Not only did St. Thomas juniors Payton Filipiak and Morgan Ronsen start a sustainability program called Tommies Closet, they’re helping St. Thomas students, faculty and staff do it too.
Tommies Closet, a program that aims to recycle unwanted clothes, also offers mini workshops for students and faculty in partnership with Lauren Callis, founder of the Minneapolis based clothing store Upcycled Closet, which focuses on creating education based on recycling clothes by teaching mending skills to the community.
“We want to find ways as a university and as a community to be more sustainable,” Ronsen said. “We believe that Tommies Closet is a really good way for people to become educated on the world of textile waste and fast fashion and how all these things are contributing to this climate crisis that we have.”
Throughout the semester, Callis will lead these workshops to bring awareness and knowledge on how to mend torn clothes before replacing them with new ones. Callis and Ronsen, both fellows in the Changemaking program, were encouraged by Changemaking Director Manuela Hill-Muñoz to start this project.
Hill-Muñoz raised teaching points like, “How do you recycle clothing through the mending and repairing process? What is textile and what is textile waste? How do we fix clothing? How do we buy clothing that maybe is going to last a little bit longer than buying from Forever 21 or the really cheap stuff at Target?”
Filipiak and Ronsen originally planned to launch Tommies Closet in the fall, but decided to move the launch to St. Thomas’ Spark Week from Feb. 15 to Feb. 19 due to low turnout and rising cases of COVID-19.
“We just thought there was going to be more interaction as the weather gets warmer and people are cleaning their closets out for the spring,” Ronsen said.
During Spark Week, people with donations stopped by the Create[space] to drop off clothes in designated blue bins and got the added perk of a free Tommies Closet tote bag and the option to design it using the Create[space] screen printers.
Now, the Tommies Closet store will be open three days a week on the second floor of the Anderson Student Center. Anyone who brings in a clothing item is allowed to take one different item in exchange.
Tommies Closet sustainability adds to the St. Thomas mission of creating a green campus.
“St. Thomas has a commitment to carbon neutrality by 2035. Tommies Closet is a way of engaging our community in the personal how-to,” Hill-Muñoz said.
Hill-Muñoz hopes that Tommies Closet will fuel real change and that the store encourages people to reflect on the story behind their own clothes.
“We’re building this awareness for people. What do I know about my clothes? What do I know about what they’re made of? What do I know about who made my clothes?” Hill-Muñoz said.
Josie Morss can be reached at mors7544@stthomas.edu.