Welcome
Hi, I’m Amy Jarrett, a slow fashion designer and seamstress, vintage hunter, conscious consumer, wedding singer, and vanlife traveler. I live in Heidelberg, Germany but originally hail from Northern California, the golden state where the sunshine is bright and the west is still a bit wild. I am a bit of a fashion history nerd and an admirer of all things artisanally made. I have always had a love for textiles and garments and their portal to self expression, self esteem, comfort, and nostalgia. Living and consuming in our modern world can be overwhelming. Clothing trends are changing faster than ever, and things are overtaking our lives. I’m taking the time to slow down, live the simple life, and incorporate my love of making things using textiles into the concept of less is more.
The Truth
Buying and wearing clothing for self expression, personal aesthetic, style, and body confidence is nothing new. We have been doing it for centuries, and it’s a great thing! Through clothing, we can tell the world something about ourselves without ever needing to open our mouths. Clothing can make us feel powerful emotions and tell wonderful stories.
Unfortunately, the fast fashion industry has played on those powerful emotions to encourage us to excessively buy cheap, massed-produced clothing. They have convinced us that instead of four trend seasons per year (spring, summer, fall, winter) there should be 52. That’s one micro trend coming at us per week. This consumer demand has lead to the fashion industry becoming one of the worst in workers rights abuse, natural resource depletion, and environmental pollution in the world. In a word, fast fashion is simply unsustainable.
The Resolution
Wearing beautiful clothes we love is not a joy we have to abandon. Clothing can be so meaningful. Our bodies live in them, our memories are made in them. They are like old friends and they hold value in our lives. I truly believe if we value the source of the garments we spend our lives in, we can change the world. We can change working conditions, and therefore lives. We can save our natural resources. We can cherish our wardrobe and the world.
I upcycle clothing and hunt vintage because it is one of the most sustainable and consumer conscious ways to produce ‘‘new’’ clothing in our wardrobes. Fibers in upcycled and vintage products have already been grown, harvested, woven, dyed. Their materials have been cut, sewn, and manufactured. Their footprint has already been irreversibly made and yet their fate is likely a landfill. The most sustainable option is to reuse them! I take great pride in rescuing these textiles and giving them a new soul, to be valued to the end of their lifecycles as they should be.
Won’t you join me?