RECYCLING MEETS FASHION
TROY, N.Y. » What happens to old clothes no one wants? Many hats, mittens, and other garments end up in landfills, but some come to Kathleen Tesnakis
Tesnakis is the owner of EkoLogic, located at 1 Fulton St. There she and her small staff cut up used cashmere products - hats, gloves, sweaters, etc. - and turn them into new, fresh designs.
On Thursday, she gave Mayor Patrick Madden and Commissioner of Planning Steven Strichman a tour of her business.
Tesnakis started her business in Portland, Oregon, back in 1996. She noticed a great deal of the clothing material being produced in America was ending up in landfills.
“Twenty-two years ago I realized this was a major problem and no one was addressing it, so what I did is I started looking at the different fabrics I felt could be recycled post-consumer,” she said .
Wool material is what she mainly works with. Tesnakis said she has a partnership with a large clothing dealer who, before shipping clothes overseas, gives her first-pickings. Tesnakis takes the clothes and what- ever she ends up with is what informs her own, unique designs.
“We don’t know what material is going to come through,” she said, though she knows all the material comes from the New York City metro area.
She showed Madden an item in her animal print collection, a group of six garments that took five years of hoarding an-
imal print material to get enough to make.
While many of her pieces were put together from four or six items, Tesnakis’ designs don’t appear patchedtogether.
“This kind of feels like it’s more about wearable art than clothing,” said Madden.
“What I’m asking people to do is think about your clothing everyday, and not use disposable items, and be more connected to the people that make them,” said Tesnakis. She likened what she and other small artisans are doing to the organic food trend, which values local sources and sustainability.
Tesnakis said her businesses also reuses as much of its own scrap as possible, and could reuse even more if it had access to a shredder
arlier this summer, the city rolled out a textile recycling program aimed at keeping unwanted clothing material out of landfills. Drop locations are at Fire Department Central Station – 2175 6th Avenue (rear alley), Fire Department Station #1 – 115th Street and 5th Avenue, Fire Department Station #3 – 530 Campbell Avenue, and South Troy – Corner of Main Street and E. Industrial Parkway (Alamo facility).