These textile creations are made from 100% recyclable new clothes found in the mercados of Mexico – the final link in the Fashion Merchandising Chain.

Several times a month Wendy scours the local market for textiles that are ideal for her projects. Digging through piles of clothing on scores of market stall tables she finds some of today’s hottest fashions in shantung silk, raw linen, cashmere and other fine fabrics. The clothing comes from top-name brands including Tahari, Calvin Klein, Neiman Marcus, Ann Klein, Tommy Bahama, Patagonia, Banana Republic and Ann Taylor, just to name a few. If these gems don’t fit her (after all a girl needs clothes), they are cut, singed, felted and transformed into Wendy’s textile creations.

Many people are surprised to learn that these textile pieces are created from clothing that they could have spent hundreds of dollars for in US fashion stores. How did they end up in Mexico? Simple, there is life after retail.

Here’s a basic, familiar distribution channel.
Producer >>> Wholesaler >>> Retailer >>> Consumer

Clothing found in the markets
of Mexico line Wendy’s studio.

Some times clothing doesn’t make it through this chain. The producer might turn out pieces that are not faulty in their construction or fabric quality but they may have slight “imperfections” – a different button than originally specified by the designer or an incorrect size label – that result in the wholesaler or retail buyer rejecting those goods.

A retail buyer then pulls their order after the wholesaler received the clothing from the producer. As a result the wholesaler can’t find another buyer for the overstock. There may simply not be enough consumer interest in the latest trend to move all the inventory out of a retail store.

Regardless of the reason, these “seconds” often find their way to designer outlets, discount clothing stores and even charitable organizations like Goodwill. Many end up as bundles or “Las Bolas de Oro.” These “Balls of Gold” bundles will be sold for pennies on the pound in warehouses a few hundred feet from the US/Mexican border. There the customers, almost all Mexican citizens, pool their resources to buy 35-pound bundles, many of which have been trucked from New York or Los Angles, without ever knowing what’s rolled up inside.

“You never know what you'll get when you buy a bundle,” says Señor Garcia. “But there are always things in there that really are gold – they can wind up being big sellers in Mexico – and others that won't be. So the idea is, it all comes out in the wash.”

* “Las Bolas de Oro” information taken from “El Paso Journal; Clothes Sold by Pound Attract Mexican Buyers” published November 1997. Read the entire article on The New York Times site (here).

Creative Inspiration

I’m drawn to clean lines, black bordered separations to concentrate the eye on specific parts of the image and the patterns created by repetition of organic forms. Many people find similarities in my work to Japanese and far East Asian design. This is often not an intentional characteristic of a particular piece but rather just my innate aesthetic.

Most completed works begin as experiments for new techniques. Often it’s the techniques that I’m looking to further explore that will dictate the subject and theme of the piece. I first visualize all minute details of the design and how best to manipulate the various materials to achieve the effects I’m after. It’s a bit like working out a hypothesis for my experiment but that “head work” accounts for 75% of the completed works.  Once I’ve mentally cut, shaped and stitched every piece within the design, the design finally makes it to paper in the form of a sketch. Then fabrics are chosen from the stacks of reclaimed clothing in my studio and the real experiments begin. My original hypothesis begins to take shape as the final new work is formed.