MADE X HUDSON is a sustainbility-focused fashion company that started with a small garment factory and has expanded into two slow-fashion boutiques — which are just not like other stores. When you come into our shops and talk with our staff, or as you click around the website, you’ll learn that we design and sew our own Made X Hudson line in our factory, right upstairs from our Catskill NY shop. And we also represent other designers and makers — almost all within 100 miles of us, many of them one-woman businesses — who either do their own sewing, or who work with us or artisans elsewhere to produce things in small quantities, as sustainably as possible.
In other words, we don’t sell mass-produced clothing. In fact, the majority of clothes we sell are one of a kind, or one of a few, because of this rare approach. And we include brand bios on the product listings, so you can know more about the designers themselves and their sustainability efforts.
To help you navigate our inventory online, we also categorize all of our clothing listings (along with accessories and jewelry) into three Product Types: New, Vintage and Reworked. That’s for clarity and also so you can drill down to just the type of items you’re interested in. Some people only want to shop new items, some only want vintage, etc, and you can sort simply by using the Filter tool at the top left of any directory or collection page.
However, between these three classifications, there are more overlaps than bright lines, so we wanted to spell out our thinking for you:
—NEW—
An item classified as New is newly made, simply put. Meaning, someone just sewed fabric into a shirt, or crafted a new shoe. However, that new item may be made from materials with a wide variety of backgrounds of their own.
For our Made X Hudson line, some pieces are made from newly milled, sustainable fabrics (i.e., natural and biodegradable textiles, like linen or wool) or from unused fabrics that were made or purchased for some big fashion company, which is called deadstock fabric. Other MXH items are made from our vintage fabric trove — unused, mid-century fabrics that were in a seamstress’s private stash, which we’ve acquired from the daughter who inherited it; these pieces form The Regina Collection.
There’s nothing more sustainable than making use of things that are already on the planet, which is why we prioritize deadstock and vintage fabrics for our own line, and work with many other designers who do the same. (Such as Brosgé and Clare Bare.)
Shino garments, on the other hand, are sewn from amazing textiles she weaves herself and then combines with other fabrics. Cheryl of The Highlands Foundry sews new garments but from heritage textiles, such as bedspreads and tablecloths that she collects and reimagines. Calla shoes, as another example, are all newly made, but from vintage rugs, which may themselves have been made from discarded textiles, so those fabrics are on their third life in the form of a new pair of shoes.
—VINTAGE—
There’s admittedly no perfect word for this category, but it’s things you would find in a secondhand (vintage, thrift, charity) shop. Anything categorized as Vintage is a resale item, possibly not old enough to meet the strict definition of the word “vintage,” but not everything is used either, as sometimes vintage items are unworn and still have their tags intact (aka "new with tags").
But this is the category we use for resale items.
We have a number of vintage finders we work with — Chambers Vintage, Sergio Vintage, Rachael Que Vargas and more — who all source high-quality, timeless pieces. Again, there’s nothing more sustainable than what’s already on the planet, so we believe in vintage as a key part of our mix.
In addition to being findable through the Filter tool, all items in this category have (Vintage) at the end of their product titles so they’re easy to spot. So if you see something from a big brand name, which we otherwise don’t carry, you’ll notice (Vintage) at the end of it.
—REWORKED—
The third type, Reworked, is really a subset of Vintage. It’s our term for existing items that have been manipulated or updated in some way. So maybe a vintage men’s shirt has been cropped and embroidered by Kaitlyn of La Vie Apres L’Amour. A vintage Kantha quilt has become a reversible Namai jacket. A vintage army liner jacket has been reshaped, outfitted with a fur collar and/or given new closures by Maddie of Sloppy Seconds. Or a pair of vintage jeans has been tie-dyed by KC of Krop Jeans, or eco-printed by Sherri Cohen. And we also have our own reworked collection, Made X Reworked, wherein we breathe new life into thrifted and overstock pieces to give them a second chance in someone’s closet. Upcycling and refashioning are among the most exciting things happening in the sustainable fashion world, and we’re here for it!
We’re so happy that more and more people are tuning into the slow fashion conversation and paying attention to what they’re buying, how/where it was made, and from what. We’re striving to be part of the solution to the enormous problem that is the fashion industry, and none of it is easy, so we appreciate your support more than we can say!
See also:
• What is Slow Fashion?
• What is Deadstock Fabric?
• What is Zero-Waste Design: A Chat with Kati Lovasz of Kate & Rose
• Meet Regina: Our Vintage-Fabric Fairy Godmother
