Kathleen Tesnakis: Trash Turns into Fashion

Kathleen Tesnakis Trash Turns into Fashion
For someone who peers in trash containers more often than most, Kathleen Tesnakis remains pretty perky.

"I can hardly pass one by," says Tesnakis, a textile designer from Troy, N.Y. "Wherever I am, I look," she says, laughing. "I always look."

What is she after?

Old shirts, sweaters and scraps of fabric, which she washes and cuts up to create dresses, skirts, men's sweater vests, and funky gloves, hats and scarves - all one-of-a-kind and super-soft, thanks to the worn-in, vintage materials saved from those trash containers and other, less "Fear Factor"-y locales such as antiques stores and used-clothing wholesalers.

Tesnakis, who eight years ago created eko logic (a brand she runs with her husband, Charlie), is just one of an increasing number of artists and designers who've gone Green - and that's green with a capital G.

"There's this whole ecological take on fashion that's really interesting," says Michael Macko, a fashion merchandising director at Saks Fifth Avenue.

On his radar in recent months: companies such as The Great China Wall, a line that works entirely in vintage fabrics, going so far as to unravel the thread of old denim to cross-stitch and embroider gently used corduroy blazers.

This spring, Saks will carry their rocker tees, embellished with swatches of old garments; and, come fall, preowned