Microtrends are dead — welcome to RTZN
RTZN is the upcycling fashion house designed to make last season last forever.
SHEIN. ZARA. H&M.
What do all these brands have in common?
85% of all clothes made to be sold in America are burned or end up in landfill. A lot of this waste actually derives from the companies mentioned before: about 13 million tons of textiles every year. We see that the fashion industry overproduces each season, and with the advent of fast fashion setting microtrends every other week, there seems to be no end in sight.
This is where RTZN (prounounced “ar-ti-san”) steps in. We are a fashion house focused on sustainability based in California. At RTZN, we are addressing the issue that too many clothes that are manufactured never actually make it into people’s closets. We strive to be the defining barrier between clothing and waste by catching these clothes before they end up in landfill and embellishing them with our unique twist so that people will actually like them and wear them.
We take clothes and textiles from companies that aren’t able to sell their inventory or from manufacturers that produce too much stock and we reimagine the potential of these unused clothes and fabrics. Our in-house designers work with small batches each season to create timeless, one-of-a-kind garments and design everything with care and intent so our materials never go to waste.
What makes us unique in the upcycling realm and as a fashion house is that we work with monochrome palettes and drop our collections on a strict seasonal schedule. As you may know, big fashion houses dictate what is going to be in season each year. This means that one specific color might be much more popular during one season, but by the time the next season rolls around, all that stock goes to waste because that color is no longer trending. By using unused stock from specific colors that was trending in the last season, and only releasing one collection every season, we will be slowing down the trend cycle by not immediately jumping to a new color and not having a new “season” every week. This is all part of our work to prevent microtrends, which are super harmful for the environment. We don’t want specific items of ours to trend. As a house, we want to create clothes that people find joyful that they are also going to wear for a long time.
At RTZN, we hire local, amateur designers to work with our in-house lead experts to craft our brand identity every season. We believe that it is imperative to teach young designers core fundamental values as they will be the ones to shape design and innovation throughout the future. Additionally, we believe in giving these young and upcoming designers the chance to gain industry experience as well as learning from professionals with years of knowledge so that they too may one day leave their mark on the fashion industry.
Simply put, no one is doing what we’re doing. Join us in our goal is to make strides in the fashion world to be more mindful about our finite resources and slow down fast fashion. Together, we can make last season last forever.
