Drawing on community with The Nest
How the slow fashion collective used their community to define their mission
Welcome back to The Green Dress Report! I am so excited to bring this long-awaited edition to you. This issue’s guest has been on my wishlist to interview since I started this newsletter (shoutout to my friend Jillian for the rec), and I am so glad to finally share them with you all.
The Nest is a sustainable fashion collective located in Providence, Rhode Island, with a mission to fight “the toxic cycle of overconsumption and textile waste” through their decluttering services, secondhand store, community events, and educational workshops. I spoke to one of the collective’s co-founders, Charlotte von Meister, to discuss the founding of The Nest, how they draw on their community for ideas and support and what she’s excited about for the future.
As usual, I’ll round out today’s newsletter with some updates in the world of sustainable fashion, including recent policy innovations in France, the US and the UK.
Read on and get ready to fall in love with The Nest!
Charlotte von Meister acknowledges that The Nest had an unconventional beginning. In April 2021, von Meister and Danielle Sturm met to discuss sharing a booth at The Providence Flea market. While Sturm was reselling home goods at the time, von Meister was working with clothing resale. After obtaining her degree in Fashion Marketing, she spent a few years working for start-ups in the fashion industry. A few years in, she became “tired of the constant sales pushy-ness,” as she described the pressure to encourage consumers to keep buying more. She pivoted into professional organizing and began helping people “shed the excess in their lives, rather than pushing consumption.”
As von Meister and Sturm discussed their goals, values and their ideas about community, they were “so inspired and motivated to start something larger,” according to von Meister, who had added consignment to her decluttering sessions after noticing that many of her clients had beautiful clothing they no longer needed, but also didn’t know how to re-home.
Energized after their meeting, Sturm and von Meister ended up signing a lease on a space they had found on Craigslist. They spent the summer of 2021 conceptualizing what The Nest would be, and officially launched in the storefront in August 2021.
“When we first launched,” explained von Meister, “we were open to trying any service or workshop. We really let our community tell us what they wanted.” This included partnering with local businesses to host events such as wine tastings and even oyster shucking events! These events were “a great way to gain exposure and grow our community by tapping into the audience of other established brands,” explained von Meister. “But we paid attention to what was most popular, and what our community was asking for, and since then we’ve honed in on our business model as a one-stop shop for sustainable fashion …. We’re here to meet our customers wherever they’re at in their sustainable fashion journey and offer resources to help them succeed.”
What resources does this ‘one-stop shop’ offer?
In addition to the secondhand shop (which exists online and in person), The Nest hosts tailors a few days each week. Customers can register online for tailoring services from one of four tailors during their hours in the store, and can bring as many items as they would like. Items are ready for pickup between two and four weeks after tailoring sessions.
Every month, the storefront hosts a clothing swap, where community members can bring unwanted clothing to swap for free. All leftover items are donated to Big Brother Big Sister Rhode Island.
The Nest currently hosts two types of workshops: knitting and sewing courses. The Stitch and Bitch Knitting Courses, hosted by local textile artist Nina Cherie, include a beginner course and an advanced colorwork course, both with four classes over eight weeks. There is also a weekly accountability club for intermediate to advanced knitters to keep up with their craft.
The Nest’s sewing courses include a Sewing 101 course for beginners, also held over eight weeks, and open sewing studio hours for intermediate to advanced sewists, hosted every other week.
Von Meister continues to offer her closet decluttering sessions, including an option to consign clothing through The Nest. When asked about trends and takeaways that she has seen with her clients, this is what she said:
Everyone feels shame around getting rid of gifts, and feel obligated to keep an item even if they don't like it or wear it.
Getting rid of things from your ex is so personal. It’s not a one-size-fits-all answer, but you should ask yourself: does this spark a positive or negative feeling?
Everyone is getting rid of their office wear. More people are increasingly working from home and no longer need office-specific clothing.
Everyone has pieces in their closet that they personally don’t like but every time they wear it, they get complimented. So they’re keeping it for other people and not themselves. I would say get rid of it!
Keeping clothes with the hope it’ll fit again one day is also common. These are toxic clothing items that stare at us from the closet and make us feel bad. Clothes should fit us, not the other way around.
“A big lesson we learned is listening to our community. When we first launched, we were open to trying any service or workshop. We really let our community tell us what they wanted.”
With all these offerings, The Nest quickly outgrew its first home, located on the second floor of a mill building with no elevator. Since customers couldn’t find the store organically, the location was only open Friday through Sunday. Furthermore, moving all inventory up and down the stairs was challenging, as was moving around inventory to make room for the workshops.
Luckily, Sturm and von Meister found a new space located in an old iron works office space that had been vacant for over five years. They spent two and a half months renovating the space, and hosted a grand re-opening in October 2023. Von Meister calls the buildout “a labor of love and a super fun experience,” and says that they are excited to be back to their routine and community.
“Being on the first floor makes us so much more accessible to our customers—we’re now able to be open every day, … and we’re seeing more organic discovery by people walking by,” said von Meister. The new location has also allowed the collective to expand their workshops, as the second floor of the space is a dedicated workshop studio. Furthermore, since the renovation included repaving the parking lot, which had been an “overgrown junk yard,” The Nest has gotten positive feedback from the neighborhood thanking them for “turning this previous eyesore into a cool space open to the community.”
What’s coming next for The Nest?
Von Meister shared that next on the list for The Nest is adding clothing care items, such as mending kits, fabric shavers and steamers to their inventory. Additionally, they plan to bring back their mending accountability group as a workshop offering so their “community has time and space to DIY their mendables.”
As for what she sees as the future of sustainable fashion, von Meister advocates for more research and funding in the textile recycling industry. She also applauded Remake Our World, an organization “focusing on education of the production side of the fashion industry,” according to von Meister.
You can visit The Nest at their website, on Instagram or in person at 272 Carpenter Street, Providence, Rhode Island.
Sustainable Fashion Resources
♺ Cynthia’s Circularity News - a great resource for anyone interested in circularity in the fashion industry
🧵Textile Exchange’s 2023 Materials Market Report - production of sustainable materials such as cotton and wool is increasing, but polyester still has the biggest market share
🏛 The Americas Act incentivizes circular fashion from Vogue Business
🇫🇷 Does France’s anti-fast fashion bill have legs? from Vogue Business
🚫 UK’s competition regulator cracks down on greenwashing
🪡 See how you can take action and participate in Fashion Revolution Week 2024! Events are taking place worldwide through April 24, including the first global Mend in Public Day on Saturday April 20.