Slow-made, hand-touched fashion has had a boom during the pandemic. We’ve seen knitwear by Ella Emhoff, drawn-on denim by Kat Rose, and dyed jeans courtesy of Emily Dawn Long. Now, the New York-based Andrea Smith of the recently launched label AMS is putting her own spin on thoughtful designs using vintage denim painted with natural dyes.
While Smith works across different mediums, including drawing and ceramics, her murals have long intersected with fashion. Her trompe l’oeil illustrations have appeared in familiar places, including in the downtown-beloved vintage store James Veloria, which boasts a mural with a marble wall and Grecian urns illustrated by Smith, while a dreamy surrealist scene appears in the store owners Brandon Giordano and Collin Weber’s own apartment. Smith started to segue into clothing while living in Barcelona in 2019 and experimenting with one-off pieces. “I was working with different vintage cotton pieces that I was thrifting and adding a natural pigmentation process,” she tells Vogue over the phone. There, she began using natural pigments, including some she found locally and another that her roommate had bought in Morocco, to paint her signature designs on them.
Smith’s dreamy denim illustrations, which portray swirly patterns and mythological characters, harkens back to her Greek Orthodox roots. “I’m always drawn to like angelic imagery. Sometimes, I’m just making up these little stories as I go.” Currently, Smith uses a slew of natural dyes, including indigo and earth pigments mixed with soy milk, which creates a permanent mark on the denim. While washing painted clothing is sometimes a no-no, Smith notes that in this case, water furthers embeds the paint but after time, gives a satisfying worn and faded look, which she compares to “an old tattoo on weathered skin.” So far, Smith only works on vintage Levi 501, 550s, and the label’s silver tab version.
