The ’90s are back.
A landscape company manager-turned-designer is going viral on TikTok for repurposing nostalgic sheets and comforters into stylish hoodies, jackets and more.
Keenan Holcombe, 35, was managing a landscape business in Calgary, Alberta, that was abruptly shut down amid the pandemic, when he got the idea.
“My mom was getting rid of her sewing machine and asked me if I wanted it. I said ‘yes,’ and I took it and started making some things — a wallet, a hoodie that wasn’t the best,” he tells PEOPLE.
Although sewing started as a hobby for Holcombe, it quickly turned into a money-making venture when his friends started asking him to make things for them too.
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“All of a sudden my friends were like, ‘Hey, can you make me something?’ ” he says. “So I made a deal with myself: If I could make as much money as I was making landscaping in my first month selling clothes online, I’d stick with it.”
A month later, he earned more than at his previous job.
The beginnings of his business — called Rye Dylan Reworks — involved, he admits, “a lot of trial and error.”
“I had a sewing class in high school. I think I made a hacky sack,” she recalls with a laugh. “But I didn’t do it for 10, 15 years. I watched a few videos on YouTube and went from there.
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His first projects involved turning the old into something new.
A T-shirt his girlfriend gave him that later shrunk in the dryer became a wallet, and blankets he found at local thrift stores were turned into hoodies and jackets.
“That’s when I became addicted to saving,” he says. “I like the aspect of taking something that someone has thrown away and turning it into something that other people will appreciate.”
These items now range from toques and balaclavas that sell for $15 to sleeping bag jackets that sell for $500. But all his products have one thing in common: they reuse materials that most customers know from childhood, such as Aladdin a sleeping bag, reimagined as an elegant puffer jacket.
A millennial myself. Holcombe says that he is most attracted to blankets and T-shirts with characters from shows and movies he grew up with, e.g. Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z and Rugrati.
However, she does have one item on her frugal wish list.
“Something I’ve been looking for a lot — which is ridiculously expensive online — is vintage To get chills sheets or sleeping bags,” he says. “On eBay, they go for $400-$500 for a sheet.”
The real appeal for Holcombe, he says, is less about value and more about nostalgia.
“It’s great to see materials that I had when I was a kid and be able to turn them into something completely new,” he tells PEOPLE. “It’s a way to take a piece of your childhood and wear it.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education