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For those of us who invest a lot in our clothing -- be that investment time, money or emotion, it can be tough to let certain pieces go. (We're looking at you, Marc Jacobs paisley minidress from 2005.) The clothes get pushed to the back of the closet, removed from the circulation of both our wardrobe and our memories.
Amy Critchett, one of the masterminds behind Revigor (which includes Charlene Bar and Rebecca Porteous), thinks it's a shame. Amy, a self-described clotheshorse since the age of 6, has a low grade obsession not only with clothing, but the stories they tell. And as some of the brainpower behind brainy enterprises like Wired Magazine and the Oxygen Network, she came up with an idea for preserving the formerly loved clothing, and the stories it tells, that's both super smart and sentimental.
The process is sort of like sartorial scrapbooking. You send them some of the clothes you just can't bear to part with, or wear in their present incarnation, Revigor works their magic and sends you back something completely different. Depending on how much you're willing to pony up, you could get a scarf, a dress, a kimono, a purse?as crafty and enterprising as these ladies are, there's probably no limit to what you can create.
Even though every piece is different, and the clothing on display at the line's recent trunk show came from all over the world, the goods have a distinctly Northern California vibe: loose, a little laid back, definitely unhurried.
Revigor isn't just about preserving memories, it's about elevating the concept of recycling. One of the funnest pieces on display was a kimono Amy calls "12 Mistakes I Made at Target," which is pretty much self-explanatory. Even though there may not have been any artifice involved in the raw material, Revigor spun it into something completely one-of-a-kind.
· Revigor [Official Site]