Meet Leeds Corn Exchange designer TOM-O teaching how to turn old clothes into beautiful new fashion

Think florals teamed with harmonious pastels, or bold and strong colours that clash and mismatch. TOM-O designs are created by patchworking an eclectic mix of fabrics that have been donated, are dead-stock or end of stock lines, or come from unwanted clothes and furnishings.

“I like to clash prints and colours, celebrating the fabric no longer used by its previous owner,” Sarah says. “I have a store room where I keep all the donated garments, fabrics, curtains and so on, and I start out matching three or so fabrics that I think work well, then see it come to life as I patch it together. Each one is totally unique and I love that.”

Sarah makes everything in her shop and studio at the Corn Exchange in Leeds. “We have a small selection of ready-made TOM-Os in-store which you can buy, or you can build your own TOM-O, picking the features and details you want and also choosing your very own fabric combination,” she says.

She grew up on a farm in Moorsholm, near Whitby, a childhood home that provided the inspiration for her first fashion collection, The Farming People.

“From a young age I loved clothes and felt I had a strong connection to them - certain sentimental or favourite items in my wardrobe I just obsessed over and felt so connected to, wanting to wear them again and again,” she says.

“I think fashion to me has always been about the journey of the clothes, where they have come from or the comfort I feel from them - whether it was previously owned by a family relative, a hand-me-down or something I dug out of the back of a charity shop on Guisborough high street.”

She started making her own clothes as a teenager. “I had various attempts at altering and customising my charity shop finds but my first experience of creating a garment was with my Auntie Cath - she helped me make my own leaver’s dress when I was 16. This was my first insight into how patterns work and how to construct a garment.”

Sarah studied for a BA (Hons) degree in Fashion Design at Sheffield Hallam University (where she was known as TOM-O), staying for four years, including a placement year working for designers in Guisborough, London and Brussels. Her final collection was showcased at Graduate Fashion Week in 2019 and she was scouted for a graduate talent programme and featured in Elle Magazine. She was selected as one of just four UK graduates to showcase at London Fashion Week in February 2020.

She moved to London to intern with prestige fashion brands, until the pandemic forced a rethink. At the age of 23, she bravely launched her own brand, TOM-O, creating exactly the sort of fashion that she is all about, making beautiful new clothes from deadstock or unwanted fabrics and garments, with the aim of extending the life of clothes rather than sending them off to landfill. Her designs have featured in Selfridges, and recently she took them to Coal Drops Yard, behind King’s Cross station in London, for a pop-up shop there.

In March last year, Sarah, 25, moved to Leeds and opened her very first stand-alone, permanent shop at the Corn Exchange. This is now where she makes her collections (there is also a range for children, which is proving very popular) and recycles old clothes into new (perhaps those items that have sentimental value or no longer fit) and teaches mending, customisation and alteration through hosting weekly workshops and one-to-one sessions, so customers can make their own TOM-Os.

To celebrate her first six months at the shop, she teamed up with Leeds Arts University on an orange-themed fashion shoot, modelled by students Georgia and Sophia, photographed by Jack Carr and featuring crates and bags of oranges to match the orange theme of the TOM-O unit.

“TOM-O is all about giving new life to what we no longer have use for around us,” she says. “The fashion industry accounts for eight to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions, and nearly 20 per cent of waste water.

“I want to create fashion that has positive effects on our planet, not negative. There are plenty of existing and beautiful fabrics in the world - I want to create fashion from them and save them from ending up in landfill.”

TOM-O WORKSHOPS

Creative workshops involve customising, reworking, upcycling or mending take place on Thursday evenings 6:30 - 8:30pm at TOM-O’s Leeds Corn Exchange shop on the first floor balcony.

Other workshops include:

Paint your own tote bag, adding your own stamp to a sustainably made tote bag with fabric paints. This workshop (including tote bag) is £25, or £20 if you bring something to customise yourself.

Patch & Punk, customising an existing item of wardrobe, exploring different techniques such as cutting, overlocking, adding patches. This workshop is £15 (all equipment provided).

Make your own fabric twine plant hanger, using remnants of colourful fabric. This workshop is £15 (all equipment provided).

Make your own TOM-O Christmas wreath, using up our scraps of fabrics to create something perfect for your home or to give as a gift. This workshop is £20 (all equipment provided).

Insta: @designedbytom_o

Facebook: @designedbytom_o

Website: www.tom-o.com