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AuH2O is Creative, Conscientious

By NicerNews • on October 2, 2009

Author: Laura Isaacs
Original Publication Date: 2 October 2009

AuH20 owner and designer Kate Goldwater smiles while wearing an original outfit, including custom Samba heels, at a recent event promoting healthcare reform outside her shop in New York City’s East Village. Photo by Suzi Sadler

Even though leaves are changing colors and falling to the ground around New York, Kate Goldwater keeps things green.

At age 25, Goldwater is owner and founder of AuH20 Designs, a socially-conscientious and eco-friendly clothing company. All AuH20 pieces are unique — each article has been reworked, refashioned and recycled, giving new life to old t-shirts, sweaters, ties, vintage slips and dresses, costumes, curtains and other unwanted fabrics.

To Goldwater, her clothing designs are more than fashion and recycling – they’re works of art and a way to convey her social beliefs. Goldwater is passionate about women’s issues, reproductive rights, animal cruelty and domestic violence.

As a student at New York University, she designed her own major, “Art and Clothing for Social Justice,” to combine her interests in feminism, activism and creative clothing.

“NYU was really a good place for me,” Goldwater said. “I’d always enjoyed expressing myself and clothing had always been my favorite medium, but that’s where my interests really became more than a hobby.”
Goldwater essentially started her business out of her NYU dorm room.

“I was always the girl on the floor who would hem pants for $5,” she said.

She gained notoriety by wearing her creations around campus and around the city, sharing her business card with people who complimented her.

“Getting started was a long, slow process,” she said.

However, the long slow process has definitely paid off for Goldwater. This month, she celebrates three years at her East Village shop. She also does business online via her Etsy store. Goldwater said social networks like facebook, Twitter and Flickr have been essential to her business by generating interests in her causes and her designs.
Even though Goldwater relies on technology to promote her business and designs, she strongly opposes the modern clothing industry.

“Mass producing clothing is very bad for the environment,” Goldwater said. “Factories emit carbon dioxide and other toxins. “

Goldwater also counters the use of sweatshops. All AuH20 designs are hand-produced by Goldwater herself on her sewing machine covered with “Keep Abortion Legal” stickers.

By looking at discarded and unwanted clothing as raw materials, Goldwater is able to inexpensively produce unique designs and reduce the wearer’s carbon footprint.

Goldwater invites other eco-friendly fashionistas to look out of the box for inspiration. Some of her favorite places to find materials for future designs are thrift stores, estate sales, swapping Web sites and Freecylcle.org.
“It’s a lot of fun to look at clothing and fabric,” Goldwater said. “You might see something as a frumpy skirt, but when I look at it, I see potential. It could be a cute baby doll dress or a million other things.