Recycling trash into new treasures

[attach]4553[/attach]A baby’s tooth might not seem like jewelry material.

But a customer at designer Nathalie-Roze Fischer’s shop thought so, so Fischer chewed on the idea and managed to help recycle one into a memorable pendant.

Those skills ensure hardly anything goes to waste at her Queen Street East shop, as scraps of old sweaters get turned into stuffed animals, jeans are cropped into baby bibs, and beer caps become pins and magnets.

“I love basically playing with garbage to turn it into something really neat,” says Fischer, sporting a pantsuit by one of her designers.

The Nathalie-Roze & Co. store at Queen Street East and Pape Avenue recently marked its fifth birthday with a sale complemented by ice cream.

“I just cannot believe half a decade vanished, because it feels like we were just organizing the first party and now it’s the fifth,” says Fischer.

She says that’s a significant landmark in retail in Leslieville, a part of the city that she says three years ago was devoid of a fashion presence.

“We were kind of crazy pioneers at the time because there wasn’t too much out here,” she says.

As a grade 10 student, Fischer was already making her own clothing and jewelry and selling it street side.

“Whatever I wanted to try I was encouraged to try,” she says. “We do have a lot of creative mojo in my family.”

What started out with Fischer’s mother encouraging her to make her own dolls has grown into a shop that sells pieces by 83 different Canadian designers, about a fifth of which are made by Fischer and her staff in the basement studio.

The store hosts clothing swaps, where for a $5 flat rate, participants can bring a bag of unwanted clothes and trade with someone else.

Interested visitors can learn about sewing, silkscreen printing, jewelry and soap making, which Fischer is planning to offer as day trips to Centre Island in August.

Many have made friends through these sessions, she says, and one romance even blossomed out of a soap-making workshop.

Fischer’s love for recycling and vintage styling permeates all these endeavours. She says it forces her to be creative, rather than going for an Ikea-style postmodern design.

“It’s not my look,” she says, “So it’s more fun to find something with a story.”