Spotlight On: Marcella Maki '14

Many people picture an organic, sustainable piece of clothing as the staple of the stereotypical Rastafarian: a ratty, hemp getup fit for a hippie.

Aside from British company People Tree, there exist only a handful of large, mainstream clothing corporations that engage in sustainable, fair trade fashion — a set of ethics outlined by the World Fair Trade Organization that, according to their charter, promote practices that use local, biodegradeable material, foster a “safe and heathy working environment” and implement “payment of a fair price.”

“There are so many chain stores like Forever 21 that utilize sweatshop labor [and] cause a lot of environmental damage,” said Marcella Maki ’14. “It’s a real problem because there aren’t a lot of sustainable options.”

A fashion enthusiast from East Longmeadow, Mass., Maki was granted a space at the Old Stone Mill — a collective of students pursuing independent creative endeavors in a renovated Mill in the town of Middlebury — to design and create a collection of clothing both beautiful and sustainable.

Largely due to the influence of close family members, Maki’s precocious interest in fashion took root in elementary school.

“When I was in sixth grade my sister got a subscription to Vogue, and I guess you could say that it all started there,” she said. “Fashion is ... interesting because it’s a form of art, and even though everyone doesn’t always see it that way there is that very artistic aspect to it.”

Maki plans to utilize local recycled and organic fair-trade base fabrics as well as vintage clothing to create a cohesive collection of six to eight pieces.

“I went to a thrift store in town called Neat Repeats and there were things there that I would look at and say ‘I would never, ever wear this’ — it would be just horrible — but then I would [realize that] a fabric was beautiful and a [certain] line was really nice,” said Maki. “I would [wonder] how I could bring [out] those features and make [the clothes] into something that a college student would really love.”

Although Maki intends to use her time at the OSM to improve upon her technical skills, she has experience sewing basic dress patterns, one of which she used to make her own prom dress.

“It was a vintage pattern from 1952 that had been resized. [It had] a fitted bodice [and] a full skirt — sort of a classic silhouette. I actually wore a petticoat to prom,” Maki said.

Maki worked on the project from late April until early June.

“My mom had to help me with the hem because we didn’t have a dress form, so I became the dress form,” she said. “I had to stand very still while my mom went around and fixed the entire hem, and since it was a circle skirt it was about eight to 10 yards of fabric. I was sewing my dress the day before prom for probably a good eight hours [trying] to finish it. It was definitely a project.”

Generally, Maki approaches a design in one of two ways, citing designer Zac Posen, Marchesa dresses and Gossip Girl as a few sources of inspiration.

“Just like writing a paper, there are a lot of drafts,” she said. “Sometimes I know right away what I want to make, [and] sometimes I’ll just have an idea in my head about a dress and see fabric somewhere and say ‘Oh, well, if I alter this part of my design then I can use this fabric.’ Sometimes you have to [revise] when you’re sewing because you realize [something] is technically impossible to [execute].”

A self-proclaimed “not-very-trendy” fashionista, Maki has decided to focus on the environmentally-friendly aspect of her project.

According to the Sustainable Cotton Project, the fiber footprint — the combined analysis of a material’s land, water, and carbon footprint — of conventional cotton per bale is more than two times that of the fiber footprint of basic cotton.

“I’m not going to become a famous fashion designer,” she said. “That’s not my goal in life; this is definitely just a hobby for me. The real reason I’m doing this is for awareness. There’s sort of this general environmental trend: people using more fuel efficient cars, using metal water bottles, and we need to do that across the spectrum, not just in the most obvious ways. You can make beautiful clothing that is also sustainable.”

Maki said that she might hold an exhibit or fashion show in the gallery space at the OSM with the finished collection.

“I would really love to have a little gathering to talk about [my collection]...and get people excited,” she said. “Other than that, I feel like [the clothes] will probably end up being gifts. But, I will definitely have to keep one [outfit] for myself.”