about us

Sarah Zins works out of her San Francisco studio, crafting modern, original, and wearable pieces from the the most beautiful found fabrics. Only high-quality reused and remnant silk, wool, cotton, and cashmere (with some new threads and trims thrown in) make it into our clothes. There are no token eco-pieces, just a distate for waste and a commitment to making what's old new again. All pieces are sewn in San Francisco by Sarah and friends.

We hope that by knowing the provenance of the things you wear, you can feel like you don't have to feel guilty about looking good.

We'd love to hear comments and questions about our pieces, our process, or our company. Email us at inquiries@sarahzins.com

our process

Why repurposed fabrics? The idea took shape when I decided to start my own line of clothing. I wanted to push the envelope of handcrafted, sustainable products. Any fabric production uses water and energy, and often leaves pollution from growing, harvesting, or processing behind. Organic cotton, bamboo, organic wool – all of these, while a better choice than their predecessors, have their drawbacks. Using repurposed fabrics takes advantage of material that has already been produced, and it allows us so many choices of fiber and color without so much waste.

It's also fun trying to find the raw material (beautiful worn fabric) to put into our pieces. We have several sources, but our favorite is Goodwill of San Francisco, part of a nationwide non-profit organization that provides employment programs and services for people all over the country and diverts thousands of tons of waste from landfills every year.

Each piece of clothing we select for repurposing is chosen because of its fiber content (silk, wool, cashmere, or cotton) and its color. First, we carefully wash all pieces in a plain old domestic washing machine. Sturdier cottons are tumble-dried to preempt any shrinkage. Any sweaters we use for our felted jackets, be they wool or cashmere, are sent through the dryer to shrink and felt them. This makes the knit material thicker, keeps it from unraveling when cut, and makes it really warm.

Then, we cut out all seams, buttons, and pockets of each garment to get to a flat, clean piece of fabric. We keep any zippers, buttons, and scraps for future pieces.

Once the fabric is flat, we work it into our patterns. Usually, two, three, and sometimes four garments get to be part of a new piece. This is what we're especially good at, and fitting a few different garments into a whole, coherent new piece is our biggest challenge. What if the cutter doesn't have a big enough piece of fabric to fit a particular pattern piece? Then she needs to add a seam somewhere, and possibly introduce another fabric in a complementary color into the mix. It takes a keen design eye and a little geometry to make it work, and our process doesn't lend itself well to mass-production, as the fabric for every piece needs to be cut one at a time.

Finally, we love the details. Many of our pieces are finished with french seams, which take a little longer, but produce a more beautiful and enduring dress or blouse. We also love hand-sewing and incorporate it into lots of pieces (not just the repurposed ones), like the applique on dress #6 or the pintucks on our remnant tunic. It takes a lot of time, skill, and a love of our work to make these last details come together, but we hope you'll agree that it's worth our while.

What do we waste? Hopefully, not much. We keep everything that doesn't go into the final product: cut-out seams, buttons, zippers, and the smallest scraps. We're working to develop new designs that use these leftover bits and still have the same simple, beautiful, and wearable aesthetic that our staple pieces enjoy. Stay tuned!