Detroit nonprofit honors sustainable fashion innovators

The average American spends a lot on clothes and fashion every year: $1,945 in 2022 .

The rush to fill our closets helps us stay stylish but comes with an environmental cost: Waste occurs at every stage of garment manufacturing, making up as much as 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions , according to a 2020 analysis published by Nature.

There are designers, manufacturers and fashion executives interested in a more sustainable and responsible future for the fashion industry, and some of them are on their way to Detroit. These leaders are being honored at the first-ever Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center (ISAIC) Honors event, Thursday at the Madison downtown.

ISAIC is a nonprofit based in a space above Carhartt’s flagship store in the Cass Corridor. It’s committed to creating more U.S.-based fashion businesses, and making manufacturing more responsible and sustainable.

The awards ceremony , open to the public, will honor four fashion professionals from around the country — including one Detroiter — who have made a concerted effort to reduce waste as they keep us in fresh designs.

Tapping into spiritual energy

Detroiter Ewenique Wilson is a 24-year-old jewelry designer being honored for her commitment to excellence and continued learning. She decided to start creating jewelry four years ago.

After getting positive feedback on her creations from her family, Wilson joined ISAIC’s apprenticeship program and worked at Sew Great Detroit, where she learned the fundamentals of jewelry and garment-making.

“I was just like, ‘Oh, this is next level,’” Wilson said. “Some of my classmates had their own fashion lines already, some were stylists … and I was just sitting there with little to no experience, coming from nothing.”

In 2022, she started her own jewelry line, E Sul Kei . She says she creates jewelry that connects the wearer to their ancestors and other spiritual entities. Known in her community as Kaiajé Will, Wilson said she feels connected to her own ancestors when making jewelry.

Wilson says the Alumni of the Year Award “doesn’t feel real.”

“I actually was picked out of all these amazing people,” Wilson said. “The sewing industry is underrated, and Detroit itself has so much talent and potential just sitting there.”

Tackling waste in material use

Dana Davis is the vice president of sustainability, product and business strategy for Mara Hoffman , a New York-based label founded in 2000. She will be getting an award for her commitment to sustainability in the fashion industry.

Davis wanted to work in fashion from a young age, and she eventually found her fit when she started at Mara Hoffman in 2010. After spending five years overseeing its supply chains, she said its namesake founder had an “aha” moment and wanted to shift the entire company to “prioritize the planet and all of its inhabitants” with Davis’ help.

“Some of our friends had been living that ‘zero-waste’ lifestyle where their entire waste from a year could fit in a mason jar,” Davis said. “Mara came to me in 2015 and said, … ‘We either have to shut this business down or figure out how to do things differently.’”

Davis said she analyzed the materials the company uses and figured out how to use the least amount of materials for each garment to reduce waste at the company. Textile Exchange, a nonprofit that evaluates fashion companies’ environmental practices, ranked Mara Hoffman a Level 2 out of 4 in 2023 , meaning the company is “strengthening accountability” for sustainability.

Davis is being awarded the Change Clothes, Change Lives award. This is Davis’ second time in Detroit. She’s excited to indulge in the energy of the city.

“I find that the city has a different energy than New York,” Davis said. “It feels very entrepreneurial-spirited and community driven, which I’m drawn to.”

Investing in the little guys

When Alexander Zar was growing up in Italy, he was crafty. He made his first pair of After Ski boots when he was 15.

He migrated to Boston to get his bachelor’s degree in engineering, then his master’s in business administration at the University of Pittsburgh. A few years later, he had been pulled back into the world of fashion manufacturing.

“I started my own facility, myself and one employee,” Zar said. “We taught ourselves how to make shoes and handbags, and brought some … craftsmen from Italy to teach us more of the craft. Little by little, that expanded.”

That facility turned into La La Land Design & Production. Louis Vuitton contracted Zar’s company to start production for them, and from there, La La Land expanded to a business of around 200 artisans operating out of Los Angeles.

Zar said he believes investing in his employees will help his business grow. Apprentices at La La Land, the lowest level employee Zar hires, make $18.50 an hour, and managers make up to $30 an hour. The average wage for textile workers is $18 an hour.

Zar is winning the Manufacturer of the Year Award from ISAIC. He says he hopes a big part of his legacy is more brands investing in producing their products domestically.

“I feel that we are lacking in the commitment from the big brands,” Zar said. “They are not willing to give factories or companies like us a chance to prove and show them that it is possible to make domestically. If we can improve our efficiency, we can improve our competitiveness. But that needs continuity and volume.”

Zero-waste design

Shelly Xu grew up in China and Japan, and describes her upbringing as “humble,” living in a 70-square-foot home large enough to fit only a bed or table — “but not both.” (Her family rearranged the furniture throughout the day.) She said growing up with limited resources taught her how to be a creative problem-solver, which helped when she started New York-based SXD in 2022. One of her company’s taglines is “beauty under constraint.”

Xu is being awarded the Innovator of the Year Award at ISAIC for her dedication to fixing the fashion industry’s waste problem. She says her company is a “zero-waste” company. It uses patterns that consume as little raw material as possible and reuses leftover material for other designs.

“I remember thinking, all of (the brands) are interested and know that their consumers want more sustainable products,” Xu said. “But there are a lot of solutions out there today. They are more expensive, they’re complicated. They’re really hard to scale. I started thinking about zero-waste designs that can cut fabric cost at scale and actually bring them to life.”

“I kind of compare (fashion’s current process) to almost every time when you cook something, you go out into the supermarket, you buy completely new ingredients,” Xu said. “And then whatever you have left over from that dish, you just throw it away. And imagine doing that for every single meal. That is so wasteful.”

This will be Xu’s first time in Detroit. She says she’s excited to experience the buzz of the city while she’s in town.

“There’s such a hunger for innovation and for creativity,” Xu said. “I think that’s so exciting, because all I know (about the city) is working with the ISAIC’s team so far. … I feel like there’s such a collaborative spirit to figure it all out together.”

Detroit nonprofit honors sustainable fashion innovators · Outlier Media