Tara St James

Tara St James is a sustainable fashion leader. Her own label Study - NY features her sustainable practices which include zero waste pattern making and low impact fabrics and manufacturing processes. She uses recycled materials, hand woven cottons and silks and organic cotton, linen, hemp, tencel, and wool and couples this with 99.9% of production in Brooklyn, New York.

"Believing that open source material plays a strong role in the development of the sustainable design community, St James started Study Hall in the summer of 2010. Under her guidance, Study interns developed, produced and sold their own sustainable mini collections. Study Hall can now be found at several retailers in New York City and abroad. She is very open about her production and design process and documents these regularly here on her blog.
A strong and driving presence among young sustainable designers, St James lends her talent and skills to various organizations. She is the fashion director for The Uniform Project, a fundraising platform using sustainable design to raise money for underprivileged children. As a mentor at the Awamaki Lab, a program that fosters cross-cultural partnerships between young designers and Peru's Awamaki indigenous weaver collective, she facilitates discussions about the intersection of sustainability, ethical sourcing and product innovation.

She is also good at math and loves organizing socks."

 Last year, the label won the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation’s Sustainable Design Award

Zero waste vest - recycled polyester

Organic cotton shirt - hand dyed in her studio

St James incorporates a selection of sustainable practices, some zero waste pieces, the others, all use sustainable materials, and almost everything is produced in Brooklyn. This approach is something I want to do in my collection, perhaps having one or two zero waste pieces, a few transformational pieces, a couple customizable and others, all using sustainable fabrics.

Tara's sustainable collection is a good example of the mid-market sector. She has managed to produce sustainable clothing without compramising her design aesthetic, and making it available at an affordable price. The vest, is $198 USD, a very affordable price, and the shirt is $160 USD, showing that being green can be affordable and beautiful.