Sienna Xavier: The 'Freak' Designer Who Steals Trash and Makes It Into Something Valuable 🌍✨

"I didn't just make sustainable materials - I fought them away from landfills and forced them to be beautiful." 🚀

So, let me rewind. Envision, 23-year-old me back-packing Bali, recognizing locals were setting plastic rubbish on fire, because no one gave them anything better to do. The smoke was hard to handle - fingers crossed it was only the smoke. That’s when I lost it - I threw my 'corporate designer' resignation letter into the flames (I get that it seems dramatic 🔥) and promised myself that I would redesign the world - one scrap at a time.

Fast forward from blood, sweat, and epoxy resin - and I’m now taking fishing nets and turning them into couture, coconut shells into high-end furniture, and all my haters' scepticism into rocket fuel. My studio? A solar-powered van that pop up owners (like a wandering smorgasbord) from Moroccan souks to Icelandic fjords. My team? A freakish thrown together family of 'makers, hackers, and stray dogs who adopted us along the way. 🐕

But trust me darling, it wasn't always #EcoChic. I've slept in factories holding onto my prototypes as if they were my lovers 💔, been ripped off by too many 'green' suppliers (note to self: never trust anyone with an Instagram feed that looks too perfect), and cried over a 3D printer more times than over ex-boyfriends. But for every crack in the path? That's where the gold - or in my case, upcycled gold leaf seeps in.

So what am I doing now? Being obsessed with the idea that sustainability doesn't automatically mean boring. Come swipe right for the time I went to zero-waste nightclubs, took home biodegradable-glitter, and sometimes cried about why pineapple leather would not play'. Make sure you follow me if you believe that adventure and activism* can wear the same pair of boots. 👢

P.S. my mum still thinks I just 'play with garbage'. The joke's on her - I got Vogue to pay me for it. 💅