Do you ever wonder what happens when clothes in stores aren’t sold? You probably think they are donated to the poor or shelters, right?

Well, the harsh reality is this is often not the case. Studies show that about 92 million tons of textile waste are created annually by the fashion industry. The reason for this is overproduction and the rise of fast fashion trends, as consumers are buying now more than ever before.

But what if there was a different way to be fashionable? What if there was a more sustainable way to turn heads in any room?

Meet Lian White, a Jamaican Florida-based teen designer who uses recycled hand-thrifted clothes and scrap fabric collected from the Miami Fashion Design School to create her designs. Lian is a passionate, forward-thinking 14-year-old girl who has a sustainable approach to designing and is not tempted to latch on to fast fashion trends. She was known to be creative as a child and started designing at the youthful age of five when she challenged the idea of making clothes for her dolls.

“My passion is something I would describe as being in my bones — I’ve always loved fashion since I was a child. I would just be super — wacky and put weird stuff together. I used to cut up random things and try to sew like my grandma did and try to make clothes for my dolls. I really love fashion! I love to dress up, accessorise and shop,” said Lian.

For most talented people, inspiration is often credited to an experience, a special individual or someone who is already established in their area of interest. Lian attributes her earlier inspiration to her grandma whom she watched sew. She recounts staring in awe at her grandma’s colourful haberdashery of threads, pins, buttons and zippers as she bobbed, weaved, and stitched damaged clothing back to life.

“My grandma had a lot of stuff! She had all the needles, threads and everything — and sometimes I would see her when I had a hole or something and she would just be ready. It would be done and stitched up in three seconds — she is so talented. I would watch her and she taught me how to sew, how to do patterns and I was inspired because I thought if she could do this, then maybe I could try doing it for my dolls,” she explained.

As she got older she became intrigued by her older cousin, who is a fashion student, and her designs.”My cousin is a fashion student and I really love her and she kind of helped me blossom in this, and I have always looked up to her and the stuff that she makes,” she added.

A lover of the earth and nature, Lian has embarked on a different journey for her designs and the imprint she wishes to leave on the world. This led her to design her latest work called The Lotus Collection. This unique collection is inspired by her tripartite heritage which is a mixture of Jamaican, Chinese and Native American.

“My collection is inspired by my name and my heritage. My mom is Jamaican-Chinese and my dad is Native American. My name Lian is Chinese for lotus and my middle name Aiyana has a Native American origin, which means eternally blossoming. So if you put those two together my name means lotus flower that is eternally blossoming. This whole collection is rooted in my heritage, so I felt like it should be my first collection. The lotus grows out of the murk and mud and it grows and blossoms just like how the pandemic had been. We were cocooned in our houses for months on end, especially for teens we didn’t socialise with friends, we were worried about what was happening at the time. But now we’re blossoming again,” said the teen designer.

“My new collection has different tulles and airy fabrics — a lot of earthy tones like terracotta and sand colours — some colours of my collection are also inspired by the Jamaican bauxite hills. For airy fabrics, we use delicate lace, polyester and script fabrics and satin — because I felt like it looks sophisticated and elegant but also has that natural earth vibe. It also has gold, which looks nice on all skin tones, and tassels. A lot of the items are from my heritage — the tassels come from traditional clothing in my culture.”

She further explained the uniqueness of her designs and her reason for sustainable fashion.

” I love thrifting and I love to rework things and twist them into new things. The pieces are timeless; you don’t just wear them one time and throw them away. I want them to be used for however long they can be worn for. Especially in this society where there is a lot of fast fashion, fabric wastage, and carbon emissions from the fashion industry, I really try to combat that because I really love the art and I would like it to be as sustainable as I can for this earth,” she stated.

On Saturday, December 3, Lian White’s Lotus Collection will be a part of the local runway fashion show Island Child Style. Lian, who is no stranger to the show, also participated in 2016 as a model when she was eight years old.