Material Histories

Tracing garments beyond their first life

At Zaiga Brutane Studio, materials are never neutral. Each garment begins with a history — worn, lived in, and shaped by time before entering a new design cycle.

Reclaimed vintage cotton t-shirts are sourced, studied, and carefully deconstructed, allowing existing structures, prints, and imperfections to guide new forms. Rather than erasing the past, the studio treats material history as a design asset, integrating traces of previous use into contemporary silhouettes.

By working with existing garments instead of virgin materials, the Studio extends the lifecycle of textiles while challenging conventional notions of newness, value, and permanence in fashion.