{"id":397874,"date":"2026-07-14T13:13:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/397874\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T13:13:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:13:58","slug":"this-oakland-based-fashion-designer-tells-her-story-through-reclaimed-fabrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/397874\/","title":{"rendered":"This Oakland-Based Fashion Designer Tells Her Story Through Reclaimed Fabrics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tracy Garcia turned the second bedroom of her Oakland apartment into a fashion studio, where repurposed clothes become works of art \u2014 and over 1 million people have peered into her process through social media.<\/p>\n

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Tracy Garcia, fashion designer and influencer, poses for a portrait at her studio in Oakland on July 10, 2026. Tracy\u2019s YouTube channel \u201cTransformations by Tracy\u201d has amassed over 300,000 followers where she posts content on how she upcycles clothing she thrifts.\u00a0(Gina Castro for KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd of course we\u2019re going dancing in this, so let\u2019s go,\u201d she said in the video before it cuts to footage of her grooving to bachata at a club.<\/p>\n

Her goal, Garcia said, is to teach people to make clothes so that they can appreciate all the work and artistry that goes into a garment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just so much clothing in the world, and I really feel like we don\u2019t need to make any more material,\u201d Garcia said. In her eyes, upcycling \u201cis just seeing the potential within a garment and creating something completely new.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Tracy Garcia, fashion designer and influencer, looks through some of her handmade pieces from her personal collection at her studio in Oakland on July 10, 2026. (Gina Castro for KQED)<\/p>\n

Garcia\u2019s ability to not just reuse an item, but turn it into a work of art, reminded me of the Mexican and Chicano tradition of rasquache, a practice rooted in resourcefulness, creativity and reuse of materials.<\/p>\n

Rasquachismo stems from the idea of not letting anything useful go to waste, said A\u00edda Hurtado, a professor of Chicano and Chicana Studies at UC Santa Barbara and co-author of meXicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction.<\/p>\n

Many Latine designers are looking to fashion for cultural expression and to promote practices that benefit the environment, a long-held tradition, Hurtado said. Latinos have been known for reusing everything from margarine containers to clothing to broken items, all of which can be repaired or reassembled into something else.<\/p>\n

I witnessed this growing up with my mother, who sews, and my father, who knew carpentry. There is still a bench sitting outside my parents\u2019 house that my dad fashioned out of a discarded diving board.<\/p>\n

Hurtado said that in Latine communities, \u201cyou have to make everything extend because you don\u2019t have a lot of money and you also live in a collective, collaborative kind of community where whatever else you have, you give to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more common among people that are working class or are poor, both in the U.S. and in Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rasquache, born out of necessity and struggle, now confronts a world where regular items are cheap and disposable and fast fashion clothes are filling up landfills \u2014 a particular concern for Garcia.<\/p>\n

I asked Hurtado if Latinos are beginning to lose our Rasquachismo as it becomes easier and cheaper to access various goods.<\/p>\n

Hurtado responded that cultural practices are not always transmitted linearly from one generation, and younger generations can choose to carry on those practices.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tracy Garcia, fashion designer and influencer, sews a piece of fabric at her studio in Oakland on July 10, 2026. (Gina Castro for KQED)<\/p>\n

Garcia, for example, is making a conscious choice to reject fast fashion and promote sustainability.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may not loop back all the way to the origins of these practices,\u201d Hurtado said. \u201cBut you end up modifying those practices and keeping some of the essence of them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garcia, whose parents immigrated from Oaxaca, Mexico, grew up in Paso Robles. From the time that she was in kindergarten, she knew she wanted to be a clothing designer.<\/p>\n

Garcia\u2019s love of thrifting came from \u201cjust not having money,\u201d she said. \u201cGrowing up, we would go to charity shops and get secondhand clothing, or I\u2019d get a lot of hand-me-downs from my sister or my mom or family.\u201d<\/p>\n

She learned to sew in high school so she could apply to a fashion program for college, and made her dress for senior prom. At FIT, she specialized in intimate apparel and learned how to make garments by hand, use natural dyes and make use of what\u2019s known as dead stock \u2014 excess fabric left over from clothing factories.<\/p>\n

Part of her graduation from FIT was supposed to entail a final fashion show, attended by potential employers. The event was canceled because of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

She had imagined trying to get a job out of college as an entry-level designer for a fashion brand, but those opportunities dissipated during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

That led her to social media and upcycling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started out my business, my intention was to upcycle and sell pieces. But I was doing that, and I was pricing things very affordably,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I was underpaying myself. It just wasn\u2019t a sustainable business model.\u201d<\/p>\n

She mostly makes dresses for herself as opposed to making them for customers, because dresses seem to offer the biggest wow factor.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tracy Garcia\u2019s work station in Oakland on July 10, 2026. Tracy Garcia is a fashion designer and influencer whose YouTube channel \u201cTransformations by Tracy\u201d has amassed over 300,000 subscribers. (Gina Castro for KQED)<\/p>\n

Now, she said her business brings in six figures from ad revenue, sponsorship deals and sales of digital sewing patterns through Etsy. That is more than double what she might be earning as a low-level designer at a major fashion brand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy with the way things turned out, because if that never happened, I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today,\u201d she said. \u201cIt pushed me to start my own business.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Garcia and her fianc\u00e9 moved to the Bay Area in late 2024, she set up her studio in the second bedroom of their apartment.<\/p>\n

Her creative process starts with finding reclaimed fabrics, usually at thrift stores like Savers in Alameda, one of her local favorites.<\/p>\n

On a recent visit to her studio, she showed me some of her favorite pieces, including a two-toned light and medium blue halter beach dress, a sleeveless number from a beaded shirt she found in Europe, a cocktail dress made from Mexican National Team soccer jerseys and an off-white lace gown with a Mandarin collar that she plans to wear for her engagement photo shoot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never look at the item itself,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI always look at that fabric if I like the print, if I like the fiber.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always drawn to floral prints, bright colors. And, if I\u2019m looking at fiber, I\u2019m drawn to silks, crochet textures, anything that\u2019s really soft and romantic. And then, I kind of just go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

She often comes up with a specific design once she\u2019s done cutting up the source material. She drapes it over a mannequin \u2014 and the ideas start to percolate.<\/p>\n

Garcia shares this creative process with her social media followers, which, between Instagram <\/a>and YouTube<\/a>, total more than 1 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love reading the comments that people leave saying, \u2018I started sewing because of you,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI feel so good being able to show people the potential there is in what a lot of others see as waste.\u201d<\/p>\n