The Fabric Alchemist: An Interview with Mahdiyyah Muhammad
Paige Lind is a junior at Duke University studying Environmental and Social Sustainability in the Fashion and Textile Industries.
Paige Lind: Last summer, I signed up for a fabric alchemy workshop at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. I practiced hand stitching techniques with thrifted materials, learned about textiles, and formed a connection with emerging designer Mahdiyyah Muhammad. The tides of the fashion world are shifting, and building a new brand nowadays often involves a commitment to sustainability. Mahdiyyah’s patchwork pieces, made from thrifted natural fabrics, are the epitome of slow fashion and resourcefulness.
Paige Lind: What are your core values?
Mahdiyyah Muhammad: Resourcefulness, recycling, community, and creative free expression. I try to use all that is at my disposal, but I also consider the environment. I have a fashion brand that doesn't do as much bad as fashion currently does. The core of it is to reuse and breathe new life into older things versus being greedy, and taking up more land, more space, and more resources that don't need to be used right now.
Paige Lind: I completely agree. Before you were an artist and fashion designer, what did you do?
Mahdiyyah Muhammad: I was in public relations. I went to school for English. I thought I was going to get out of school and go into law, and then that didn't happen. I graduated and went into fashion public relations. It wasn't the best experience. The environment was toxic, and there were a lot of racial microaggressions. Fortunately, something happened where they let me go, but I was able to use the funding from the situation to launch my brand. I did public relations for three or four years, and I realized it was not for me.
Paige Lind: How did you go from public relations to making clothes?
Mahdiyyah Muhammad: It was from childhood. When I was eight years old, my mom would say, "Look, sweetie, we can't afford to buy you all these clothes and accessories. You have to get creative.” I started to use things around the house. I used old shower curtains or a pair of socks that had a hole in it, and I turned them into a dress. When I was eight or nine, the most I could get my hands on was a pair of scissors. So I would cut things and tie them, and that was my way of creating.
My mom always recycled and upcycled things. She put these huge garbage bags out in the hallway. She'd say, "I'm gonna get rid of all this stuff. Your aunts are gonna come by later, and they'll go through the bag and see what fits them. Whatever's left over, I'll donate to the church. And if you want anything in there, get it out." I would go through the bag and try to find stuff. I started sewing when I was 10 years old. I saw my mom hemming a pair of pants by hand, and I thought to myself, "Oh, this looks easy enough. I think I could do this." I took $2, went to the dollar store, and bought my first sewing kit. I started doing my own projects from there. It started small and just got bigger.
Paige Lind: When you're making a clothing line and releasing it, where do your creative inspirations come from?
Mahdiyyah Muhammad: A lot of the process is organic. I always tell people, "I don't sketch." I see an idea in my head and it has to come out. I have to get started right away. I go and get whatever materials I need. Colors inspire me; being outside in nature, seeing textures, and looking at shapes. I don't get too hung up on form or looking at other designers, and it's no discredit to them. I think everybody contributes to the world creatively in their own way. But I get the most inspiration from things around me, and I don't do too much planning.
Paige Lind: Over the years, your brand has transformed. How have you seen it evolve?
Mahdiyyah Muhammad: The funny thing is that I reverted back to what I did when I was younger. I would take an old pair of jeans and make a satchel or cut them into shorts. I was doing a lot more repurposing and upcycling when I was younger. As I got older, I wanted to play with African prints, and I would design anything. Things transitioned when I went to the island of Barbados for three months. Being somewhere where national resources were abundant, seeing how the people were so connected to the land, and visiting elders at their workspaces, I only wanted to work with natural materials. Linen, organic cotton, and whatever I could find: these fabrics were super expensive to buy. Then, it clicked and I realized I could thrift those things from Goodwill and the Salvation Army, akin to when I was younger.
Paige Lind: My next question is about the future. I remember you talking a lot about linen and cotton, and their bio-makeup. You called yourself the 'Fabric Alchemist.' What is the science of making clothes?
Mahdiyyah Muhammad: I call myself the ‘Fabric Alchemist’ because the word ‘alchemist’ means a person who's mixing metals. It's this magical transformation of materials, specifically metals. Essentially, that's what I'm doing with fabric. I'm getting discarded clothing and then transforming it into a new form. And then the science behind it is that there's an element to alchemy called panacea, which is a healing element, and it's where you create something to cure. I found that linen, wool, and cotton have a higher vibrational frequency than fabrics like polyester and demand-made materials. Your body, at its optimal health, has a vibrational frequency of 100. And if the clothing you wear has an equal or higher frequency, it'll keep you healthier. Your skin's better.
Paige Lind: How do you continue to do something over time and still breathe intention into a process that can seem repetitive from the outside?
Mahdiyyah Muhammad: I'm in a space now where people are asking, "Are you going to scale up? Are you going to expand? Do you want to grow the business?" Yes, but not in the way that most fashion brands grow. I like the fact that I'm smaller. My focus is more on educating more people. If you can't afford sustainable fashion, make your clothes. I offer sewing workshops and one-on-one sessions because I really want more people to know about it. I don't want to be another person who’s just making clothes. I want there to be more intentionality behind it. As my business grows, I'm pitching this curriculum to schools to incorporate into lesson plans. How awesome would it be if people in fashion school were learning other ways to make clothes?
Paige Lind: If you could speak to yourself at the beginning stages of your journey as a designer, what would you tell yourself?
Mahdiyyah Muhammad: I would tell myself to not doubt myself so much. There was a lot of doubt in the beginning just because I didn't have resources. I had these great ideas, but I didn't know where to go to get better or to grow my skills. I told my mom I wanted to go to fashion school, and she said that's not lucrative. I would just tell myself to push past that edgy feeling of ‘I'm alone in this.’ Eventually, this is going to be the whole industry: people caring more about the planet. You're gonna meet other sustainable designers who care about this stuff, too, and the opportunities will come. So stick with it and don't beat yourself up. I would just encourage younger me to be weird, and do all the things she wants to do.
If you want to continue learning about Mahdiyyah Muhammad:
She recently launched the Upcycle Web Directory with Halima Garrett (of ThreadsofHabit), which serves as a living database, and eventually, a mobile app where users will be able to connect with other Upcyclers around the world to raise awareness about using textile waste as a material and provide easier access to professional opportunities in fashion and sustainability.
She just completed a podcast episode with the Conscious Style Podcast where she discusses topics such as how we can reimagine the role of fashion designers in a world of overproduction and overconsumption, how the sometimes-alienating language used in sustainability can impact accessibility, and how we can move beyond our role as "consumers" and become contributors to creating a better fashion system.
She is working on an ongoing collection, "Reach The World, But Touch The Neighborhood First", which will be released in the fall. The collection will donate half of each sale to a community-based learning center or organization residing in underfunded localities of the global majority.
In August 2023, she was selected to be a part of the inaugural Black Fiber Cohort to receive grant funding for technical assistance, operating costs, and advising for her brand. The Black Fiber Cohort is a program of the Fibers Fund, created to prioritize Black-owned and operated sustainable textile businesses.