The Kitchen Garden Series' Founder, Heidi Barr, picking cherry tomatoes at Henry Got Crops, one of the farms she supports with the sale of her textiles. (Photo by Kelly Giarrocco)

by Lou Mancinelli

Before a knee injury halted her young career as a professional dancer, and before devoting her energies full-time to her newer Kitchen Garden Series, a line of textiles made from reclaimed materials, sold to support community agriculture, Heidi Barr earned her living for almost 20 years in dance and theater costume design for well known companies.

Picture elegant, thoughtful, carefully moving dancers and the importance of a performer's costume, and imagine how the dynamics of their movements on stage are highlighted by the perfect outfit. It is this kind of design, discipline and delicacy Barr brings to her Kitchen Garden Series.

A Roxborough resident, Barr launched the line just over three years ago. She was 50 and had decided it was time for a change.

“Well the idea came up, and I thought I'd see if it had legs,” Barr said, during a recent interview. It did.

The idea grew out of community supported agriculture. Barr had become a working shareholder at Henry's Got Crops, an urban farm on Henry Avenue in Roxborough, meaning she had to work there two hours a week. After talking with one of the managers there about the struggles small farms faced generating capital, she noticed a need. A literal one; the program needed things like new harvest knives, harvest bins and a vacuum seeder. “Just really simple, practical things,” Barr said.

So she got to thinking. Through her work and contacts in costume design Barr already had a number of friends in textiles and clothing. And she thought, “My aesthetic and design skills developed enough.” She noticed also that “the trends have caught up with my environmentalist soul,” meaning that people are interested in buying quality goods produced from recycled materials. Which is true, considering the dozens of local organic food and similar green movements.

The result of this all was that Barr decided to design various goods for the kitchen, all of it created from her particular aesthetic. One she says has been described as rustic, and one she says is rooted in simplicity. She's also donating 25% of proceeds shared between Henry’s Got Crops and The East Park Revitalization Alliance.

Her biggest goal for 2016 is to develop half- and full-shares of her Kitchen Garden Series products. This means that you pay ahead to receive either two or four boxes containing items from the KGS, which also includes something from another local retailer. In this way she's producing products that serve a two-fold purpose in terms of sustainability.

“I know it's crazy for someone who has a tiny retail business to say it, but costuming is rough,” she said. It's difficult to earn a consistent income. “After 50, supporting yourself ― you start to think about it differently.”

This year Barr decided to dedicate herself solely to developing her Kitchen Garden Series. Her aprons, tea towels and napkin sets (the linen is purchased as scraps from women in Lithuania who, according to Barr, make larger pieces) are now available at 11 stores in the Philadelphia area, including Weavers Way Mt. Airy, as opposed to only four stores last year.

“I seem to reinvent myself whenever I get a reason,” Barr said about her decision to launch a business at age 50.

Raised in Eugene, Oregon, “where you pretty much learn that the environment and environmentalism are the most important things,” Barr entered the dance majors program at the University of Oregon and then earned a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle in 1987.

However, early on in her professional dance career, she hurt her knee, which ruined her career.

After the injury, Barr worked various jobs. She moved to Arizona, worked in restaurants in her mid-30s. One day Barr let it slip that she knew how to sew. Her friend worked at a costume shop for the Arizona Theater Company. Did Barr want to work there? Not really.

She ended up taking the job, though, which is how she got hooked on costume design; and it is also where her life's previous dream of dance took on a new shape. She already had a sense for a dancer's movements. But could she translate this grace with her clothing designs?

In the late ‘90s Barr moved to Philadelphia. She was looking for a change, and her sister lived here. She worked full-time in Freedom Theater's costume shop, stitching away from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Until she launched her Kitchen Garden Design Series, Barr worked in costuming. The aprons and tea towels are less complex in their designs, but Barr's attention and care to aesthetics and quality still remain.

“Every new product I introduce is simpler,” she said. “Simplicity is kind of the point. It's durable but elegant.”

For more information about Heidi Barr's Kitchen Garden Series, visit thekitchengardenseries.com