Charmain Bertram
Absolute Rubbish is the culmination of 27 years of designing, 14 years of manufacturing and 25 years of collecting designer remnants, upholstery scraps and secondhand garments.
And it all began with Cher's epic closet in Clueless...
Meet the Designer
Hello & thanks for stopping by!
I’m Charmain Bertram, designer and manufacturer of Absolute Rubbish.
Fashion has been my main passion for as long as I can remember! Truly, at 3 years old I started changing my outfit about 4 times a day (my parents LOVED that! haha). At 9, my mom taught me how to sew. At 10, the movie Clueless came out and then.... the Spice Girls broke out not too long after that and I was hooked! My style evolved and using clothing to express myself became my love!
At 18, I designed my first collections for the Gay Pride charity fashion show in my home town of London Ontario; and at 19, I started the fashion design program at George Brown College in Toronto.
At 22, I started my company, Integrity Designs, with a clothing label of the same name which I sold at Fresh Collective on Queen St. West in Toronto. To subsidize my expenses at the time, I began manufacturing small runs of bags and garments for local designers. That sparked a love and passion for local manufacturing. It’s been 14 years manufacturing for local designers with a few small in house collections along the way.
Absolute Rubbish is the culmination of 27 years of designing, 14 years of manufacturing and 25 years of collecting designer remnants, upholstery scraps and secondhand garments.
With my core values of respect and love of the planet, producing a collection using repurposed and remnant materials was always the goal –– and that is how Absolute Rubbish was born.
Thank you for your interest and support!
XO Char