Rising Stars: Meet Analiese Zaleski of Plymouth, MI

Today we’d like to introduce you to Analiese Zaleski

Hi Analiese, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
For as long as I can remember I have always loved fashion and doing arts and crafts. When I was about 8, we made pillowcases in Brownies, I remember being so excited because I was going to be able to use a sewing machine and I really wanted to learn how to sew. After that I begged my dad to teach me how to use the sewing machine so I could make clothes for my dolls. My Grandmother had her own drapery business, and my dad would help her out sometimes so that’s how he knew how to use the sewing machine. I remember one of the very first things I sewed all by myself was a bunch of Fabric sample squares I collected from Joann’s to make this patched piece of fabric. All of the seams were on the outside and it was sewn the wrong way, but I was so proud of it. When I was in high school, I took a sewing class and that was the first time I made clothes from a pattern for myself. I always wanted to have my own boutique when I grew up but had no idea what I wanted to go to school for until my mom told me I could go to school for fashion. I didn’t know that was an option, but it was definitely what I wanted to study. I attended Central Michigan University where I majored in fashion design with a minor in visual merchandising. When I was in school, I took a draping class and for one of the projects we had to upcycle something from the thrift store into something else. That was probably one of my favorite projects we did in school because it really made me start to see clothes in a different way. I made a denim patch work dress and used a men’s plaid shirt that snapped up the front for the back closure of the dress. This was when I was starting to get into thrifting more and started selling thrifted clothes on Instagram as a side hustle. Before I knew it, I was graduating college and pretty much had no plans after I left. I wanted a fashion design job so bad but was having a hard time finding one. So, I ended up taking a visual merchandising job at Forever 21. I hated the idea of not using my sewing skills and I missed sewing all the time so that is when I decided to start Revamped Threads. Since I could not find the fashion design job, I wanted I thought why not just make it myself. I started going through everyone’s closets at my house and cutting up their old clothes. This was around the time when bleaching was starting to become popular so if it could be bleached, I probably bleached it. I wanted to start sewing more on clothes too so one night I thought wouldn’t it be cool to crop a boxy t-shirt, sew a hem on it, and then feed a draw string through it so you could wear a baggy tee but in a cute way. I named this the tie up tee, this was our first style that became pretty popular and that is when things started to take off for us. Everyone was loving the college and sports tees with the tie at the bottom. So, my thought process behind taking the Forever 21 job was I could work on building my business on my days off. I started this job in the summertime, and I remember getting home while it was still daylight, and I would run outside with my pile of clothes that I worked on all week and hurry up and take pictures before the sun would set. Right after I started selling RT on Instagram, I did my first ever pop-up at Wayne downtown days. I borrowed a tent and some tables from my aunt and my dad made me these PVC stands that sat on a table and you could only hang one shirt on them. He also made me this chain wall that I pinned shirts too. Those two display ideas I thought up in my head turned out exactly like I imagined. I had pretty low expectations for the pop-up, but it ended up being pretty good for our first show. During the pandemic, everything started shutting down but at the same time people were hosting pop ups outside because there was nothing else to do. We ended up doing a lot of cheap markets this year and we also made a ton of face masks. When the world started to open back up the pop-ups were popping off and everyone was coming to them. The more pop-ups we did the less I posted items on Instagram for sale. It was getting to be too much to keep track of inventory. Fast forward to now and we have been in business for 5 years, we have done numerous pop ups, designed collections for fashion shows, became an LLC, and upcycled so many clothes and accessories. Throughout the years I have come up with various designs and I slowly started deconstructed more and more. I was fortunate to study abroad in Paris and one of my favorite techniques I learned was shibori fabric dying and I absolutely loved it. After I graduated, I started looking into other dying techniques and stumbled across ice dying. So, I started thrifting clothes to ice dye. This is a great way for us to salvage those unwanted clothes from the thrift that nobody wants because they are the wrong color, or they just don’t look like they have any life to them. I left my forever 21 job a couple months after I started and got a job in a sewing factory to get more sewing experience. Since then, I have worked at multiple sewing factories and have learned so much about the industry. I am currently working as a brand specialist and seamstress while running my small business. Since day one my mom has always supported me, and my dreams and these last five years have been the absolute best having her by my side. If you have come to our pop-ups you have definitely met her, she helps me at pretty much every single show. She is the best assistant a girl could have. Here at Revamped Threads, we cut up unwanted clothes and textiles to create one-of-a-kind pieces for your wardrobe. We are a sustainable small business bringing new life to pieces you just got to have. Our main purpose at Revamped Threads is to share our visions with others while keeping textile waste out of landfills. We have many exciting things planned for us this year that we cannot wait to share. We plan to do less pop-up markets this year while offering more unique pieces. We are also in the works of finally setting up a website so we can start doing mini drops on there for people to shop. In the mist of all of this, last year in the Fall my mom and I decided to start a new business to share a piece of our heritage. So just when we started getting in our groove and finding our balance, we will be reworking it to make room for another business. As crazy as it sounds owning two businesses, I wouldn’t change it for the world, it is the most rewarding job I’ve ever had.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has definitely been a challenge running a small business while having a day job. Finding that balance of having two jobs while making time for yourself and fun things can be hard sometimes. When I first started Revamped Threads, I would be up till 2 or 3 in the morning the night before a pop-up making clothes still, pricing, and loading up the car. My Mom would stay up and help me get all of things ready and still get up early with me the next day for the pop up. Slowly we started getting better at planning and prepping so we were not scrambling the night before. Year 3 was the year we got a storage unit to hold all of our pop-up equipment and inventory. This was probably the first year where we really started to get organized, we had everything in one place for once instead of having to run all around and hope we didn’t forget things. The last two years we started to really work on prepping early in the week before a show. We would spend a day pricing all of the new inventory, then we would sort all of the racks we were taking and bag up the clothes while keeping them on the hangers so we could just grab and go for set up. My Mom and I spend an outrageous amount of time at our storage unit, we actually nick named it the Penthouse because it’s on the top floor. Penthouse days are usually long days for us, generally I’ll work an 8-hour shift at my day job and then head over to work there for 5 hours depending on what we have to do. When I first started RT my mom and I both had compact cars, and we would cram everything in there for our markets. Eventually in 2022 I sold my car and got a much needed upgraded and purchased an SUV. Now we have plenty of room for all of the market things and my mom and I can drive together to shows.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I upcycle secondhand clothes and textiles into one-of-a-kind pieces for your wardrobe. Everything from shirts and jackets to bags and scrunchies, I try to find a way to use up all of my scraps in a creative way. Creating one-of-a-kind pieces is probably one of my favorite things about my business. I love how different each piece is and that no one else will have the exact same one. I love having the variety and freedom to make whatever comes to mind, I feel like this is really where my creativity shines. I would say we are known for a couple things, style wise I would say campfire tees, dusters, and our ice dyed pieces. I love making all my pieces, but I would say the ice dyed pieces are one of the things I am most proud of. When I first started learning the technique they turned out decent but the more I learned over the years the better I got, and our customers definitely noticed. These pieces are definitely a labor of love, I spend the entire day outside in the heat working on large batches at a time. I have perfected our technique to consistently create this beautiful flower like design and to me it feels like you are wearing a piece of art, and I think it’s pretty cool. Something that sets us apart from others is the variety we offer and because of that we cater to a wide range of customers from high schoolers to moms and grandmas. In school they taught us to have an “it girl” as your target customer and at Revamped Threads we are more of an “everything girl” and I actually love that for us. I love that our styles speak to so many and are so versatile.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Being creative and spending time with my family make me happy especially when I get to do both at the same time. I grew up going to crafts shows and doing artsy things with my mom and aunts all the time and I loved it! I love being surrounded by creative people and places because it’s so inspiring and gives me such good ideas. Being able to see my visions come to life is such an amazing feeling, it never gets old. But seeing people freak out or fall in love with the pieces I make is the wildest feeling in the best way. I still get giddy when people buy things from me, I don’t think I will ever get used to it and to be honest I hope I don’t.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revampedthreads_?igsh=dXB5eGxkNXBrZ2Jn
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1BaHMRuAVV/