In a maze of deadstock fabrics that line the walls from floor to ceiling and cover four stories, Laura Fisher ’01 searches for the patterns and colors that she’ll turn into pieces for her sustainable clothing brand, Revivall. The overwhelming tangle of discarded product is the reason Fisher started Revivall in the first place, to reduce the amount of waste generated by one of the largest pollution producers on the planet, the fashion industry.

After Fisher graduated from Clemson with a degree in animal science and a minor in agricultural economics in 2001, she furthered her education at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where she sharpened her already-present business savvy as well as her unique creative style by learning more about the design process.

When Hurricane Katrina hit, Fisher co-founded a nonprofit called Emergency Communities to help victims of the storm and created a clothing line called Sigh of Relief. She also worked in the fashion district and sold clothes at flea markets and through other small businesses. Through it all, one thing was constant. Waste.

“When I would throw the trash out, I saw tons and tons of fabric left in the dumpsters,” Fisher says. Unfortunately, fashion pollution isn’t limited to dumpsters and landfills. Images of piles of clothing lining the ocean, workers’ hands dyed indigo blue from jeans and toxic river water from chemicalized fabrics come to mind — all the byproducts of what’s known as “fast fashion.”