What is Fashion From Scratch?

I’m old enough to remember a time before fast fashion. Most of my clothes were thrifted from Value Village, plucked from the clearance racks at Marshall’s and Ross (Dress For Less), or, as a treat, bought on sale at deep, deep discounts from Macy’s (or, Foley’s, for those who remember). But while I never really had the benefit of a ton of money to spend on clothes, what I did have was knowledge: I had a mother and grandmother who emphasized the importance of good fabrics and taught me how to spot bad quality; once I started making things for myself, I would spend hours taking garments apart just to figure out how to put them together; and, at my arts magnet high school (Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, class of 2010, baby!) I pretty much lived in the costume shop, where the amazing, kinda mean but low-key lovable and incomparable Mary D’avignon taught me everything from how to make patterns to draping to French seams to…you get the picture.

To say I have a deep appreciation for clothes—and how they’re made—would be an understatement.

But, as fast fashion has exploded into the one hundred billion dollar industry it is today, the average person has become so divorced from the labor that creates the clothes we wear everyday, that many have been deceived into believing that those clothes—and that labor—have hardly any value at all. There are even people who think robots make all our clothes!

Try as I might, I cannot singlehandedly bring down fast fashion, but, what I can do is, hopefully, inspire the same appreciation of clothes in others that has defined so much of my life’s work, and the best way I know to do that is by educating.

Through interviews with fashion creators; breakdowns of techniques and the process of making garments and accessories; and a little fashion history for context, Fashion From Scratch is a place to learn what goes into our wardrobes.

I intend this newsletter to be an approachable and accessible resource, meaning I have no intention of ever charging you to read it. But, if you’d like to support me, Lakyn Carlton, you can hire me as your personal stylist, become a paid subscriber to my other newsletter all about personal style and sustainability, or, send me a tip! Or not. I’m just happy you’re here.