Love to see the sustainable fashion movement in action! Meet Ian, another young local designer we collaborated with through our Fashion Design – Pima Community College Upcycle Project. For the 2^nd year in a row, Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona has partnered with Pima Community College’s Fashion Styling Class. The PCC Fashion students are tasked with upcycling clothing found at Goodwill stores into high fashion garments for the 2020 PCC FashionArte Show in May.

The guiding principle behind Karina’s design is simplicity. While many of her classmates chose to combine several garments into a finished ensemble, Karina only got one item from Goodwill: a size 4X pink dress.

“It’s an old lady dress,” Karina says with a smile. “I’m thinking of turning it into a two piece. Like a skirt and a top. I’ll cut it up and see how it goes.”

The concept of giving clothes a new life resonates well with Karina’s ultimate goals. She says, “My goals… [keep reading]

Tiana got a dress and a pair of maroon pants from Goodwill for her project. She plans to turn the dress into a crop top and use the remaining material to add panels to the pants. “I got a basic pair of maroon pants that I’m probably going to put the cut-off panels from the top on, just to make it look like it’s a two-set,” Tiana says.

She has been enjoying the project, and appreciative that organizations like Goodwill are making an effort to support upcycling. “I’m actually surprised they… [keep reading]

Emma is creating a 50’s style oversized jacket with a pastel color palette. Using a large yellow jacket as the base, Emma is planning on adding patches of color cut from silk dress shirts. All her materials were sourced from local Goodwill stores.

The theme of the jacket is based on her class’s brand, CurioCity. The brand will be a complete collection produced by the class using the guiding design principles of pastel colors, feathery embellishments, and… [keep reading]

Hannah was inspired to create something entirely new with fabric from several dresses she picked up from Goodwill. “I ended up finding some really great dresses, mostly long dresses so I could have a lot of material,” Hannah says, “I got a long black dress, there’s a really nice burgundy color that’s nice and satiny, and a couple others.”

“I think people just don’t think about all that goes into making garments and what kind of an impact it has on the environment… [keep reading]

Elizabeth has given herself an extra challenge. Rather than using existing clothing as the base for her new pieces, she is creating them entirely from scratch using sheets and curtains she found at Goodwill. She is planning on creating an entire ensemble consisting of a purple dress with ruffles, a yellow corset, and a pink lacy jacket to complete the look.

Elizabeth is balancing her unique vision with the requirement that the project fit in the class’s overall brand. She says, “My final project is going to be really feminine and flowy. It’s going to have the matching color scheme which is going to… [keep reading]