Wearable Art: a conversation with @asch_reclaimed

What’s significant about your brand’s name, and the word ‘reclaimed’? Why did you choose that name and what do you hope to convey to your audience?

I can’t use the word ‘reclaimed’ for my brand, without including ‘Asch,’ my last name. It has a dual meaning: I’m taking something that someone has thrown away, donated, or given away, and reclaiming it to give it a new life. I like to say, “from the ashes, a Phoenix rises,” because it takes something burning down–or in this case, someone using it before– in order to rise up stronger.

On a personal note, I’m named after my grandfather, Mark Asch, who emigrated from Poland to America in order to escape the Holocaust. I never got the chance to meet him because he died when my dad was 20, so sometimes I feel like I’m reclaiming his legacy too since he had to change his last name when he moved.

What experiences led you to start shopping secondhand?

I was dressed by my mom for a long time, and then at some point, in late middle school or early high school, I looked at myself and was like, ‘Oh my god I look like a dweeb.’ So that’s when I knew I needed to start fitting myself. I think I just didn’t like going to the mall with my mom and sister because it would drag on for hours. I’m from Boston so instead, I started to go thrifting with my friends in Cambridge or Austin to check out Buffalo Exchanges and Savers. I have a lot of good memories going to Savers with my friends and picking out clothes we thought were cool.

When did you begin to gain interest from other people for your work? Were people asking you to make new items for them?

It started with people just complimenting me on my clothes or asking me where I got them from, and I would tell them I upcycled it for myself. It started with close friends who were like, “Can you make this for me?” but then other people started to express interest in purchasing my upcycled clothes. Once I started to get requests for customs, I began selling my stuff online.

Give us a rundown of what sustainability means to you; and what does ‘closing the loop,’ means to you?

Not to mince words, but sustainability in fashion, to me, is a clusterfuck. The fashion industry is a microcosm of all the problems izn our culture, including so many different intersectional issues; social, racial, economic, etc. I don’t think we need any more clothes made– the waste in the fashion industry is crazy!

It’s a linear system in which clothes are made to go to waste and that’s just what we do. It represents a normative issue about our cultural values and what we value as a society. Why are we such consumers? I feel like North America has a global role to play because we set the example for a lot of industrialized countries. You don’t have people in the global South wasting or contributing to climate change at our rate, but they’re disproportionately experiencing its impacts. That realization was a big wake-up moment for me.

At what point were you interested in making your own clothes using the things you thrifted? Your pieces take cues from workwear brands, but what exactly are you normally looking to add or change to your clothes?

I’d say the biggest thing for me is functionality, and I always want more pockets! I found this fanny pack at a thrift store and thought it’d be cool if I sewed it onto a hoodie or onto a pant pocket. So I sewed it onto some pants a few years ago during COVID, which led me to start customizing clothing for myself. The biggest thing about fast fashion is that it’s cheaply made and therefore not durable. I would say I get a lot of inspiration from workwear brands like Carhartt and Ben Davis, which last so long as they’re made out of good materials.

Where and how do you source the materials you use?

I’ll get fanny packs, satchels, or pockets that are already made, and just sew them onto stuff that I find. I’ll just think, ‘Oh, this would be cool if I just stuck that on there.’ If I’m doing a custom order for something specific, I’ll look on eBay, but it can take a while to find the right pieces. In general, I usually get scraps from thrift stores and the Goodwill bins. I love the element of searching for materials because you never know what you’re going to find, and I think that’s what makes it so engaging and interesting for me.

Do you have any source of inspiration or do you kind of just go with the flow?

It’s usually the spur of the moment. Since graduating, I’ve put a lot more time into it. I get a lot of inspiration from nature and I think I want my visual identity to be in the realm of scientific communication, through these kinds of these natural motifs. I’ve started to take pictures of all the clothes, fabrics, pockets, and patches I have, and I’ll put them into Photoshop to piece them together and to see what fabrics I like. That has really helped me with my process. I think creativity for me is like problem-solving, and the cool thing about what I do is that I challenge myself. You can get a manufacturer to make whatever you want, but it’s fun to be like: ‘Okay, these are the materials I’m limited with; these are the pieces I’m limited with, what can I make like out of this?’