With fall finally arriving, I have been thinking of some cute fall outfit inspiration. I was also wondering how I can shop for fall clothes sustainably with my college budget, and find places that are conveniently located near me. With this, I remembered seeing 215.Upcycled on my Instagram feed, which seemed to check off all these boxes. I contacted the creator of the boutique, Isabella, to get more information about her boutique as well as advice on how to shop sustainably on Temple University’s campus.
215.upcycled is an upcycled, reworked, and custom apparel boutique on Instagram run and made by junior Temple student, Isabella. She explained how she started an Instagram account simply just to sell her old clothes that were not getting worn any longer. After seeing how many clothes she sold and the success of the account, she was inspired to use her creativity, drive, and passion for thrifting to start re-working thrifted items and selling them on her account. She began to rework vintage items by bleaching, ripping, and cropping old tee shirts and jeans, making these thrifted items more trendy and appealing to college students. From creating these new pieces, she began gaining more followers and customers. This drove her to want to do more, learn more, and create more with her online shop. Over quarantine, she began playing with her sewing machine, and learned how to make more difficult pieces such as matching sets made from a singular shirt or out of one sweater. Today, her online boutique has accumulated over 3,800 followers, and she even just recently launched 215.upcycled’s website. She sells everything from reworked graphic tees, biker shorts, tie-dye sweatsuits, screen printed graphic tees/tanks, jeans, and pants. The website also offers a few different collections that you can shop. The Harley Davidson collection consists of reworked Harley Davidson graphic tees, sweatshirts, polos, and sets. The College Collection is a custom order collection of sweatshirts, sweatpants, tees, and visors for the college of your choice.
Her shop has been so successful that she has even sold up to 350 pieces all around the country and even to Canada! Best of all, she is located right here on Temple’s campus, and does pick-ups/ drop-offs at her apartment.
Isabella explained to me how her shop is fully sustainable and a better alternative to buying from first-hand shops and boutiques. All of her materials, fabrics, and clothing items are sourced from thrift shops, second-hand websites and other second-hand sources. She re-works the scrap items collected from the other clothing articles that she made. She also never buys first-hand fabric, uses minimal packaging, and makes all of her packaging compostable.
Isabella left me some tips to share on how to shop sustainably going forward, especially here at Temple. She suggests visiting the thrift shops here in Philly. These recommendations include: Retrospect Vintage and Buffalo Exchange. Their prices are extremely ideal for college students. She also recommends some apps and websites to order from including Thread Up, Vinted, and eBay!
Check out Isabella’s Instagram: ⚡️upcycled & custom apparel⚡️ (@215.upcycled) • Instagram photos and videos and website: https://215upcycled.com/ to shop for the newest fall trends that are sustainable and reasonably priced for college students!