Over the weekend, we went out to Utah with our friends over at Oakley for Oakley Community Days. We got a chance to try out their 2022 Snow Collection - which we can say works very well. There we met Nicole McLaughlin - a designer we’ve had a lot of respect for, for a long time. We caught up with Nicole about upcycling, the natural world and her collab project with Oakley.

Images VIA Nicole’s Instagram

Hey Nicole! For the uninitiated - what’s your name and what do you do?

Hi! My name is Nicole McLaughlin and I'm an upcycling designer - I take old stuff and I rework it into new stuff.

How did you get into upcycling? What attracted you to that?

I was working in the fashion industry for a little bit and I started to realize how wasteful the industry can be. That made me want to try to explore a new form of design so I started taking old samples and thrifted clothes and with no plans I started to cut them and deconstruct and reconstruct them. Then I was like, why stop with clothes? So I started working with volleyballs and tennis balls… from there I realized materials are kind of endless and anything is fair game. So that's sort of how it started.. and amazingly now it's my full-time job!

So cool. What was the first thing that you designed in the upcycling world?

I made like a puffer vest out of bubble wrap. That was definitely an early execution. I also made a shirt out of tissue paper… it was this Dover Street Market tissue paper which had a pattern on it and it was totally not functional but it was a really interesting way of seeing how something’s constructed and how you can put a sleeve into a shirt and all that kind of stuff. Every early project was more of an exploration on materials and also my skillset... beause I didn't know how to sew so I was hot gluing and then I was hand sewing and then eventually I learned how to use sewing machines which made everything a lot faster.

We met out in Utah for the Oakley event and you’ve done a rad collab project with them. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Totally. I'm a huge Oakley fan. I've been for a really long time… I'm a big eBay thrifter and probably 50% of my watch list is vintage Oakley frames or software like backpacks. So when they reached out to do some pieces for this event, I was like, let's go! This is my moment! They sourced some of the stuff that I had on my eBay watch list. It was vintage - maybe nineties and early two thousands (if we're considering that vintage) and I was like, okay, I'm gonna rework these… that's how I came up with the hat and the vest… the hat was made from an old pair of ski pants, and the vest was a little mix of like an old abby pack with this weird little yellow cell phone holder - the tag said cell phone holder - and I was thought what phone would fit in that… like an old Nokia phone? And now they’re being raffled off over the internet… two lucky people will win those pieces!

Sick! Did you have any Oakley pieces in your collection before the raffle project?

I sure do! I'm a collector if anything, I love old Oakley frames and I've definitely fixed up quite a few of them. I have a lot of old beanies, with the big “O” beanies… and their women's line - a lot of Oakley has blown up on the internet recently with Gorp Core being at the forefront of today's street wear trends. But I find that Women's Oakley is pretty untapped… so I have a pair of old Oakley high heels, and they're the craziest high heels I've ever had… they're a wedge and the heel is this metal block which has all these holes in it… they’re insane! I don’t know where i’m going in them yet… but yeah i find a lot of the women’s stuff is pretty untapped!

They sound insane. Thinking about this project, the sustainable element of upcycling is so cool… can you just tell me like what sustainable fashion kind of means to you? 

Sustainable fashion is the future! I find that a lot of brands have really great pieces that are a part of their heritage and a lot of them end up in landfills, sadly, so I love to try to give them another life and keep them in circulation and keep them going. A lot of brands also have a lot of samples and a lot of things within their office so it's kind of my goal to work with brands to try to use those things up, whether that's through a workshop or whether that's raffling pieces or pieces for social. I think brands really need to take responsibility for all the stuff that they've made and put it less on the consumer to figure out what to do with it when it can't serve its purpose anymore… and that's why upcycling is so cool because a jacket doesn't have to stay a jacket, it could be anything else so it really pushes you to be resourceful and brainstorm and problem solve and it's just so fun!

Do you think there could be a movement towards upcycling?
From when I started doing this to now, like so many more people are doing it - from what I see on TikTok and Instagram in general - brands are starting to realize the potential of all the stuff they have. They're like, “oh, we've already spent all this money to make the original item… why don't we try to continue to use that material?”. I do find that people still have this innate need to buy new or consume… so how do you convince people to want to thrift and to be able to rework something that they thrift. I see that in the younger generations people are really starting to do that. The stigma behind thrifting is gone. There's so many clothes we can't just… not wear these clothes, so we might as well find a way to make it work and make adjustments and make them customizable to yourself and your preferences.

Is there anyone or anything that is inspiring you at the moment?

I get most of my inspiration from sport. I love being able to create around sports, so climbing or snowboarding or running…I love all the gear that comes with it and that inspires me a ton. I have a lot of great friends within the space. I'll name drop my good friend, her name's Gab Bois. Her and I have kind of a similar aesthetic and she is just a huge inspiration to me so I always love to talk about her! I met her on the internet and her and I have just become great friends and we hang out whenever we see each other in New York. I love listening to podcasts.. i love listening to throwing fits - they’re really fun to listen to when i’m working.

You’ve worked with everything from tissue to foods… Any favourite materials to work with at the moment?

Yeah, I love using technical fabrics, so I love using Goretex. I think that's one that is really fun to figure out. It's really moldable and constructable, so I find I gravitate towards those types of fabrics. I also love fleece. I, it's like one of my favorite fabrics to work with because you don't see any stitching when you sew it. So you can be crazy with it… it sort of just blends into like the pile of the fleece.

I love working with food. It's always so challenging because I never glue it or alter it in a way that it isn't edible. So anytime I use bread, I'm always trying to put wires and things inside of it to create structure… and then usually it just falls apart after and I eat it.


You make everything from hats to shoes to glasses… is there any item of clothing you like making the most?

I love making accessories. I love doing hats and like balaclavas. I really like make making men's shorts. I don't know why… I wear them, so it's really fun. And then I'm really trying to get more into like furniture and homeware. So I was making lampshades for a little bit and reupholstering furniture, but now I'm learning how to make frames for chairs… I love the idea of doing larger scale like homewares. So that's sort of what I'm on right now in terms of learning the skillset and getting the machines that I need for those things... that's sort of my next endeavor. 

That’s rad. Speaking to you in Utah - it’s so apparent that you have a genuine love of the outdoors, where did that start?

My earliest memories were outside. I always had so much energy as a kid, so I was running around outside all the time and jumping on playgrounds and stuff. I grew up like skateboarding and snowboarding and then I found climbing a bit later. That's been the best sport that I've ever done. It challenges me. It's achieving your personal best and it includes problem solving. The way that I look at my work is also the way that I look at climbing so it just challenges my brain in a good way. I love the technical clothing that you need to wear to be good at a sport. Like you can have all the skill, but you have to have the right gear to be able to get you there. The best gear is the gear that you don't have to think about. So with climbing, you want pants that you can move in and you don't wanna be thinking about like garments that are gonna like rub against you in a weird way. You need your gear to perform - things like harnesses and quick draws - all your gear serves such an important purpose and I love designing with that mindset. Even though sometimes my pieces don't look always a hundred percent functional, they usually are.

That’s so cool - I didn’t know that you designed it to look so cool but also be so functional.

Yeah. That's why I love like pockets. I always add like cheeky pockets into things… any extra storage or cool reflective hits or zippers and all that kind of stuff… it's just so inspiring to me.

Speaking of climbing in the natural world, I was curious, have you got any favorite national parks?

I recently just moved out to Colorado, so I've been exploring different places like Rocky National Park out here. I went to Moab for the first time, so that was really cool. I did a bit of climbing while I was there. I've just been enjoying being outside a lot more and hoping to get a lot more trips. I have a, a trips to Joes Valley coming up in the spring, so I'm pretty excited for that!

That sounds so great. Well that’s us, thanks for chatting with us Nicole!

Thanks!

Check out Nicole’s work here and get your hands on the Oakley Snow Collection here.