farm when two lambs were born, and was given naming honors. Malvar-Stewart chose two couture legends, Christian Dior and Coco Chanel. Now it’s my honor to cuddle their first shearing, called “hogget” wool, as I create my scarf at Malvar-Stewart’s Hangar 391 workshop. “This,” she says of the curly scoops, “is the best quality wool that a sheep will ever have in its lifetime.”

I’m going for a Mondrian pattern of chestnut wool from Boomer the alpaca in geometric blocks against Chanel gray and Dior white. It’s all balanced by acres of Gandalf’s dreamy, creamy coat, the curlier the better.

Malvar-Stewart is on first-name basis with every fleecy donor, sheep and alpaca on farms across Ohio. After she nuno-felts my scarf, scrubbing and laminating the raw fleece deep into the fine silk base, its provenance tag will remind me of each lamb.

Malvar-Stewart helps her Farm to Fashion students select wool for their scarves at her Hangar 391 studio.

Since moving to Columbus from New York in 2012, Malvar-Stewart has been collaborating with Ohio artisans, from laser artists to sheep farmers. There’s a heady mix of visionaries in the Ohio capital: Columbus, headquarters for Express, Victoria’s Secret, and Abercrombie & Fitch, is third in American fashion jobs behind New York and Los Angeles.

From comfy scarves to haute couture gowns, Malvar-Stewart envisions the entire sweep of what fiber can be. One moment she’s massaging clouds of virgin fleece into a gossamer wedding gown, the next deconstructing jeans and felting the spun threads into a men’s funky kilt.

No design is un-dreamable at the Malvar=Stewart label, and nothing goes to waste. She forages walnuts, madder and tansy for natural dyes, and recycles even stray threads and paper pattern scraps.

Malvar-Stewart with her plants for dyeing. She gathers madder to create red, Black-eyed Susan for purple and coreopsis for gold.

Malvar-Stewart syncs in sustainability with shepherdess Rachel Najjar at Fairie Haven Farm in Orient, a short drive south. In their Farm to Fashion day tour, travelers head to Fairie Haven to meet the sheep and relax over a farmstead meal.

Najjar, with a flock of sheep and a flock of five children, rounds everyone up with aplomb. An herbalist and beekeeper, she home schools the children, and in her spare time raises and registers Lincoln Longwool sheep to help conserve the endangered heritage breed.

Celeste Malvar-Stewart and Rachel Najjar huddle over their next fleecy transaction at Fairie Haven Farm.

Today, after meeting Gandalf, Najjar’s “gentle giant,” and the rest of the flock, it’s inside for homemade chicken noodle soup, a round of rustic bread and warm apple crumble. “I asked my husband if I should make cream for the crumble. He just looked at me,” said Najjar, miming “Duh…” Cream it is.

Rachel Najjar, shepherdess, beekeeper, and herbalist, makes a farmstead lunch of chicken noodle soup, fresh bread, and apple crisp for Farm to Fashion visitors to Fairie Haven Farm.

Stuffed, it’s back to Malvar-Stewart’s studio to work on those scarves. Along the way, she reflects on her Filipino heritage, San Francisco childhood, and inventive path to an eco-brand in Columbus’s retro-chic German Village. From her bachelor’s applied arts degree from Regent’s University London to her master’s in textiles from Eastern Michigan University, each step has been impelled by her Catholic faith.

“Fashion can be so superficial, but you realize there can be great depth if you consider your mission,” she says of her “conscientious commerce. Do you know how you feel when a piece of art is so beautiful it’s painful? I see an Alexander McQueen gown and it hurts my heart. That means we’re recognizing the beauty in God’s work. I don’t believe that beauty comes out of just us, there has to be a higher power.”

Malvar-Stewart prays before starting each piece, and especially before creating a wedding gown. “It’s like a meditation. I’ve very intentional about praying, especially over the bodice, closest to the heart. That energy is infused into the garment.”

Guided by her patron saint, St. Francis of Assisi, she looks to the traits and strengths of each sheep. “Rachel [Najjar] calls Gandalf her ‘gentle giant,’ so I use him in wedding gowns.”

Whatever the style, “I want to create a piece that makes people feel beautiful and feel good enough about themselves so they can be kind to others.”

Bundling up in my new Malvar=Stewart scarf, I will be bolstered by the gentle strength of Gandalf and buoyed by the youthful bounce of Dior and Chanel. Does anything else in my closet bring such joy?

Fashion designer Celeste Malvar-Stewart bundles up in her signature nuno-felted scarf, laminated from wool sheared from the Lincoln Longwool flock behind her at Fairie Haven Farm in Orient, Ohio.

WHEN YOU GO TO EXPERIENCE FARM TO FASHION

Malvar=Stewart offers a range of Columbus Farm to Fashion tours by appointment, starting from $145 per person for a half-day tour. Some tours include a night at Hotel Leveque, a 1927 Art Deco treasure that has been transformed into a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel.

Learn more about Columbus on their handy website, Experience Columbus.

— Story and photos, except where noted, by Betsa Marsh

Hungry for more? Explore what else Ohio has to offer, like Hot Springs with its unique history and beer. And read what’s weird, wonderful, and obscure in Cincinnati. Or, enjoy more of Betsa’s writing like this article about the Roman feast experience in Spain!

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