1. Mitra Gruwell, DiscardUpcycling.com.

2. Sweet Skins Hemp, 850 W. 2nd Ave., 541-393-6925, SweetSkins.com.

3. Sierah, “SEW Fresh,” @sierahsewfresh.

“One thing we give ourselves permission to have as our own is our style,” Mitra Gruwell says. Gruwell has had a fashion passion for well over 20 years, and her designs have been all over Eugene. In her career, she has designed for St. Vinnie’s, Ballet Fantastique and MECCA, she’s owned her own store, and she’s thrown a number of local fashion shows since 2007 to benefit her nonprofit that teaches industrial sewing to people recovering from homelessness. 

Her latest project is Discard Upcycling, which has been her sustainable “anti-brand” since 2020. “You know how some fashion brands are just really all about their name?” she says, referring to how the name “Gucci” is as important as the article of clothing that dons it. “I was fantasizing about a time in the future when being proud of wearing something that’s upcycled or discarded would be on the same level as wearing a really fancy brand.” She envisioned people wearing her shirts with the word “Discard” scrawled across, as if to say, “I’m proud and it’s cool to wear something that was trash or discarded.” Discard Upcycling’s slogan is “Waste Alchemy,” she says, because “I’m transmuting waste into something of value.” She has recently shifted her focus heavily to holding classes and teaching people how to upcycle their own items. “A mindset that I’m trying to spread and encourage with all my teaching and all my work, is just showing people the value of old things,” she says. Whether it’s through her lessons, fix-it fairs or fashion shows, her favorite part of her craft is “repairing something old and watching it become usable again and valued again.”