Designer Kristin Mallison has a knack for finding the fashion in everything. An old couch? That's a corset. An elaborate curtain? That's a gorgeous minidress. But it's not just about taking unexpected items and making them new again. Her work, which is beloved and worn by celebrities like Millie Bobby Brown, BLACKPINK's Lisa, Kacey Musgraves, Asha Banks, Lila Moss and Margot Robbie, shows one small designer's impact on a very large problem in the fashion industry.
“After I graduated, I started trying to work in fashion, and I just saw how wasteful it was,” Mallison tells Teen Vogue over Zoom. The designer found that textiles used in home decor and furniture are made to last longer than clothing — making them a great solution for her.
Now, her made to order pieces are truly one of a kind works of art. Ahead, we spoke to Mallison about fashion's sustainability problems, the struggles of starting a small fashion brand, and how she comes up with her unique designs.
Kristin Mallison: I've always focused on upcycling and repurposing materials because I went to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and their fashion program really pushed for recycling. But even before I started at the school, I did. Maybe that's why I really pursued going there. I just continued that through my degree there, and after I graduated, I started trying to work in fashion, and I just saw how wasteful it was, because I think that was a romantic fashion school thing: making one-off pieces, going to thrift stores. And really, when you get into the fashion industry, it's mass-producing things. So yeah, I flipped through a bunch of different little starting positions, then got really disenchanted with everything and segued into interior design. They really specialized in making window treatments, like curtains and stuff.
And that was just so different from working in fashion for me, and it kind of reinvigorated and inspired me in my own practice. And I started making things again in the evenings after work because, after graduation, I think I was so burnt out. And then the jobs I was finding weren't really inspiring me, so I needed to leave fashion to rediscover what I really love about it. So yeah, that really, I guess, launched me into doing repurposed interior fabrics.
KM: There was a used-furniture store in Bushwick, right by my work. And I would go there a lot, actually, on my lunch breaks and stuff, and they sold tons of just loose or mismatched dining room chairs. So I started to take those apart. And it used some similar techniques to the things we were making at work, but it was so different from fashion. The way things were made meant that they were so much more meant to last. And so the materials were really heavy-duty. And the techniques were different. I think I started to apply that to making clothes the same way.
KM: So the way that I really got started was there's a small downtown store called Cafe Forgot. They carry a lot of small up-and-coming designers. I think they follow that same ethos, too. A lot of the designers aren't mass-producing things. They're making one-of-a-kind, small-run stuff. And so a few people I graduated with in Cafe Forgot's early days were good friends with them. And I really wanted to get involved, so I just went to the store, introduced myself, and we became Instagram friends. And eventually they asked to carry my work in their store. Before that, I wasn't really focusing on it in a business way. I was just making things for fun, and I was just trying to get back into fashion again, I guess. Yeah. So then, once there was this outlet to make things and sell things that could fund me to keep going, I slowly grew on Instagram and then realized I could make my career out of it. It probably took about three or four years before I could focus on it full-time.
KM: So a lot of that in the beginning was coming from people shopping at stores. There was an opportunity with Annie's Ibiza; Margot Robbie bought a dress that I was stocking with her. Then last year, Kacey Musgraves started following me and reached out to me directly. So I've made several things for her latest U.S. tour. And so it's cool because now there's just a certain level of exposure to where maybe people are discovering me and talking to me directly rather than through retailers. And I've been trying to branch out, and I do a lot of shopping on eBay and Etsy, and I find vintage prom dresses because I think of really fantastical things that maybe get worn once and discarded. So I've tried to apply that to things beyond interior fabrics, like I was upcycling ballet shoes, like a point shoe.
KM: I've seen a lot of ballerinas as classic imagery in paintings. So I think I've just been interested in their costumes. I know that they go through a pair of shoes a week, so I was just trying to think how wasteful that is. And can you find them even if they're beat up? And I actually found lots of point shoes on eBay, which is how I started getting them and taking them apart. But since then, I've actually connected with a few Prima Ballerinas for American Ballet Theater.
KM: Yeah, thank you. Yes, definitely, I want to make things people can relate to that aren't too conceptual. So I think I'm very material-focused. I keep the silhouettes and stuff kind of minimal, and that's just a way of making it approachable. And I think that wearability is important too. It's a good way for people to actually appreciate these materials if you keep it something they can maybe recognize what the original material came from. I think the ballet shoe direction was like, you can tell what it used to be. And I think that's really interesting too.
KM: Unfortunately, I've just made a lot of samples really small because I only have this much fabric. But I've started offering sizes up to 18 on my site. But every once in a while I'll get just a DM or something where someone's like, "Oh, this doesn't come in my size." And so I'm always trying just to make things custom to measure. I think that's my biggest way I've branched out into more size inclusivity: a lot of those stock items. But if someone sees something on my site and wants it in a specific size, maybe the end result will be a little bit different because materials are limited.
KM: I'm very motivated to make for every size, not just larger size runs. I think every order I get, I always reach out to the customer and ask if they can send me their measurements, just so I can make sure that the fit is going to be excellent.
KM: With being small, I think it's easy to think, “Oh, I want to scale up my business.” And so I have to make production runs. But even if I find success with my work, I want to stay small. But I think at the same time, it's what keeps the work special. Maybe keeping it a very small operation, my hope is that it will prevent it from fizzling out because I think that some things can be hot and of the moment, but then a brand, maybe a small brand, tries to grow, and in doing so, maybe becomes less sustainable than they were in the beginning. And I'm pretty committed to making sure I do things differently.
KM: I have a huge goal: to be on the New York Fashion Week calendar. I've never had a runway show, but if I were to do one, I'd want it to be the most legit way possible. So I'm not in a rush, but that's my goal, to debut more seriously.
