The Recycled Fashion of Arizona

Jennyvi Dizon is a contributing writer for Earth 911. Become an Earth 911 contributor.

Reuse, recycle, trade and recreate are what these Arizona designers do to give life to many vintage items, old furniture and even old tires. Angela Johnson, Miachelle DePiano, and Angela Riccobono tell us how they turn something old and ordinary into something fashion forward extraordinary.

Angela Johnson decided to start making her well-known T-shirt ball gowns due to the lack of industry resources Arizona has. Johnson explains, “I used to have a line in LA that I mass produced. When I moved to AZ, I found that there was no way for me to mass produce my line from here because there were no wholesale fabric vendors or contractors, etc. So, that’s when I got the idea to use what was available to me, which was T-shirts.”

After the well known fashion designer made her first ball gown out of T-shirts, she was asked by many to make them in different lengths, silhouettes and of course request for certain Tees. Johnson finds many of the T-shirts at local thrift shops and says that there is an abundance of them just waiting to be cut up and sewn together into a wearable ball gown. She also offers various other recycled garments. For example, she turned thrift shop men’s button down shirts into skirts, to corsets to again ball gowns. But, the T-shirt ball gowns are her best sellers and are consistently the favorite.

Local jewelry designer Miachelle DePiano uses wood scraps that were initially used to make large furniture and many vintage finds for many of her pieces. “I have a friend who makes furniture and coffins, and when he has some really nice scraps, like spalted poplar, he makes me some really unique pieces and sends them to me. I also look for vintage items, such as the antique Chinese mother-of-pearl poker chips (1900-1940) I use,” says DePiano. She also finds many of her materials through very traditional ways, even through the good old barter system. “You will find jewelry designers recycle sometimes when we get together and we trade product. What one designer may think is no longer a good piece to use in his/her designs, another jewelry designer will look at it and know s/he can use it.”

With the inflated cost of living and materials, DePiano is finding that she is an avid re-user. When a jewelry piece is broken or if she is not happy with a design, she will take it apart, reuse everything and use it for countless other creations. DePiano states that as jewelry designers you can’t afford not to recycle, especially when sterling silver and gold is over twice as much as it once was two years ago.

Eco-friendly accessory designer Angela Riccobono makes purses, wallets, belts, cuffs, messenger bags, custom products and even sometimes clothing out of rubber from bicycle tires, and is raising awareness through her creations. She is adamant about how things are made, making sure all of her products are designed and created through proactive involvement in minimizing waste and consumption. “There are many reasons why I recycle rubber through my creations, but a few of the reasons why I have such passion to use it is because: I’m reusing goods that would otherwise be toxic to the environment, by taking up space in the land fill, or alternatively being burned.”

Her creation process is long and vigorous, from collecting the materials from bike shops or from friends, then she washes and cuts the rubber, and pieces them together from scratch using her industrial sewing machine. For the last step she goes on a bargain hunt to find one-of-a-kind vintage prints and patterns to incorporate into many of her products.

Like many of the growing businesses, these owners are very conscious about the image they publicly portray. At the same time, they incorporate some Earth-friendly techniques into their every day business while making a statement in green fashion.

Jennyvi Dizon
Fashion Designer
Custom Bridal and Evening Wear