Check Out Katessia Robertson’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katessia Robertson

Hi Katessia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My story of becoming the owner of a social enterprise starts as a typical young adult consumer living in the United States. In college, I had a job at a fast-fashion store. This led me to develop a habit of buying new clothes often, as I had access to a discount and felt the need to show up to work in clothes from the store. After I stopped working at the fast fashion store and no longer had access to the discount, I started thrifting all of my clothes. This was a cheaper alternative to the fast fashion habit I had developed and still allowed me to express my personal style. From this, I started thrifting clothes to sell them on Depop and created a side hustle that was fun and impactful. My goal was to give consumers an option to purchase clothing sustainably.

A couple of years later, I moved to Colorado for Grad School. I got a Master’s in Social Work with a concentration in Ecological Justice from The University of Denver. Throughout the program, I learned about the social and environmental harms of the fashion industry. I also learned that fashion justice is intersectional with many other justice issues such as racial and animal justice. As a result of my education, I started The Clothing Cycle in my last year of grad school to help prevent clothing from going to landfills and focus on healing the harm the fashion industry causes to our society.

The Clothing Cycle keeps clothing out of the garbage by organizing clothing swaps, upcycling, and our curated shop. We do our clothing swaps mutual-aid style by encouraging people to take the clothing they need, pay what they can, & build community with one another. Upcycling is the act of taking secondhand clothing and creating something else out of the material. We do upcycling ourselves, and support local upcyclers in the Denver area by supplying them with materials. The Clothing Cycle’s curated shop includes a curated secondhand collection and our one-of-a-kind upcycled pieces. Our secondhand clothing is all pay what you can to keep clothing accessible to everyone. Surplus clothing that The Clothing Cycle receives from our clothing swaps and donations goes to the local houseless community.

The Clothing Cycle’s tagline is Swap, Shop, Justice.

Want to come to one of our events? Follow us on Instagram, join our email list, or check out our community event calendar at linkpop.com/theclothingcycle.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Starting a business that focuses on social and environmental justice has been challenging. In the beginning, I was highly knowledgeable about the ecological harms of the fashion industry, but I had a lot to learn about how to own and operate a business. The biggest challenge I have faced is finding a balance in focusing on both profitability and justice.

Because of the amount of clothing we consume in the United States, there is a surplus of clothing that people give away. I cannot emphasize this enough, we consume so much clothing here. Globally, textile waste is a huge problem. It is a part of our culture to see textiles as disposable and to get rid of them after only a few wears. These items we throw away, or that are donated and never sold, add up. The cumulative impacts affect communities around the world that are not responsible for the problem. This has also been a challenge to my business – we get a lot of clothes. But, figuring out a system that makes sense for taking clothing donations is critical to solving the problem of textile waste where it starts.

You can learn more about how textile waste affects communities around the world at stopwastecolonialism.com and collectivefashionjustice.org or talk to us about it at our clothing swaps!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Apart from being a social worker and a business owner, I also consider myself an artist. My business model is art, a creation that I have been nurturing for the past 5 years. Art is also a big part of my business and my life. The Clothing Cycle receives an abundance of clothing items, but sometimes not all of these clothes are wearable. Clothing items that we receive that are stained, torn, out of style, or otherwise unwearable are set aside for to be upcycled. Upcycling is the act of taking secondhand clothing materials and creating something else. Typically, these items are one of a kind. I make upcycled fabric patches, pillows, sewing pin cushions, and clothing items. I do a lot of designs that play with color, texture, and patchwork. It brings me great joy to create art out of things that would otherwise not be used by others.

Upcycling is a very important part of The Clothing Cycle’s system. It ensures clothing material is not wasted. But, we can’t do it alone. I want to take this moment to shout out all of the wonderful artists that we work with to keep materials out of the landfill. AWExclusives, Altrd Apparel, Setiya Fashion, and SuprSaturated are only a couple of local fashion designers that source materials from The Clothing Cycle. We open our doors to any other creatives that want to make things from secondhand clothing materials. Please reach out to us if you want to get creative with textiles!

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Something surprising that most people who know about The Clothing Cycle may not know about me is that I love road trips!

Pricing:

• Clothing Swap Collaboration – $50 Deposit
• Upcycling Sewing Club – $20 Material Supply
• Upcycled Clothing Commission – $50-$200

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theclothingcycle.com
• Instagram: theclothingcycleshop
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/theclothingcycledenver
• Other: https://linkpop.com/theclothingcycle