At Artists & Revolutionaries, a new women’s clothing store in Vergennes, the racks are packed with garments in a variety of hues and styles: emerald and cobalt silk dresses, boxy velvet tops, barrel-legged wool pants, quilted jackets splattered in paint. Most of them were designed and sewn by just one man: John-Michael Schlotter.
Growing up in Shushan, N.Y., right over the border from Arlington, Schlotter always had a thing for beautiful clothing. His mother and grandmother were seamstresses who did alterations and made wedding dresses for local women. He loved poring over the fashion pages of the New York Times. When he was in the fifth grade, his grandmother bought him a sewing machine, which he taught himself to use. Schlotter made clothing for his school friends and stitched patches on his own denim jackets.
It was a skill he eventually parlayed into a career, designing clothes for stores in San Francisco, Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley for more than three decades.
During the pandemic, Schlotter, 56, settled in New York’s Essex County, just across the lake from Vergennes. This year, he set up shop in the Little City, moving into a small second-floor space on Main Street in March. In the fall, when a much larger storefront became available just a few blocks away, he jumped at the prime location. Formerly occupied by Ten Stones Emporium, it even had space for him to set up a two-room atelier in the back for pattern making and sewing.
The store’s aesthetic is meant to evoke an “old, abandoned French countryside house of some musician or artist,” Schlotter said. The floor is scattered with kilim rugs. An ornate wire birdcage stands on a table, and large plants fill the space. The artfully patinaed tables that display some of the clothes come from Schlotter’s own furniture collection. A wall built from antique doors serves to divide the front from the back of the store. Schlotter bought the blocky, wooden checkout counter from a customer. In the 1800s, it served the same purpose at a Vergennes general store.
But the main draw is the Artists & Revolutionaries clothing line, which Schlotter launched in Hudson, N.Y., in 2012.
For seven years, he ran a shop on Hudson’s main thoroughfare, Warren Street, where his customers were often sophisticates from New York City, including celebrities Claire Danes and Parker Posey.
Many of the popular styles he designed more than a decade ago are still part of his repertoire. A perennial favorite is the Athena dress, which has cap sleeves, a loose boatneck and an asymmetrical hem. It comes in various fabrics, including silk and linen, and is cut on the bias — diagonally, across the weave of the fabric — to create a soft, draping effect. The Gaia top, with a boxy yet relaxed silhouette, and the Tokyo pant, sporting a wide leg that draws in at the ankle, are also bestsellers.
The label has a single size; Schlotter designs the pieces to fit a range of body types. Customers range in age from teenagers to octogenarians.
“Trendy influencer girls who are a size zero will throw it on and think they look cool, and older women can wear it,” he said. “Bigger people and smaller people can wear it.”
Some items can even be worn in multiple ways. The Mermaid Skirt, for example, is long and flowy but has snaps that can be fastened to create a shorter, more sculptural look. Schlotter also makes leather wrap belts that can cinch in a boxy jacket or a loose dress, completely changing the vibe of an outfit.
All pieces are made from natural, machine-washable fabrics. On a recent tour of the store, Schlotter pointed out a cropped trench coat in light-brown cotton printed with zebras — the material was originally designed as upholstery. An A-line, knee-length skirt was cut from pink floral velvet hand-printed in India.
Schlotter also dyes fabric to create one-of-a-kind pieces. Simple cashmere sweaters and silk blouses are embellished with accordion-like patterns down the front and back using a Japanese dyeing technique called shibori. The effect is akin to a classier version of tie-dye. Other pieces receive the Jackson Pollock treatment.
“I just sprinkle the dye all over and make a mess,” Schlotter explained.
Recently, he’s been working with a knitter from Bridport to create slouchy, striped sweaters and vests with a boho vibe.
Pieces are priced to reflect the care and labor that go into them, Schlotter said. Tops start at $88, pants and skirts at $168, and dresses at $328.
“This is not fast fashion. It’s all made right here.” Jane Ogden
Jane Ogden, Artists & Revolutionaries’ store manager, said the one-size clothes and their relatively high price point — at least for Vermont — require a little explanation for those who stumble on the shop.
“We say, ‘This is not fast fashion. It’s all made right here,'” Ogden said. She likened her pitch to “the way you sell art in an art gallery.”
Kelly Sweeney of Waltham doesn’t need any convincing that Schlotter’s clothes are something special. Sweeney, who is in her sixties, met Schlotter as he set up the new space. When she saw him hanging vintage floral wallpaper, she told him she’d be right back. She returned with a box full of similar wallpaper she’d been collecting in her barn. Swatches of it now layer one side of the store.
Sweeney said she’s “not a dress person,” but this summer she bought the Athena in black linen to wear to a wedding.
“I felt so feminine,” she said, “and I felt like I looked really good in a dress for the first time.”
She also picked up a long, swirly skirt for a Dead & Company concert at Sphere in Las Vegas. She said it reminded her of what she wore to Grateful Dead shows when she was 18.
“It’s so much fun anytime you come in here,” Sweeney said. “There are always new things.”
That constant stream of fresh inventory means that Schlotter is doing a lot of sewing. He often works in the back room of the store, where he’s set up two sewing machines — a JUKI Industrial 5-Thread Overlocker and a smaller single-needle machine.
When he’s sewing styles he’s familiar with, he can churn out around 20 pieces a day. But lately, he’s been pushing himself to experiment with more intricate designs featuring collars, pockets and pleats, which are time-intensive.
Hunching over a sewing machine puts physical demands on Schlotter’s six-foot-four frame, so he’s looking for a few sewists to help with the workload. He also aspires to bring high-end clothing from other Vermont designers into the shop to create what he called a “design collective.”
But for now, he’ll keep doing what he does best: making clothing, one unique piece at a time.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Sew Unique | Artists & Revolutionaries brings one-of-a-kind handmade clothing to Vergennes”
This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2024.
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