VINTAGE-INSPIRED, FUTURE-FACING

VINTAGEINSPIRED,future-facing

CRAFTING ONE-OF-A-KIND LUXURY DESIGNS, BETH BENNETT IS INVESTED IN THE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE OF INDIE FASHION.

WORDS BY CAROLYN HADLOCK PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAUSS MILLER

Beth Bennett has a unique perspective on where fashion is headed because her design style is inspired by history and vintage fashion. She creates one-of-akind pieces, some reconstructed from vintage textiles and others where she incorporates vintage embellishments into new pieces. Her latest collection has a retro aesthetic inspired by the 1950s.

EVERY PIECE TELLS A STORY

Beyond her exquisite attention to detail and craft, Bennett’s work is informed by her training as a theatrical costume designer. She describes costume design as “a form of collaborative art. You’re creating art from a playwright’s words on a page. Beyond the written page, you’re working with set and lighting designers, choreographers, and the director who has to pull it all together.” While this exchange still energizes her, lately she has been drawing more inspiration from her inner muse. Bennett is unabashedly not into fast fashion, which has built itself up over the past decade to be a highvolume, homogenous, disposable retail machine. Her worst nightmare is to go into a Goodwill and see one of her pieces on a rack, even though Goodwill is one of her favorite haunts. To her, fashion is akin to art and should be cherished and preserved by passing it down to the next generation.

REPURPOSING WITH PURPOSE

She’s hopeful that the rise of sustainable fashion and the hipness of repurposing is here to stay. Iconic brands like Patagonia (with its “Worn Wear” collection and haute couture house) and Miu Miu (with its newest “Upcycled” collection, a limited selection of anonymous finds from the 1930s-'80s) prove that sustainability is more than a fad. Though she is happy that designers are not always starting with raw material, she is a bit trepidatious about reworking a designer garment. “If I were going to take a Nicole Miller jacket, for example, and turn it into something else, I would leave the former designer’s tag in the garment and add mine to it. It’s important in the sale of the garment to be very transparent about its provenance.” Another trend Bennett is thrilled about is inclusivity. “I am so into Christian Siriano. He’s my favorite current designer. He makes beautiful clothing, but he’s going to go down in history for embracing all body types.” Though she “isn’t a GAP store” having each piece in multiple sizes, Bennett wants to have something on her rack that is accessible from size 0 to size 18.

FASHION COMES FULL CIRCLE

When it comes to fashion’s future, Bennett says she sees consumers buying fewer pieces of more quality that will last longer and believes people will start repairing clothing again. “There will be a turning away from the consumerist blind sprint to the retail racks to cloak us with a look to more of a consciousness about oneself, a ‘wokeness’ about your personal style that carries societal and ethical responsibilities.” She sees innovation happening in fashion with apparel tech like AI to predict trends and on-demand purchasing technology to reduce the massive pre-order of unpurchased clothing that ends up in landfills at the end of every retail season. That said, she knows that consumers will always be comfortable with duality, especially when it comes to their fashion. “We will still crave our decadent visual flights of fancy and escapism as we lounge in our consciously purchased, sustainable knit uniforms.” ✂