It's no secret that the U.S. manufacturing industry is far from what it used to be, and that the price of cheap clothing comes at a horrible human cost. But despite efforts to bring manufacturing back to America, foreign imports still dominate the U.S. apparel market. Between February 2013 and February 2014, the U.S. exported $5.8 billion worth of apparel and imported $80 billion, according to the Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel.

But why is that, really? Your initial response might be, "Duh, it's cheaper to make things in poorer countries." However, companies' reasons for offshoring production are more varied and complicated than that. "The general assumption is that if you want a lower price you have to go overseas and if you want quality, you stay in the U.S. and that's not entirely true," says Atnyel Guedj, who formerly managed production lines for luxury brands that manufactured in China and elsewhere in Asia. He now has a sustainable fashion brand in North Carolina called Constant Simplicity. "There are certain types of garments that you can do at a very good price in the U.S. and very good quality, and certain garments that are terrible quality when it's made in the USA."

Poor working conditions don't exist only in third world countries. Despite his long career overseeing manufacturing in Asia, Guedj says he's only been offered the use of sweatshop labor in Los Angeles. "It was a big factory with very big brands, and they said, 'Do you want clean production or do you want dirty production?' I was shocked."

It's true that factory labor is cheaper at scale in Asia, even as minimum wages climb in popular areas like China, Malaysia and Vietnam. But the problem with U.S. manufacturing isn't about wages as much as it is about lack of skilled labor.

"Over time, talent became less easy to find," says Orzeck, who started intimates label Hanky Panky with designer Gale Epstein in 1977 when New York City's Garment District was booming. In the '80s and '90s, as more brands moved production overseas and Garment District facilities shrank, "it became so much more of a challenge to find people who really knew how to cut properly and deal with stretch fabrics," she recalls. So the women had to train its workforce. "One of the things that sets Hanky Panky apart is that my co-founder is not only a brilliant designer, but she knows how to sew. She was the one who was able to work closely with the sewing contractors." The company now has an entire warehouse of cutters in Queens and 100 percent of the production is still done in the U.S.

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Acknowledging that there is more talent overseas for certain types of production, Detroit-based Shinola brought in skilled experts from the company's Swiss partner to train a local team on making watches. When it came to dials specifically, Shinola brought in an expert from Taiwan, which helped the company open a dial manufacturing facility in Detroit. But despite being a poster child for the U.S. manufacturing movement, not all of Shinola's products are made entirely in the U.S. "There are so many different definitions that we’ve stayed away from trying to say," says Shinola CEO Steve Bock, declining to say what percentage of its manufacturing is done Stateside. "It also changes all the time. The more we can bring back and do here, the more we'll do."

Finding and training skilled labor is one thing, but finding the right machinery is another. "Factories [in New York] are very myopic — they sew what they sew and they don't look to next week or next month or next year," says Julie Hutton, who runs a personal label as well as a private brand sourcing company for women's and men's apparel in New York and works regularly with five factories in the Garment District. "They don’t see the cycle I see and it's extremely difficult to get a factory to do anything other than what they’ve always been doing." Hutton says two machines in particular have been near impossible to find: a double-fold machine used for polo shirts and a flat fell machine, often used for athletic apparel seams. "China produces a fabulous polo shirt and it's extremely difficult if not impossible to produce here," she says.

Guedj agreed that few are willing to invest in new machines; a single weaving machine can cost anywhere between $5 million and $10 million. "No one invests serious money here in the U.S. in factories," he said. "We found an amazing cutting factory which works with Patagonia and they have solar panels and are one of the best in L.A. and I went there and they were so proud of their sophisticated machinery — but in reality they were 15, 20-year-old machines." Guedj says the U.S. industry can't compete on this point with China, where the government has poured money into making its manufacturing industry more competitive.

So what's an American-made brand to do in this climate? A key to success for both Hanky Panky and Shinola has been to keep the scale relatively small in order to manage quality and keep their businesses as lean as possible.

"Gale and I are interested in running a healthy, well-regarded business — not the biggest company on the planet," says Orzeck. "We could buy other companies, we could get a lot bigger. But we are happy to be here. We are running the show and we want to have a comfortable company that runs as team."

Shinola, which now employs 300 people in Detroit, echoes that sentiment. "We're governed not by a certain financial set of criteria; what we are governed by is producing great quality products," says Bock. "So as long as our products meet our standard of quality, then we’ll put them out onto the market. If not, we won’t do it."

Staying small is simple enough — that is, until your product blows up in popularity overnight, as it did for Hanky Panky when an above-the-fold profile appeared in the Wall Street Journal. "It was a bit of nightmare because we were inundated with requests for stores that we were not doing business with," says Orzeck. "It was easier to start in 1977 than to deal with the unexpected surge in 2004. It could have killed us and I'm really proud that it didn't." There were growing pains, but now the company can handle producing "many millions" of its signature thong every year.

"If a blogger picks up one of our garments and writes about it and and all of a sudden it explodes, we have to have a two week turnaround on the product," says Hutton. "Offshore manufacturing is impossible for that kind of turnaround because you have to manufacture it there and then ship it over by air, which is super expensive." Being local and nimble can pay off.

While manufacturing locally might be the most efficient method for these brands now, does there inevitably come a point when a brand gets so big it must begin manufacturing overseas? Hutton says it depends on how easy the brand's product is to duplicate. "If you’re working consistently in somewhat basic fabrics like silk, linen, cotton canvas or whatever and your fabrications are not changing constantly and you can get up to 600 pieces — then it would make sense to go offshore," she says. "But you still have the timing issue." A product order usually takes four weeks for production and a month to ship even before going through customs. If the fabrics have to be imported or the designs are constantly changing season to season, Hutton says it doesn't make sense to go overseas.

Of course, if a company is going to move its operations overseas, there are responsible ways to do it. Hutton gave women's contemporary label Lafayette 148 as an example of brand with the best of both worlds. The company built its own factory in Shantou, China, after 9/11. The vertically integrated supply chain makes it possible for the brand to even accommodate special orders. "The Chinese are unique because what they did is not just build good factories, they built good supply chains," says Guedj. "Here [in the U.S.] you don't have the entire supply chain together anymore, it doesn’t exist."

So what then, if anything, can the U.S. do to compete in the global manufacturing landscape? The solution might lie in advanced technology, such as 3D printing, depending on if and when that becomes commercially viable. "That's the only way to essentially take the manual labor out of the equation," says Guedj, though he believes some of America's biggest apparel importers will thwart technological innovation on the homefront. "It’s awfully convenient for the bigger brands to make the production more complex, because it reduces the chance of future competition," he says. "Gap will have a good year and J.Crew will have terrible year and they’ll rebound and restructure. It goes up and down all the time, that's the name of the game. But the real risk [for those established brands] is of someone new coming into the market and stealing the marketshare from [them]."

Under present circumstances, it's unlikely that a brand that manufactures entirely in the States could compete with the scale and cost efficiency of a big gun like Gap or Ralph Lauren. But if the goal is to slowly build a company around a high-quality product created by skilled, protected workers, a brand can make it in America after all.

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Wedding planner Joyce Scardina Becker has a simple system for compiling wedding guest lists. Divide people into three categories: yes, maybe and no.

"'Yes' includes parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, plus friends you see often," said Becker, president of Events of Distinction in California. "'Maybe' means relatives you see occasionally, neighbors and co-workers. 'No' includes distant relatives and old friends you rarely see."

Your budget and venue will dictate whether you get beyond the yeses or maybes, she said.

Some dos and don'ts:

Do

Invite true friends, not people you feel obligated to invite.

Compile the guest list together. "This is a reflection of you as a couple," said Elaine Swann, an etiquette coach based in San Diego.

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Discuss the list with both sets of parents if they're paying for the wedding. "If you're paying for your wedding, you have complete control of your list," Swann said.

Start early to allow for changes.

Overinvite. Wedding venues suggest you invite 10 percent more guests than you can accommodate to allow for no's.

"We invited 240 and 200 came," said Melinda Parrish of Alexandria, Va., who married in 2014. "The 40 [who declined] included some far-flung relatives."

Allow single guests 18 or older to bring a date.

Say "adults only" on the invitation if you do not want children at your wedding.

If your partner has a large family, accept his larger list. "You're marrying a family, not just one person," Swann said.

Handle each guest list faux pas individually. If you can, ask a close relative to handle the calls. "Even though ours was adults only, a few people replied that they would bring their kids," Parrish said. "My mom handled it."

Be forthright with those you haven't invited, notes TheKnot.com wedding website. If someone you did not invite says, "I can't wait to come to your wedding," reply with, "We'd love to invite everyone, but, with our venue and budget, we cannot."

Apply the same rules for second weddings. "It gets easier," said Simone Vega, a New York wedding planner. "You're older. You're not as likely to make decisions out of guilt."

Don't

Create A and B lists. "Thanks to social media, the B people will quickly learn they received their invitations much later than other people did," Swann said.

Equate your guest list with a gift solicitation list by including people you know won't come. "That's gauche," Swann said.

Refuse to invite a parent's new partner because you don't like him or her.

Invite people to the wedding but not the reception. "Imagine being the guest in the parking lot who realizes everyone else is headed to the party, but you're not invited," Swann said.

Send online invitations.

Assume a guest is a "yes" or "no." "Be prepared for them to come, no matter the circumstances," Parrish said.

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In Judaism, we have customs that encourage us to remember pain and adversity in moments of joy. At a wedding, for example, we break a glass the moment before we joyously shout "mazel tov" to the bride and groom. The breaking of the glass symbolizes the fragility of life and the tragic nature of humanity. Even at the joyous occasion of a marriage, Judaism teaches us we still much acknowledge pain.

Lately, this world reminds me of the broken glass. The senseless violence in Charleston has left many of us paralyzed by the profound sadness coexisting alongside all the good in the world. How can we prepare our children to overcome adversity in their lives when the tragedies around the country leave us brokenhearted and powerless?

Somehow my mother did it, and she did it under the most crippling of circumstances. At 28, just six months after giving birth to my younger brother, she buried her husband, my father. Her world crashed down in the very moments she was growing her family.

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My mother faced unimaginable pain, but amidst the devastation and pain in her life, she taught me the meaning of mazel. The world literally means "a drop from above." But as Rabbi Aron Moss explains, "There is another meaning of the word mazel." He explains, "Mazel is the term used in Jewish mysticism to describe the root of the soul. The mystics say that only a ray of our soul actually inhabits our body. The main part of the soul, our mazel, remains above, shining down on us from a distance."

When my biological father died, my mother had two choices -- allow the broken glass surrounding her life to destroy her, or to look into the glass's reflection and allow its brokenness to guide her upward. My mother chose to look up. It's not that the pain disappeared, but she trusted in the part of her soul shining down from above. My mom remarried, bringing an incredible man I am blessed to also call my father, into our lives. We moved forward just like the celebration that follows the broken glass on a wedding day. We never forgot about the pain and always honored the memory of my biological father, but we lived life looking upward, focused on the tov, the Hebrew word for "good."

Seeing the tov doesn't mean we forget about the pain. Feeling happiness, moving forward, doesn't make the broken glass any less sharp. We all still have a duty to repair the brokenness the surrounds us. And by acknowledging the pain, even in times of joy, we remind ourselves that life exists in a delicate balance. Just as we break a glass in remembrance at a wedding, our ability to feel pain even in times of joy propels us forward in our efforts to improve our communities.

In weeks such as these, when the news cycle paints a picture of tragedy and pain, perhaps we should look for the mazel. The mazel won't lessen the hurt and it won't fix the brokenness. But just maybe, it can allow us to also see the tov.

May we all see the tov around us, gain strength from our mazel and work together to repair the brokenness in our world.

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I am a male grad student who is technically engaged to a female grad student. She has numerous positive qualities, but she is repulsed by sex. She is very sensitive about her repulsion and becomes distraught when I broach the subject. She says that even the thought of doing anything sexual with me elicits a panic attack. She also insists that she is "broken" because, in the hopes of preventing me from leaving her, she forced herself to go further than she felt comfortable. We are both virgins, and the furthest that we ever went sexually was cunnilingus. She has never seen me completely naked or expressed any interest in making love to me. When she revealed that any form of sexual affection prompted panic attacks and psychological distress, I decided to call off our engagement. She proceeded to threaten to kill herself and blame me for her aversion to sex. I agreed to continue the relationship but insisted that we postpone marriage. She refuses to go to couples counseling. I love her and enjoy her companionship, but my sexual self-esteem is devastated. I feel rejected and bitter, and I am still with her mainly because of guilt. Although she denies that this contributes to the situation, she also holds strong religious convictions. She claims that she always had a weak libido and that bodily fluids (especially semen) disgust her. Finally, despite her use of oral contraceptives, she fears pregnancy. She also disapproves of my family and friends, my interest in science, my distrust of religion, and my use of antidepressants. My questions: (1) If I did cause or contribute to her sexual aversion, do I have a lifelong obligation to remain with her? (2) Barring cheating, the impetus for her decision to break up with a previous boyfriend, what other options do I have? (3) Could her sexual aversion ever dissipate? (4) Could her sexual aversion stem from asexuality?

Gradually Escalating Threats Obligate Unending Togetherness

1. You are not obligated to stay with this unpleasant woman for the next fifty years just because you made the mistake of proposing to her. And even if she started fucking you, GETOUT, do you really want to be with her?

2. Why bar cheating? If taking herself hostage is so intimidating that it prevents you from breaking up with her (threatening to kill herself equals taking herself hostage), then go ahead and cheat on her, or pretend to cheat on her, and let her break up with you.

3. Her sexual aversion may dissipate over time. Or it may not. But someone who doesn't want to fuck someone — and she clearly doesn't want to fuck you — rarely starts wanting to fuck that someone down the road. So she may get over her sexual aversion in time, but she'll probably be fucking someone else when she does ... even if she's married to you.

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4. Could be that, sure. But unless you're willing to live a sexless life with a manipulative spouse who disapproves of your family, friends, meds, etc., the root cause of her sexual aversion is irrelevant.

I am getting married to my partner next month. I'm super pumped. Her family is awesome and supportive. I've had a long back and forth with my family about the wedding — including inviting them and saying how much it would mean to me if they would come. I'm trying to be the bigger person, even though they have never been supportive of me as a queer person. I suspect some of them are not coming, as I got a pretty intense email from my sister-in-law about how my family can't support my engagement because blah blah Catholic blah. Yesterday was the RSVP due date, and none of them have responded. So it is now to the point where I'm going to have to call and outright ask if they're coming and potentially absorb all their rejection personally. Here's the kicker: I found out through Facebook that my brother, who I used to think was my ally (he said that he and his GF were going to try to make it to my wedding), is getting married seven days after we are! And he forgot to invite me?! So with this knowledge, what am I supposed to say when I call asking for RSVPs?

Please Please Please Help

You are not going to absorb your shitty family's rejection personally, PPPH, because you are not going to call each and every shitty member of your shitty family to personally ask each individual shit if they're coming to your wedding. The shits aren't coming — adjust your seating charts accordingly. And you know what? You don't want these shits at your wedding. You don't want to see your shitty sister-in-law's sour face when you look out at your guests. You don't want to see your shitty brother's face — the shit throws you noncommittal shitty scraps and then in a shit move fails to invite you to his own wedding — when you cut the cake. You want people at your wedding who love and support you, who love and support your relationship — and your shitty family has made it abundantly clear that they are incapable of loving and supporting you.

It's worse than that: Your shitty family has made it clear that they will seize any opportunity to wound you. So stop creating those opportunities. Don't send any more invitations, don't make any more phone calls, unfollow the fuckers on Facebook. Devote a week to grieving your loss — this kind of rejection is painful — and then resolve to focus on your wife-to-be, your education, your friends, and your career. Focus on the life you and your fiancée are embarking on together. She's your family now.

My boyfriend and I have been together almost two months. Lately, he doesn't seem that interested in investing in our relationship, but when I talk to him, he says the opposite. We are a bit long-distance (he lives an hour away). Two weeks ago, he went home to visit his parents. I was going to see him when he got back, but he said he wasn't feeling well. Then last week, he went to his best friend's wedding. Now he tells me he's got to go back home this weekend to get his laptop. Through all this, his texting responses have gone down to where I am lucky to get a reply. If we are on the phone and the call drops, he doesn't try to call me back, and he never answers when I call him back. I'm just trying to keep the lines of communication open, especially since we don't see each other all the time, but he is making it difficult. What would be the best way to approach this?

Boyfriend's Absences Worry Lonely & Invested New Girlfriend

Don't call or text your boyfriend for two weeks. If he doesn't call or text you in that time — and he won't — then you cancel your three-month anniversary party. My hunch is that this relationship has been over for a while, BAWLING, but your boyfriend lacks the decency to put you out of your misery. Looking on the bright side: You won't have to waste any of your money on a traditional three-month anniversary present — a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos — or any more of your time on this guy.

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Don Clifton, spokesperson for the company BridalKare International, has announced that they are now offering to take pictures of their customers' wedding dresses before sealing their wedding gowns into the preservation box. This will allow customers to check that the work has been done correctly without having to reopen the preservation box, which should be kept sealed to keep the wedding gown safe from outside contamination.

The company said that this is an excellent approach because it ensures that customers will always be getting the best service from them. Unlike other companies that do allow their preservation boxes to be opened by their customers, BridalKare does not. They stated that wedding dress cleaning and preservation is a very thorough and delicate process, and so it would be pointless to have all of the cleaning and preservation work sabotaged by making it easy for the preservation boxes to be opened, as this will allow dust, humidity and insects to creep in, which in turn can destroy the material.

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The company said that by taking pictures, their customers do not need to open the boxes, because they will clearly see that the stains have actually been removed.

Don said the wedding gown preservation process that they use is very thorough. All of the dresses go through an 11 step wedding dress preservation process that was exclusively developed by the company. The company said that this process had been developed from 125 years of experience, which enables them to remove very stubborn stains such as those caused by grass, perspiration, asphalt parking lot oils and champagne stains. The company also made the following statement,

"Because of our Exclusive and Proprietary Cleaning and Preservation Process we are the ONLY company to offer you a Lifetime Guarantee against stains re-appearing and fabric yellowing."

Once BridalKare has successfully removed all of the stains and the wedding gown is ready to be shipped back to the customer, they place it in an acid-free windowed display box. This box is completely sealed so that it can keep out any moisture from the outside humidity, and it also eliminates any mold spores and dust. The sealed barrier also plays an important role in keeping insects from getting inside the box and nesting in the wedding gown fabric.

Don also stated that once the wedding gown has been sealed, the lifetime guarantee will stay in place until someone breaks the seal to open the box. To make sure that the customers don't lose this added protection, they take pictures of the dress before placing it in the sealed box to show customers so that they don't have to break the seal open. The company also made the following statement,

"We are a family owned and operated business that has been passed down from generation to generation. Our reputation for unsurpassed quality and service is well established both locally and throughout the U.S."

For those who would like more information on wedding dress cleaning and preservation, BridalKare urges all interested parties to google their service.

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A quaint, ranch-style home with blue shutters sits nestled on the outskirts of Ephrata, where anyone driving by might see beautiful, seasonal wreathes hanging on the doors.

These wreathes — plus many other decorations on the property — were not bought from a store but were made by 24-year-old Jennifer Kurtz, a local crafting connoisseur.

Originally from Myerstown, Kurtz has always had a passion for local culture and crafts. With grandparents who were painters and a mother with an enthusiasm for flower arrangements, there was no question for Kurtz as to whether or not she would take up crafting as a hobby.

"I've been crafting my whole life," Kurtz said while attaching flowers to a wreath. "I just turn on some music and work for hours."

Holding a full time associate position at Sherwin-Williams, Kurtz not only gets to utilize her creativity in the home but also in the workplace. Between her full-time position and running her home with her husband, Shane, she also still manages to find at least two days a week to dedicate to her crafting business, Jaybee Designs.

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Her business, which is about two years old and run out of her home, is "all about the details." From "dressing up" a room to creating decorations for weddings, Kurtz's passion shows in her work. With inspiration pulled from the surrounding areas and the Internet, Kurtz is able to create custom orders for all of her clients upon request, but her favorite creations are her wreathes.

"There are just a lot of things that you can do with a wreath, so I can be much more creative when I make them," she said.

Kurtz's workload tends to be heavier during the holiday and wedding seasons (autumn to December and March to Mother's Day), and it shows in her crafting room in the piles of flowers and materials that she uses in her projects. Despite all of the organized chaos thoughout, Kurtz always manages to have happy customers.

"It's time consuming, but I like crafting and being creative," Kurtz stated. "You do have to have an eye for it, but it's a fun job."

Kurtz's eye for design not only comes from her years of experience but also the two and a half years she spent taking classes at the Art Institute of York. It was there that she honed her lifetime of crafting experience into a more solidified career path that got her business to the point it is at today.

In her spare time, Kurtz also donates some of her creations to local churches and families as a "way to help out." As a local churchgoer herself, it's something that she says she really enjoys doing for the churches to help out locally.

"When everything is said and done, I just love seeing everyone's reactions to their orders," she said. "It's great to see them put something I made into their home and enjoy it."

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The biological parents of a prominent civil rights activist in Washington state have claimed that she has been misrepresenting herself as a black woman when her heritage is white.

Rachel Dolezal is an academic, chair of the office of the police ombudsman commission in the city of Spokane and president of its chapter of the African American civil rights organisation NAACP.

Dolezal, a professor of Africana studies at Eastern Washington University, where she specialises in black studies and African American culture, has spoken out regularly on local media about racial justice.

This week, however, in an interview with the local Spokane news channel KREM 2 News, Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal said their daughter’s biological heritage was not African American but German and Czech, with traces of Native American ancestry.

They said their daughter had adopted black siblings and had attended school in Mississippi, where her social circle had primarily been African American. She later married and subsequently divorced an African American man, they said.

A photograph Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal displayed of their daughter as a child. Photograph: Family handout

They claim that she began to adapt her appearance following her divorce in 2004. “Rachel has wanted to be somebody she’s not. She’s chosen not to just be herself, but to represent herself as an African American woman or a bi-racial person and that’s simply not true,” Ruthanne Dolezal said.

In the video, the Dolezals showed pictures of their daughter as a blonde child, and at her wedding several years ago. The couple later provided a copy of their daughter’s birth certificate to the Spokesman-Review newspaper.

Rachel Dolezal has since told local media she is not in touch with the couple because of an ongoing lawsuit, and that she does not view them as her real parents.

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The 37-year-old told the Spokesman-Review on Thursday that she would prioritise speaking to her executive committee before commenting on speculation in the media. “I feel like I owe my executive committee a conversation,” she said, adding that the subject was a “multilayered issue”.

“The question is not as easy as it seems. There’s a lot of complexities … and I don’t know that everyone would understand that. We’re all from the African continent.”

A statement from Spokane city hall said she had listed her ethnicity as a mix of white, black, Native American and a number of others in her application to the office of the police ombudsman commission.

“We are gathering facts to determine if any city policies related to volunteer boards and commissions have been violated,” Spokane’s mayor, David Condon, and the council president, Ben Stuckart, said in a joint statement. “That information will be reviewed by the city council, which has oversight of city boards and commissions.”

James Wilburn, a former president of the Spokane NAACP chapter, told the Coeur d’Alene Press that Dolezal’s race was not what had qualified her for the position in the organisation.

“It is traditional to have a person of colour in that position, but that hasn’t always been the case in Spokane,” he said. A woman of European descent was president in the 1990s, he added, and half of the chapter members were not black. “That is probably a result of the fact that only 1.9% of the population in Spokane is African American,” he said.

In a statement on Friday, the NAACP said its local coalition “stands behind” Dolezal’s record.

“One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership,” the national group said.

Dolezal does not discuss her own ethnicity in detail in her numerous writings on civil rights issues, but in several pieces she uses idioms such as “our cultural memory” when speaking about African American history.

In a lecture posted on YouTube, she speaks about the history of African American hairstyles and says she will describe “what happened to our hair here in America” when slavery meant certain kinds of styles were banned.

Since the current furore began, Dolezal has closed down her Facebook page, having been an active user of the site to post commentary on African American issues and culture.

In a post about the Oscar-winning film 12 Years a Slave, she said it was “not the best film to take a white partner to on a first date”.

She advocates sitting in the back row of the cinema so that “if white people are inclined to stare, they have to turn all the way round to do it … so that during the movie people aren’t constantly looking at you to monitor the ‘black response’ to the film”.

Dolezal’s parents also allege she has portrayed her adopted black sibling Izaiah as her son in pictures on social media. Dolezal confirmed later to the CDA Press that Izaiah is an adopted brother. “But I have full custody of him now,” she added.

Spokane NAACP’s Facebook page has an image of Dolezal with an older black man, whom it describes as her father. The CDA Press, however, names the man as Albert Wilkerson, a volunteer at the Human Rights Education Institute in north Idaho, where Dolezal previously worked.

In an interview about her portrait art with the Easterner magazine, Dolezal described a traumatic upbringing during which her parents would “punish us by skin complexion”. She also described being raised in a teepee and hunting for food with a bow and arrow. Her parents have confirmed that they lived in a teepee, but before their daughter was born.

Dolezal has been a regular face at local demonstrations and on TV channels, and has made the news on numerous occasions for the graphic hate mail she has received, including nooses left at her home.

In one of the most recent incidents, she found an envelope containing pictures of lynchings in Spokane NAACP’s postbox at the local sorting office. Postal workers later told police the envelope had never been posted, and had been placed in the box by someone who had an access key.

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Alicia Woods’ eureka small business idea came via the call of nature.

She was a mile underground touring a Sudbury nickel mine 15 years ago in a bulky, oversized pair of men’s coveralls as part of job shadowing for her future sales position for a mining equipment manufacturer.

“I thought, ‘Uh-oh, what if I have to use the washroom?’ It was all men down there and all they had was a porta-potty, and I had all this gear on,” she recalls.

As her career in the industry grew, Woods found herself on numerous trips to mine sites across North America, but she discovered not even the smallest gear fit her petite frame.

About four years ago, she was in a potash mine in Saskatchewan and because it was so warm and dusty, she drank several bottles of water, resulting into an embarrassing trip to the loo that took far longer than the men because she had to remove the full safety outfit.

“That was it,” says the mother of two.

Covergalls was born soon after, when she found a seamstress to put together a sample design of women’s coveralls, with wrist snaps, adjustable Velcro at the waist and two-way zippers to fit various sizes — and of course a secret trap door for when nature calls.

Though women make up only 17 per cent of the staff in the Canadian mining sector today, or 46,000 people, her market research told her those who work hands-on as miners, geologists and engineers tend to buy several pairs of coveralls at a time a few times a year.

“No two women are alike, so why should they have to wear clothing at work that doesn’t fit any of them, and is made for men?” asks Woods.

The Sudbury native found a local manufacturer and the business took off. She pitched it to CBC’s Dragon’s Den in 2014 to help her grow her burgeoning clothing line, which has since expanded to include women’s safety gloves and a even a men’s line known as Coverguys — since, after all, mining men come in different shapes and sizes and prefer easier access for trips to the facilities, too.

But it’s Covergalls that will be front and centre at the Women Who Rock mining fashion show Monday night at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

The first-annual Hard Hats and High Heels event will bring together a rather odd couple: the Canadian fashion industry and women in the mining industry, many of whom are part of the Women Who Rock informal networking organization whose goal is to empower women who work in the industry.

“Mining is male-dominated and maybe clothing is not considered important or seen as frivolous,” said Elena Mayer, president and founder in 2014 of Women Who Rock in Toronto.

“But students tell us that no one puts enough emphasis on wardrobe, whether it’s in the mine or the office,” said Mayer, PwC Canada’s senior manager of client relationships.

So besides Covergalls for those heading underground, the show will feature Canadian fashion brand Judith & Charles with a collection aimed at integrating modern influences with feminine softness and strength — modelled by women who work in the metals industry.

“A lot of people don’t understand that mining jobs are not just at the site,” says Mayer.

Statistics Canada research shows that women who work in the sector tend to be highly educated, with nearly 60 per cent armed with a post-secondary education, and they also make more than the average working woman in Canada — an estimated $50,000 annual salary versus $37,050 a year for those outside mining.

She says many women transition from the grittier side of mining to head offices or the supply side over the course of their careers, and conversely, those who work in corporate mining often find themselves doing site visits and wonder about appropriate safety gear that will also fit.

“Fashion is as far removed on the mining spectrum as you can get, so it’s good for our industry to get out of our little bubble, and also get the message out about gender diversity in the business,” Mayer added.

She said Woods is a great example of the newer generation that is very passionate about the field and a perfect role model for those considering a career in the industry.

Woods originally struck a deal with three of the Dragons, including Michael Wekerle, who joined her on a visit with women miners wearing her gear underground at a Vale nickel mine in Sudbury, which was shown on the CBC show when the season wrapped last spring.

But they subsequently dropped out in the due diligence phase of negotiations, which Woods says often happens in the business world and is not a big deal since she her line is growing like wildfire, particularly after the Dragon’s Den exposure.

The women’s coveralls range in price from $135 to $280 depending on the material and safety detailing, such as reflective striping.

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