Featuring 6 local + sustainable + women-owned businesses
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be taking part in the first ever Conscious Collective PopUp Shop from 9/16- 10/11, a beautiful & sustainable shopping experience including local art + fashion. This will also be the debut of my ReFashioned Art brand. The event is taking place at the WAYLA Studios event space (within the Modern Manor), in an extremely cool and art-centric area of Phoenix.
The Conscious Collective is the brainchild of Crystal Daniels, owner of Phoenix-based Designer Treasure Hunt, a designer resale business. Crystal has been planning and hosting popup shopping events for years now, but not quite like this- until now. Crystal had the vision of bringing together women who also shared similar values of shopping local, sustainable, and in a conscious manner. Within this group, the camaraderie and community runs strong, the competition low- not something you too often among a group of women.
The Conscious Collective is made up of six women-owned businesses who are sharing the space, including Designer Treasure Hunt, Soulcare in Surplus (shown above), Healing Seams, Tara Gamel Art, Vintage By Design, and ReFashioned Art (moi). I am inspired and delighted by each of them, their talent and the way they bring business to our community- local art, upscale designer and vintage resale and upcycled fashion.
I included a few shots from our branding photoshoot last month and of course some ‘behind the scenes’ shots, which are always so fun and sometimes end up being some of the best ones! The ones when you’re just hanging out goofing off… (thanks Jes!)
One of the Conscious Collective girls who is also a peer and a friend that I want you to know about is Jes Zaneis. She’s also someone that I consider an expander- someone who provides the example that ‘it’ can be done, so you can see yourself doing something you never thought were possible.
Her business (one of) is Soulcare in Surplus and she’s giving a whole new side to the term ‘sustainable fashion’. This is a business with purpose, using fashion for good and to tell the stories of our country’s history. She upcycles salvaged military gear and transforms each piece into everyday wardrobe and lifestyle essentials, such as bags and utensil holders. On the Soulcare in Surplus Instagram she shares extensive details about each of the garments rescued and the story behind where and from whom it originated.
Soulcare in Surplus is already blazing trails creating fashion in a way that no one else has thought of yet, and achieving a great feat both physically and metaphorically. The act of recreation symbolizes new beginnings and possibilities, while requiring resiliency and good design in order to preserve the integrity of such historical garments before recreating them into something new. The new designs draw a parallel between the past our military has lived and the transformation of what life after the military can be.
In five years from now Soulcare in Surplus is ….? I was most interested in what lies ahead for Soulcare when this local business is already so ahead of the curve in addressing numerous issues in our society today. Jes has BIG plans:
“We would like to have salvaged and transformed thousands of jackets by telling the stories of these hidden heroes through our uniquely crafted designs.
That we have a full line of shrapnel accessories that hold true to the zero waste footprint of utilizing every part of these materials.
That we have completed 5 veterans through the documentation process to enter their story into the Library of Congress.
And we have the beginning of a documentary to show the work we have created, the process of how sustainability transformed and feature all the causes our 25% fund has supported.
Follow Soulcare in Surplus on Instagram @soulcareinsurplus and on their website soulcareinsurplus.com
I’ll be sharing further details here in the coming weeks about the Conscious Collective and those taking part, but for all the good stuff please follow on the following social media channels: Conscious Collective Facebook and Instagram and of course follow my channels too please! @ReFashionedArt + @iamlauramadden on Instagram and @iamlauramadden + Laura Madden + ReFashionedArt on Facebook.