Fashion Upcycler Ella Wiznia Repurposes Your Old Linens Into Sentimental Clothing

Ella Wiznia tender-released the upcycled and genderless manner manufacturer The Collection in 2016 even though she was even now in school and offering her wares at the Hester Road Fair, an out of doors weekend market in NYC. At the time, Wiznia was in restoration for an ingesting disorder and she began hand-embroidering and generating her very own clothing and add-ons from pre-existing resources as a way to mend. “Moving my fingers was so excellent for my psychological health and fitness honestly. It was so important to silent my intellect and that is how I began producing points for my individual contentment,” she suggests.

Considering the fact that clothing purchasing in stores with classic sizing was not conducive to Wiznia’s recovery, she turned to thrift and second-hand retailers to supply clothing that could be reworked, or to uncover attractive but overlooked heirloom materials that could then be repurposed into sentimental, wearable parts. A sampling of The Series’ choices involve balaclavas created from granny-square crochet blankets, quilted chore shirts fashioned from several scraps, and puffer jackets that as soon as utilised to be sleeping bags or comforters. Wiznia and her team also take customers’ dwelling textiles like linens, top sheets, pillow instances, or throws that are no longer staying employed to make a thing new.

“It was often about honoring these elements that I uncovered to be so incredibly unique and neglected for a definitely very long time,” says Wiznia. “It is a way to lengthen their lifespan, to make them into things that can be worn and utilised instead than folded up in a closet or thrown in a corner.” Wiznia also finds the course of action of remodeling these vintage handmade quilts or blankets, quite a few of which have been “historically deemed as women’s get the job done for the reason that they’re linked with the residence and greatly rooted in domesticity,” as a way to regard the craft and patience that was put into these heritage pieces.

Presented Wiznia’s affinity for quilt-like “mish mosh,” it’s fitting that her Upper West Aspect apartment—which also doubles as The Series studio wherever she and her small workforce sew and handle shipments from—is equally eclectic in model. “I believe [my aesthetic] is comparable to the garments I make, sort of classical structure blended with fun colors and textures. I like genuinely perfectly-intended, intentional pieces or things that are traditionally related to a childhood memory,” says Wiznia. “I normally appear to Iris Apfel’s or Gloria Vanderbilt’s apartments and interiors. I just adore the layered-on textures with a lot more of the present day aspects.”

The property necessities that outfit Wiznia’s New York Metropolis condominium contain a design and style-centric Heller dinnerware set, a wall-spanning mirror from Ikea, a bouquet of pretend flowers (due to Wiznia’s allergic reactions), and a substantial Roman column pedestal. “My most prized possession is that column, which my good friends found on the road when I was in school studying city style and design and architecture,” states Wiznia. “They brought it up to my space and I approximately fainted when I saw it. It was like I experienced died and long gone to heaven.”

“We consider your outdated sleeping bags or even a total-size-plus comforter and renovate them into a puffer jacket! I like Arthur and observed an aged Arthur sleeping bag that I designed into a puffer that I now can’t get rid of. I’m wrapped in my childhood, you know?”