Like many things in life, the collaboration between Rachel Hazelwood of HYACINTH DESIGNS and Lisa Cassidy of KADEN & KAI, was an unexpected one. Despite living thousands of miles apart and working in completely different industries, a shared opportunity in sustainable fashion brought the two together in the spring of 2024.
“After 20+ years as a B2B marketing consultant, in early 2024 I began looking for opportunities to showcase Kaden & Kai, a sustainable fashion jewelry brand I had created during Covid. That’s when I stumbled on a story about HYACINTH in 303 Magazine,” stated Lisa. “I was both impressed and amazed at how similar Rachel and I felt about repurposing and making an impact in sustainable fashion. I immediately reached out and that’s how our collaboration began.”
Despite the short timeline and the many miles between them, Lisa and Rachel’s designs came to together beautifully at Denver Fashion Week later that spring.
“The designs worked so well together, it was almost like we planned it, but in all honesty, we didn’t,” stated Lisa Cassidy. “Rachel and I were both finalizing our collections when we decided to join up for Sustainability Day.”
Despite their separate creative processes, three factors made the collections work. Both designers had created bold, beautiful, cohesive designs around the color black. Both designers emphasized movement in their designs and both designers used repurposed materials.
“Many of the materials I use are deconstructed from out-of-style pieces that are then reworked into something fun and new,” stated Rachel.
“In this era of skepticism around recycling, people value repurposing much more than they used to,” states Lisa. “I find that people appreciate the work it takes to create something new from something old. They recognize that each piece is, in its own way, truly one-of-a-kind and they love identifying the original aspects of a repurposed piece - whether it's markings from the original manufacturer or the texture of the piece. It adds to the story in a very authentic way.”
Lisa and Rachel are both very motivated to make repurposing within sustainable fashion succeed. “By giving materials a second life in a new piece, it decreases the amount of waste sent to landfills and lowers the carbon footprint associated with the fashion industry,” states Rachel. “We can all do our part to reduce waste, even with small adjustments to what we buy as consumers.”
HYACINTH’s designs can be viewed and purchased through HYACINTH's Instagram page Tag: @hyacinth_designs_co
KADEN & KAI can be purchased at kadenandkai.com or on Instagram Tag: @shopkadenandkai
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR | LISA ROMANO CASSIDY
For over 20 years, Lisa Romano Cassidy has worked in the green sector as a Digital Marketing and Brand Consultant. She has worked with businesses, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500s, to promote recycling equipment, clean water solutions, energy efficient products and smart building sustainability initiatives in the US and around the globe. Lisa started Kaden & Kai in 2020 to create something beautiful and unexpected from materials that would otherwise be thrown away. She received her MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is certified in Sustainable Business Strategy, Disruptive Strategy and Design Thinking and Innovation from the Harvard Business School.