LuAnn Rosenzweig

Zaybee Designs
Mt. Pleasant, SC
Fiber

Living through the Great Depression, my mother was one of the original DIYers and hand made almost everything my sister and I wore. She taught me the basics of sewing and garment construction but I had to go through a lot of trial and error to advance my skills. During my career as a Speech-Language Pathologist, I only had time to make my own wardrobe but am thrilled to now have time to make wearable art for others to enjoy.

My wearable art venture started out with cotton origami jackets that consist of 6 separate squares of fabric sewn together in a straight line. Through folding and minimal cutting, the squares evolve into a swing jacket with raglan sleeves. Since 6 different prints can be used in each jacket, endless variations are possible, ensuring that each one is an exclusive design.

Many of my newer items involve either “repurposing” or “rescuing” fabrics. I love shopping at thrift stores where I look for vintage and well-loved clothing and repurpose them into sling purses, long, multi-paneled knit vests, bow ties and hand-dyed silk scarves. I feel these thrift store treasures hold many stories and memories in their fibers and by transforming them into wearable art pieces, they are now ready for new stories and memories made by you. Most of my “rescue” fabrics come from FabScrap, a new shop in NYC that offers fabrics from the Fashion District that would normally end up in a landfill. These “multi yard long scraps” are not useful to the Fashion Industry but are enough to make many individual items. I feel my mother who taught me not to waste anything would be proud of this new direction in my work!