Yukoners will soon have the opportunity to sport unique fashion, showcasing literal patchwork from their own communities as local company Sunshine and Wild Co. prepares to launch a new line of locally handmade recycled-fabric vests.
Anika Phillips and Emilie Denis are the founders and owners of Sunshine and Wild Co., a Whitehorse-based business that produces women’s clothing and other items featuring artwork that showcases the wild spaces and natural landscapes of the Yukon.
The pair met four years ago while working at a cafe in Whitehorse, where they became fast friends.
Anika says they dreamt up the idea for Sunshine and Wild Co. from what they saw as a lack of clothing that was representative of their experience in the Yukon.
“When I first moved here, I was so proud to be here”, says Phillips, who describes being blown away by the beauty of the Yukon’s vast landscapes. “It really took my breath away and brought me to tears multiple times.”
Phillips says that when looking for clothing or other items that represented this natural beauty, she found the local market to be somewhat lacking. “I felt like there was nothing in the territory to represent these landscapes through clothing.”
Seeing this open niche, the women say they started scheming to create what would become Sunshine and Wild Co. with little more than a couple thousand dollars and lots of ambition.
“We were very young and very broke, but saw a lot of potential”, says Phillips.
The pair started off in 2022 with a small clothing line of 120 pieces. In the four years since the company has expanded tenfold, with Anika saying they expect to sell roughly 1700 pieces this year across multiple product lines spanning men’s and women’s clothing, as well as reusable tote bags and stickers adorned with locally created artwork featuring Yukon landscapes, plants, and animals.
From the beginning, sustainability and ethical labour have guided Sunshine and Wild.
The company sources materials and labour only from manufacturers that commit to ethical labour practices, including those audited through the Amfori Business Social Compliance Initiative, which reviews whether workers are paid fair wages and have safe, healthy working conditions.
All artwork and designs used on Sunshine and Wild products are created by a local artist paid under contract.
The company also works to reduce the environmental impact of its products by using vendors connected to the Better Cotton Initiative or by sourcing fabrics made from recycled materials.
That work has recently expanded with Sunshine and Wild’s newest line of vests. Handmade in Whitehorse using recycled materials sourced directly from the community, the vests create local jobs while diverting fabric that might otherwise end up in a landfill, Phillips said.
The News joined Phillips and Denis throughout the process of creating the vests, with the first step being a stop at one of several local partners to source their raw material.
The pair have built relationships with Yukon recyclers, including Raven Recycling in Whitehorse, where staff set aside items based on the fabrics and colours the women are seeking.
They regularly visit partner recyclers to pick up bags of old clothing. The material is still purchased through Raven Recycling’s thrift shop, which operates as a non-profit.
Once enough raw material has been collected, Denis sorts through the clothing, grouping pieces that will eventually become finished vests based on colour and fabric type.
On the day the News visited, the women were at Phillips’ home just outside Whitehorse, where they spread the materials across the living room floor. As Denis methodically sorted the fabrics into piles by material and colour palette, she joked that the pair “spend a lot of time on the floor,” often turning their homes into ad hoc workspaces.
Phillips admits she is not much help at this stage because she struggles to pick complementary colour palettes, so fabric selection is usually left to Denis.
“Sometimes I will suggest something, and they will both look at me and just say no,” Phillips said.
Denis said she is glad Phillips can step back and “trust the process.”
Once the fabrics are sorted, they are taken to the company’s storage locker, where the materials are grouped before being passed to Bourdet, a local seamstress who cuts and sews the vests.
On the whole, Sunshine and Wild works to incorporate as much locally sourced and recycled material as possible, with even the zippers being cannibalized from discarded garments.
However, due to their high demand for specific fabric types, the team has had to expand their sourcing beyond the Yukon. Some additional recycled materials come from Quebec, and a nominal amount of new material is sourced from a sustainable fabric supplier in France.
In addition to sourcing their raw materials sustainably, Phillips and Denis say they extend their holistic approach to every aspect of their business, hiring only local labour, aiming to pay their staff and contractors what they believe to be true livable wages and working to maintain a work-life balance for themselves and their team.
“We’ve said since the very beginning we’d rather pay people extra for shorter hours so that they can have a good life”, says Phillips.
Speaking about work-life balance, Denis adds that they work to give their team flexible work hours, saying that they see value in not forcing people to work a 9-5 schedule.
“We want people to be more flexible with the hours and actually do a good job, she said.
Phillips says she recognizes their approach can translate into more expensive clothes and that she hopes it means people will have “fewer clothes that [they] own but more intentionally”. This is particularly true with the vests, which run north of $250 a piece.
The vests will launch at the end of this month, with the first initial batch of 11 set to debut at the Fireweed Market in Whitehorse on May 28.
By Noah Korver, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Yukon News
Original Published on May 22, 2026 at 10:49
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