This fashion brand creates clothing that is designed with intention and sustainability.

Designer Sara Lopez is fighting against fast fashion by creating sustainable, well-structured garments that are made to last. Sara founded her fashion brand A–Company (@a____company) with the goal of designing the kinds of clothes she wanted to wear, and wasn’t seeing in the fashion world. She creates pieces that take inspiration from garment deconstruction as well as the queer community.

Sara was drawn to art from a young age, and quickly became interested in fashion as a mode of self-expression. “I was taking pictures a lot as a kid, and drawing, and I realized that clothing could be another form of expression,” she recalls. “There was a seamstress down the street from me, and I would take fabrics over to her and have these weird dresses made.”

Sara went on to study design in college, and when she creates garments for A–Company she takes an almost academic approach to design—studying the history of each piece she is interested in creating. “For each collection, I begin with an archetypal garment of the modern wardrobe, which is the initiation starting point,” the designer explains. “I’m diving into its history, its cultural references, or [even a] really small story that I find that I think is interesting, and flesh that out across different silhouettes.”

Once Sara has finished her research, she thinks about what she wants to express with her new collection. “This most recent collection, I was interested in creating an emotional condition through garments and looking at the gesture of the body,” she says. “So the design element is to embrace oneself.”

Of course, Sarah doesn’t just want her garments to look good. It’s also important to her that they be sustainably-sourced and made to last. “Longevity is really important to me in regards to production and craft,” she says. “It starts with small, family-owned mills that have good practices around where they source their raw materials and how they use electricity and water. And then manufacturing locally, and avoiding excess, and giving thought to every single garment.”

Sara believes that being a fashion designer, or having a strong sense of style, requires a strong sense of self. “Style, for me, I think, is a way of moving and existing, and comes with a knowing of oneself. People look really cool when they have that about them,” she concludes. “I hope that people feel there’s been a thoughtful hand in the making of these pieces.”