00:04I lost my dad at a young age. I was nine years old. His passing let me know that our
00:11time here
00:12is limited. We need to find different ways that we can use the stuff we already have.
00:18In 2017, Americans created 13 million tons of textile waste. 85% of the textile waste
00:26was either brought to the landfill or burned because it was unable to be recycled.
00:30An average of two-thirds of thrift store discards go straight to the landfill. They don't even get
00:36the opportunity to be repurposed into textiles or rags. I think it's really, really important that
00:42we do what we can to reverse the damage that's been done. What they're doing is creating really
00:49unique pieces of fashion, one-of-a-kind garments from something that they found in thrift stores.
00:56Anybody can do this with something that they already have.
01:03We are in my studio right now. Back here, we have all of my scraps from different projects.
01:11Here, I'll pull this out. My name is Jared Mitchell Armstrong, and I am the designer for Yvonne
01:16Mitchell. My name is Kaylin Yvonne Willis. I own our business, Yvonne Mitchell, which is an
01:22upcycled fashion brand. Upcycled fashion is really just finding a way to take clothing that's already
01:29been made and worn and finding a way to reconstruct it into an entirely new piece that can be worn
01:37again and have another lifetime. So here's a piece that I made from a large sweater. These rings right
01:44here, binder rings. So this maroon leather right here, it was an old couch. So here's a tablecloth,
01:52and right over here is a skirt that I have made from the tablecloth. I'd say that 80 to 90
02:01percent of
02:01everything in here is bought secondhand, thrifted.
02:06I was drawn to fashion at a really young age. I remember being like two, three, playing my mom's
02:12closet, dress up all day. It's just always been my favorite thing. My mom taught me how to sew early
02:16on in high school. I have always been interested in having unique personal style. We started our
02:23business five years ago whenever we were sophomores in college. The last five to ten years, the conditions
02:28of our environment have become more pressing and people are more aware of it and educating themselves on
02:33how important being sustainable is. My concerns with the fashion industry just really lie with fast
02:39fashion. Fast fashion is a term for companies that are trying to appeal to mass markets. Sustainable
02:46fashion isn't only advocating for positive impact on the environment, but also positive impact on the
02:53economy and the people who create our clothes. A lot of these fast fashion brands, their supply chains
03:00are powered by people of color, oftentimes women who are subject to sexual assault and unlivable wages.
03:08So I think it's important for us and everyone else to be as educated as possible about where we're
03:16getting our clothes from and how they're being made. Any company within the fashion industry should be
03:21using sustainable practices. I think the change would be simply using recycled fabrics. And I know that's
03:29harder for big corporations to do, but there are warehouses that exist that specialize in selling
03:36secondhand that you can buy in larger quantities. I mean, we source our clothes directly from thrift
03:42stores. Over the years, we've realized that we don't want to take away the really high quality clothes from
03:47people at thrift stores who really need it. So we saw an opportunity to go for the clothes that are
03:54stained, have holes in them, just really can't be worn as well. He's able to take those pieces and,
04:00you know, cover up those imperfections and make them into something entirely new, which is really awesome.
04:08We are headed to Scraps KC, which is essentially a warehouse of recycled textiles and fabric. So
04:19the goal for today is to go to Scraps KC to find fabrics that we can use to make a
04:27one-of-a-kind
04:28upcycled piece that sort of showcases that really anyone can do this. So I feel like if two people in
04:34Kansas City who are just doing it on their own can do it, then these big corporations can as well.
04:38So excited. Hi. How are you? It's so nice to meet you in person. Nice to meet you. Thank you
04:45for allowing us to come here. We're so glad you guys came. I'm Brenda.
04:48My name is Brenda Mott. I'm from Kansas City, Missouri, and I am the founder and executive director of Scraps
04:53KC.
04:56Textile waste is a large problem in our community. If we didn't take in all of the textile materials that
05:02we
05:03take in, most of it would probably wind up in the landfill. We get about two to five thousand pounds
05:07every single week of materials. So we have some different kinds of denim, different colors. Ooh,
05:15I love this color. Do you like the paint? Actually, I do really like that. Yeah, we were saying, um,
05:19we're just inspired by nature a lot and especially springtime in Missouri is so beautiful, all these
05:24colors. This really reminds me of that. So excited. Good. I'm so excited. Yes, there are lots of options.
05:31There definitely is a stigma behind secondhand clothing. Maybe just messy or not as good of
05:36quality clothing inside these thrift stores, which isn't true at all. That's a large reason why we
05:41started this business five years ago was because secondhand shopping is something we've done our
05:47entire lives. Thank you so much. So for the piece that I want to make, I want to do something
05:54structured. I want to use this denim. I tend not to sketch before designs. I consider myself a process
06:02creative and I let the process kind of lead me to my destination, really.
06:12So I've had an unconventional path within my fashion journey. I did not go to school
06:21for design. My mom taught me how to sew early on in high school and now I'm making pieces every
06:28day
06:28for Yvonne and Mitchell. When you want a nice, clean, finished seam and sewing, you sew things inside out
06:37and then flip them right side out. And that was actually something that was really difficult learning
06:43and that my mom really had to drill in my head when I first started sewing. I always knew if
06:49I wanted to
06:50live to my full potential, I had to follow my heart and follow my passion. Luckily, I met Kaelin early
06:57in
06:57college and we have passions that aligned with one another. It's honestly been a dream come true to have
07:04income that is able to take care of my bills. It's truly a blessing. And if I can inspire someone
07:11to do
07:12something that is a little bit more sustainable, then I feel like I'm doing something impactful.
07:25Wow! That is so beautiful.
07:29So exciting. It's hard to imagine that little rolled up piece of fabric came out into something beautiful
07:35like this. I think it's very easy to get involved in sustainable fashion, especially with the help
07:43of social media and technology. There are so many small businesses out there on the internet and
07:49reselling apps that make, you know, secondhand shopping so much more accessible. My hope within
07:54the fashion industry is that any clothing company is doing at least five percent of their production
08:01sustainably. Even a percentage as low as that could really make a difference. For people who don't
08:07design, there are plenty of ways to still be sustainable in fashion. Even just finding different
08:12ways to wear things. I've used some of my old, old clothes as like rags for around the house. Just
08:17finding different ways to hold on to that piece longer so it doesn't end up in the landfill.
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