Hand woven skirt made with left over fabrics from custom orders.

100% cotton with silk lining.

Bulging boxes of fabric left overs moved around with me from the Garment District studio to Soho, the Meat Packing, and the West Village. All locations where I worked from.

I kept them for a number of reasons that were at times emotional, they held memories and stories of custom made pieces; and at other times practical, they were quality raw materials, produced by extracting valuable natural resources from the environment. But most importantly, if I were to throw them away, I would be producing garbage and creating pollution, both to be tackled at all costs.

One special day, in the Fall of 2015, I met Cynthia from Weaving Hands, an artisan who operated a number of old fashion wooden looms, out of her studio in Brooklyn. From then on, the game changed forever. Fabric left overs found their way out of the boxes onto these looms and were transformed into beautiful, fun hand woven textiles.

In the process, we engaged the under privileged community to help us cut and separate the scraps into tiers, and used our creativity and imagination to curb pollution, while keeping it all local.

Caia Sampaio grew up in the country side of Brazil, in a mining town with a hilly landscape and Baroque churches. Back in the hometown mischievous kids were accused of "doing art". Taking the blame to heart Caia graduated in Sculpture from the Fine Arts School at Minas Gerais Federal University in 2004.

Moving to New York city the following year, it took time to learn the language, to get used to the flat landscape and its endless towers. From a small apartment in Astoria, the drawings and prints started as little attempts to retrace her path from New York back to the hills of her childhood, revisiting 'places' back and forth, associating each pattern to a memory, an experience, creating a new alphabet and a personal landscape.

100% Silk

Hand Crocheted by the grandmother of Jussara's good friend, this top drapes around the body and feels deliciously cool against the skin. 

100% Silk

Hand-Crocheted in Switzerland