Interviewing Sami Miro: Upcycling Enhanced
Image from The Los Angeles Times (Nailah Howze/ For The Times)
On December 13, Refashioned met with Sami Miro, the owner and designer of Sami Miro Vintage. Based in LA, Sami Miro Vintage prioritizes the impact of fashion production on the environment and the ethics of the fashion industry. Sami Miro Vintage features a myriad of unique designs that explore silhouette and creative form utilizing a variety of repurposed materials such as denim and leather. Through her brand, Miro has explored the incorporation of vintage and deadstock materials into high quality and experimental clothing pieces. Using unconventional and sustainable practices, Miro’s brand pioneers change within the fashion industry and the world as a whole.
After graduating school for global entrepreneurship and management, Sami Miro started working for a tech startup in San Francisco. Miro’s early career definitely did not reflect her current creative pursuits. Miro herself said that in “San Francisco, there’s little connection to the fashion world.” But even with her professional career in technology, Miro had always been connected to fashion through doing “what [she] loved to do on [her] own body and with [her] own clothing.”
In high school, Miro often received pieces of hand-me-down clothing from her dad and older brother. From there, she realized that she could rework them and turn them into pieces that reflected her own unique identity and personality. Describing her love for the individuality these pieces brought her, Miro states: “Finding the beauty in holes and sun damage and discoloration [...] really gave me confidence when I was younger because I realized I was the only person in the world who had this exact jacket or shirt.” Miro truly fell in love with the “wear and tear that [the pieces] went through in its lifetime.” Later on, this experience inspired her to rework vintage clothing in her brand Sami Miro Vintage.
Encouraged by people around her to become a stylist and moving to Los Angeles, Miro took a year off her corporate job to explore styling as a profession. While in LA, Miro took up the opportunity to blaze her own path with the creation of her ethical fashion business, Sami Miro Vintage.
A piece featured on Sami Miro Vintage’s website made from vintage denim shirts
Starting as a passion project that was deep rooted with upcycled clothing, Sami Miro Vintage was Miro’s own personal “leap of faith.” The overconsumption and wastefulness of fast fashion drove Miro to begin thinking about how she can help transform the industry with her ideal of quality over quantity. Miro’s authentic voice and passion echoes in SMV’s ethos: “PROTECT MOTHER EARTH. WITHOUT HER WE DO NOT EXIST.” Without the protection of the planet, Miro boldly states that “you can’t do anything inside of it.” Currently being harmed by the factories owned by mega corporations that exploit the labor of their workers, the environment has always been important to human survival, and now more than ever, brands owned by innovative designers like Miro need exposure. Her ethical practices and “free spirit” have made a mark in the slow fashion industry that actively combats the rise of fast fashion.
For Miro, her creative process does not start in a conventional way like other designers; she does things her own way. By rebelling against traditional ways of manufacturing, Miro jokes that there is no “method to [her] madness.” To ignite her process, Miro jumps headfirst into designing her pieces without the traditional rigidity of creating perfect guidelines and cuts. Miro emphasized her more free flowing style and generation of ideas. Besides SMV’s main collection of clothing, limited collections have been made out of deadstock fabric, which Miro supplies from third party companies that buy leftover fabric from other companies’ production. Rather than purchasing brand new spools of fabric, deadstock fabric can be easily obtained due to the quantity of waste that many fashion companies produce. Through Miro’s journey of finding Sami Miro Vintage, she has established a new aspect of fashion that is constantly evolving.
An elevated closet staple produced ethically in LA
Through her innovative techniques and creative visions, Sami Miro offers a beacon of hope within the ever worsening climate issues. Her active participation in advocating for sustainable fashion and open defiance against the fast fashion industry are a source of inspiration for the youth as her designs are not only ethical but experimental and high-quality. Elevating pieces like hoodies and sweatpants, Sami Miro and her brand represent the new generation of creatives that not only focus on creating wearable pieces but also combine with social advocacy and awareness. Sami Miro truly represents the intersectionality of fashion and the arts with environmental movements and problems that affect each and every one of us.