In this interview, we talked to Akilah Stewart, founder of the creative waste management company FATRA, about how excess waste and limitations in fashion pushes her creative designs
All right, so could you provide a brief introduction into who you are, your creative experience, and any projects you're currently working on?
Yes, definitely. Hello, my name is Akilah Stewart. I am the founder and head creative director of FATRA. FATRA is a creative waste management company that basically looks at excess within the fashion industry and within other industries and brings them together to create new products, so reintroducing waste back into the manufacturing and the production cycle to keep more of a circular system, to keep things from being polluted, to keep our environment from being polluted, and yeah, so that's who I am and that's what I do.
I know you mentioned some, like, launches that you're working on now?
Oh, yes! So I'm also, I've just released the Shit Is Getting Wild collection, which features florals and animal print handbags made of recycled plastic bottles and dead stock materials, dead stock leathers, vintage items, all discor-, discarded items, so everything that normally would be trash, and so that's up currently. And we probably will have some more holiday items with other brands, other ethical brands for some more packaged, like boxed goods coming closer to holiday.
Cool, that sounds beautiful! So what inspired your, like, gearing towards, like, waste management and like the intersection of that with fashion?
Because fashion is so wasteful. There's so many places, there's so many, yeah, I guess places within different industries that you can find and access or find more efficient ways of doing things to not waste labor time or resources. And for me, fashion was always an expression because it's something that you can see from afar and engage people with without having to say a word. So for me, fashion is very much so an expression, and an expression in many different ways, political expression and social expression, so, yeah. That's, that's that.
And what, what was the process like when you were first starting your company?
Wow. Well, I first started the company in 2017 in Hawaii, in Honolulu, where I stacked up all of this plastic and I didn't know that recycling wasn't mandatory there, and so I was carrying my New York ways in Hawaii and I ended up with all of these plastic bottles, as well as just seeing plastic wash up on the shore, coming from other countries, you know, coming from Korea, coming from China, coming from Japan. We get stuff from California washed up and it's just close to the Pacific Gyre, so where everything, all this pollution just ends up and just stays in like a whirlpool and a lot of it ends up in Hawaii. So with that being said, I saw that the movement for preventing plastic usage in one time use plastics was becoming a very big thing. However, it didn't really address what we do with the waste that we currently have. So while I feel like it does put a cog in the wheel in one area, it's also not going to stop the, it's not going to stop the, the movement as fast as we're using one time use bags, bottles, plastic in general, which connects itself to a lot of other socioeconomic issues globally. So I think just looking at that locally in Hawaii and seeing how plastic and waste in general was just a huge issue, it just made me want to tackle that and through fashion, just because basically, like I said, it's something that you can view from afar and you don't have to have a conversation, but if you, you're going to grab the eye of people it's, then it becomes a conversation starter. So I think fashion is very powerful in that way.
And did you have an interest in fashion when you were growing up?
I can't say that I had a formal one, but prior to 2017, I want to say about 2010, I started designing shoes also called Sweet and Salty shoes, kind of with the same nucleus of just recycling and using what you have and building on that versus always having to buy more. So, yeah, and when I was younger, I think I always had a thing for, you know, music videos and magazines and I mean, who doesn't enjoy all those things as a little girl? So I think yes, but I wasn't into it formally. I think it's just something, you know, in the DNA, honestly. I feel like Black women especially, we have so many things that we like to dress up for, you know, reunion-, family reunions and church and...You just, you can make a celebration out of anything and it's generally through clothes, is where you show that expression of celebration. So I think it was just always there. It was always a part of my growing up, and then I actually went to school formally for biology. And I kind of think sustainable fashion allows me to use my science brain in, in that way to looking at something, deconstructing, rebuilding, experimenting, so I still very much have a lot of that, but outside of the formal schooling. It was something else, it was like, there's other way to get information out without having it to be in text, and I think that's just also something ancestral, you know, storytelling through fashion, storytelling in general, storytelling through art. So I think, I think more than being a fashion designer, I think I'm a storyteller. And it just so happens that the vehicle is fashion.
And what is your current creative process like?
A lot of weed. Hahaha, can I say that? Um, no, but honestly, it's, so as I was saying, my collection, This Shit is Getting Wild, it's probably also the second installation, installment of that collection, and it's just generally what I feel or what I'm inspired by. Most of the time I'm traveling, so I get inspired by the things that I see there, the artists and communities there. I love to collaborate with artisans from all over the world, so. This year, I haven't traveled at all, which is very not like me at all. Generally, at least two countries a year, and being that we have- and we just had a lockdown, I was just like, wow, this shit is really wild, like, you can't go, you can't travel. That was definitely part of it, just, and I had to close down my studio, bring everything to my house, so I'm like, homing in my house, working in my house, chilling in my house, being in my house, drinking in my hou-, it just. So, yeah, I was just kind of inspired by what I housed, the outdoors and, you know, nature. I started gardening and learned a lot from that. Yeah, and I think overall, I just, the process is just coming with inspiration or with the feeling and then I get scraps, you know, a set of scraps from somewhere, shout out FabScrap, shout out Wearable Collections. Yeah, they're awesome and amazing, and I just basically look at the scraps and kind of build what kind of story I want to tell, so it's not the reverse where generally you're like, I want pink this and I want blues and I want purples and you go out and find that. I generally just look at what it is I have and see how that can, how that can basically speak for me, whatever the inspiration may be. So, yeah, it's, it's all pretty whimsy.
Yeah. I love, like, the idea that you have to, like, work with what you have because it also pushes you. I know I'm not supposed to be talking in the interview, but it definitely pushes a lot of boundaries when you, like, understand that you have a more limited structure, you know, really pushes for designs, I think.
Yeah, I think, I think that's what, that's what makes it what it is. That's, having the limit, having the lack thereof, having to be, you know, in New York...Same, you know, people have small apartments, but you'll go in some apartments and you'll see how they make it work, and, you know, storage under here, hanging this year, and it, it creates character once you do that, and it builds your, a muscle that people who may have always had the thing don't have. And, and that's not, that's not like a brag or boast. It's just literally what it is, you know, it's the consequence of having less, but yes, being in a limited space does make you think way more outside of the box than I think you normally would if you didn't have such limitations. And I think we, we are in, right now with climate change and all the stuff that's happening, we are within strong limits, so we need to be super creative and, you know, really look around and see what it is that we can do with what we're having to be regenerative and revitalizing versus just being extractive.
Yeah, definitely. And how do you feel that your creative process has sort of evolved up until this point?
Well, like I said, you know, I used to travel a lot more and I miss that aspect a lot, so I think. Yet again, just being, having these limits, whether it be on space or, you know travel...You're going to have to figure it out. So really, I think the tweak to my creative strategy now is just, I think more motivational talks, like don't worry it doesn't look like what it normally looks like, but you still got this. You know, I think a large part of my morning is just like, keep-, it's all right, it's all right, you know, so I think that's a, that's a big tweak, whereas before, you know, it's more clockwork. Ok, I know I'm going to do this by this time, this by this time, this by this time, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Everything is like, you know, butter. Now everything is like ah, er, ah.
Well, you know, that leaves room for more design and more creativity.
There you go. There you go. You know, pivot, don't panic.
Well, I was just curious, like, where you see, like the future of your company going.
Well, hopefully next year, 2021, I want to do a creative waste residency, artist residency. So I think the pinnacle of FATRA is, is definitely like infrastructure, building sustainable communities. But next year, I do want to go into creative waste and just kind of, seeing what it is that we can capture before it gets to landfill once we pick it up so that maybe we can actually have things better designed or have better systems put in place. If we see that we're getting lots of glass bottles or lots of plastic bottles from a certain company, you know, doing the, what is it? I forget what it's called, like a trash inventory and seeing what companies are showing up and yeah, create something with that or a system that can help it run better without all of the waste. So, yeah, just getting a lot, lots of like minds who also want to work in creative waste management together and seeing what it is that we can do. So that's something that I'm looking forward to building next year or in a couple of months. But overall, just bringing the whole reworked idea to brands, just seeing where they have excess, where they're wasting either labor, you know, people's time and where they're, there's excess materials or whatever it is, and how we can keep that in rotation without just having warehouses of it for no reason or having to burn it or...There's, I think that, yet again, we were talking about limits, right, so when companies have these big budgets and they don't have limits, they can buy all of this stuff and they can also just throw it away just as easily, yeah, because there's no limit. They have the spending power to waste and they do. And they don't think twice about it because it's just literally a part of the business. It's just like, OK, well, that didn't make it. And I just want to help brands and let them know that there's a lot of things that they can still do with the excess that they have or to just cut out the excess in general. A lot of brands are not connected to where they're getting a lot of things sourced and produced and I think if that was all, not even necessarily in-house, but if everyone at least had a link and a chain to know their supplier and their producer and the manufacturer, I think that that in itself could cut out waste right there, waste of energy, transportation, having things shipped from overseas. So, yeah, I think just working with brands in general to raise their awareness, but also, on the creative end side, seeing how we can actually change systems to become more circular.
Thank you once again for making the time to meet with me!
No worries, and it was definitely fun. Thank you, enjoy your weekend, be safe, travel safe, thank you. Goodbye.
Check out FATRA on Instagram or Facebook at @hifatra or at their website!
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