The region’s industrial cotton heritage serves this type of cut-and-sew fashion well.
vintage flair: From a home studio in Marshall, where he moved post-Helene, maker and musician Ty Thomas crafts custom felt trilby and gambler hats that echo the swaggering, bluesy styles of the early 20th century.
riveting work: Using vintage machines rescued from dying cotton mills, Twin Denim Co. founder Lea Panteliodis turns deadstock fabrics, denim selvedge, and vintage threads into custom wearables.
Top notch: Thomas admits to being “frustratingly interested in doing things the hard way.” He relies on antique blocks and handmade tools to create hats with the same quality as those of the 1920s and ’30s.
Several of the his accessories appeared in the Netflix film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which won the 2021 Oscar for Best Costume Design with its historically accurate 1920s-era garments.
perfectly tanned: Shining Rock Goods owners Evar and Rebecca Hecht deal in bags, totes, wallets, clutches, and more, designing and producing everything in-house using top-grade, full-grain leather. They also produce cut-to-fit belts on the spot, finishing each custom accessory with the buyer’s choice of new or vintage buckle.
stitch fix: Piecing together her backgrounds in fashion design, business, and fine art, Libby O’Bryan founded Sew Co., “a creative design studio and urban sewing factory.” Inside an airy facility in the River Arts District, the team helps clients design, pattern, prototype, and produce sewn products with a high level of craftsmanship and attention to detail.
Founder Libby O'Bryan
eco apparel: Asheville slow fashion label Rite of Passage is known for its small-batch, durable clothing constructed with sustainable materials and practices. The line is currently on hiatus as founder Libby O’Bryan focuses on her domestic manufacturing endeavor, Sew Co.
fiber optics: More than 11 million tons of textile waste gets dumped into U.S. landfills annually. By regenerating that discard into new raw materials like fiber fill and industrial yarn, Material Return has diverted more than 2.6 million pounds of textile waste from landfills.
