The following content is quoted from:https://www.vogue.com/article/claw-money-lou-dallas-haley-wollens
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This season’s most stylish T-shirts hail from a trifecta of New York natives: the stylist Haley Wollens, designer Raffaella Hanley of Lou Dallas, and the trailblazing graffiti artist and designer Claw Money (Claudia Gold), who is celebrating her 20 years on the scene. The New York-born-and-raised trio–Wollens is from Manhattan, Hanley is from Brooklyn, and Claw is from Queens–have come together to churn out about 39 cut-and-sew rugby shirts, along with 50 T-shirts, that have been remixed and refined, injected with the quirk and grit of each woman’s style. The pieces will go on sale at the store Big Ash on 47 Delancey Street in the Lower East Side on Thursday, October 20th starting at 4pm.
Each piece is made from shirts sourced from a secondhand store or friends of Claw’s. The tops are sliced-and-diced with vibrant color combinations and Claw Money symbols like PMS, the name of her female-led graffiti group. “We would always use it as sort of a funny thing to riff on for the brand,” says Claw. The phrase, “it’s all about the money,” is inscribed on the inside as a nod to Lou Dallas’s collections. Claw and Wollens also riffed on Hanley’s logo—text that reads “Strong Women Better Planet” encircling planet Earth—by replacing the Earth with a hot pink and purple image of a woman riding a horse, complete with “PMS” in her tresses.
While upcycling thrifted clothes might be trendy now, secondhand is nothing new for Claw, who has been designing this way for over 10 years. “I only print on vintage T-shirts and vintage fleece,” says Claw. “I realized how much waste there is in this business, and all these clothes that had a former life seemed to be more exciting than just buying a dozen new sweatshirts. And then each piece is different and that’s a special thing.”
Hanley is also driven to be more sustainable in her own designs, and has always created collections with already-worn pieces or deadstock fabrics. “I love collecting clothing that people have basically considered waste or unwearable, and creating something desirable again from that source,” says Hanley. “This project is just that.”
The project is also an exciting moment for the trio, who have been connected for years. Back in the early ’00s, Wollens worked for Claw via an introduction from an ex-boyfriend. “I was studying graphic design and then I started doing graphics for her,” says Wollens. “She’s such an OG, and she’s such a New York legend and such a part of my fashion experience.” Wollens was Claw’s third assistant. “That was the beginning of 15 years of collaborating,” she says of working with the stylist. As for Hanley, the designer interned for Wollens and subsequently, Wollens styled one of her shows. “It’s full circle,” says Wollens.
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