This fashion designer is ripping up New Yorkers’ coats and turning them into art
NY Post
A New York fashion designer is stopping people on the street, taking the clothes off their backs and tearing them apart — and people are begging to be next.
No, it’s not some sort of strange performance art or form of protest: Layana Aguilar, a former “Project Runway” contestant, is revamping strangers’ clothes into one-of-a-kind, handmade pieces — which she typically charges at least $600 for — free of charge.
Since posting videos of several jackets she’s transformed, strangers have been flooding her DMs with requests to revamp sentimental pieces, including a wedding dress from a failed abusive marriage and a grandfather’s military jacket — which she plans to do.
The 39-year-old has always known that designing was her “superpower” and that with it, she could “genuinely make people happy.”
“You know, as an immigrant, you have something to prove. When I was growing up in a small town in Brazil, I didn’t have a voice, the clothes gave me power, so I want to share that with the world,” Aguilar, who graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology, told The Post.
Since her Bravo TV debut, Aguilar has used her skills to give back to the city that launched her career and eponymous brand, teaching young girls to design and sew at her Fashion Squad School in Tribeca.
