Sage Nelsen: Upcycled in Every Shade of Pink

Bad bitch! Over the top! Pop girly! Sustainable fashion designer Sage Nelsen identifies with these words as well as with her brand’s slogan, “statement clothing for statement people.” We chat about her path to this current stage in her fashion career while sitting on her denim couch that looks like it has been clipped from an aughts Teen Vogue issue. Light falls through pink curtains that cover the vaulted ceiling of her living room, where clothing racks, frames and posters collage the walls—including a giant portrait of Nelsen looking relevant as hell in a flash photo where she’s surrounded by clothing. She pours me a glass of water in a cup that is shaped like an ice cream cone. She sports a set of Silly Bandz on her wrist.

“It was very Mormon and white. I was just trying to conform and lost all style.”

Nelsen was not always interested in being a fashion designer. While she dressed crazy as a young kid growing up in Utah, she went through a fashion shift when she transferred school districts for junior high and high school. “It was very Mormon and white. I was just trying to conform and lost all style,” she says. Later, when Nelsen studied film in California, she began to regain her sense of style. On a trip to New York, she stumbled across a shop that made gender fluid, upcycled clothing. The fact that the pieces were selling at a high price point, as well as the evocative fashion that she saw in the city, inspired Nelsen to pursue sustainable design.

When I ask her about where she learned to sew, Nelsen mentions a ninth grade sewing class and a class at Salt Lake Community College. “We had to sew a zipper 16 times—it took like an hour,” Nelsen says. “And then after the class I looked on TikTok and found a way that took 20 minutes.” Her online learning has taken her far, to numerous runway collections and a constant stream of statement pieces that she sells at markets. A cropped blazer that hangs on her wall catches my attention—tulle trapping thousands of fabric scraps. Nelsen shows me the matching pants, full of the same scraps that could pose for a page in an I Spy book. All of her pieces share these qualities: bright colors and intricacies that have you exploring them down to the stitch.

“All of my showstoppers are under my bed because they’re too big and I hate them… in a loving way.”

When asked about where she draws fashion inspiration from, Nelsen unhesitatingly mentions the influence of Anna Molinari (TikToker and fashion designer), the power of her own brain (occasionally with the help of her green substance of choice) and weirdly, Fortnite skins. While she is not into Battle Royale herself, Nelsen watches for notable outfits when her boyfriend plays and has a coworker who sends her screenshots of skins.

Nelsen is proudest of her most recent collection, “Trashionably Yours,” which was themed to portray the fashion of the future. She overcame several creative blocks during its creation, something that she did not struggle with when conceiving her buzz-generating tie collection. When I ask about a striking gown of stuffed grocery bags, those hauntingly familiar Shein ziplocks, an iPhone box and many other bits of artificial polymers, she tells me it’s the “showstopper” of the collection. “All of my showstoppers are under my bed because they’re too big and I hate them… in a loving way,” says Nelsen with a laugh.

Nelsen is looking forward to developing future collections that will inspire positive change in her audience. She teases the concept of a “jollection”—pieces made entirely of jeans—as well as a collection that discusses mental health. She plans to launch an online shop soon at sagenelsen.com and can be found on Instagram at @sage.nelsen.

Read more about local DIY creators:
Respectable Hoe Chainmail: DIY Festival Artisan
Kaycee Lane Turns Vintage Trash into Kitschy Treasures