Emma Brooks was a graphic designer for 10 years before founding Pair Up, a sustainable clothing line of colorful basics. She was “craving change,” and decided to do something with her hands, ultimately finding that piecing together textiles and plotting color schemes was similar to what she’d done on the computer for a decade as a designer. Her shift to fashion was also fueled by a desire to help the environment.

“I want to be a part of that solution,” she said, pointing to the fact that Pair Up uses upcycled or deadstock fabrics, releases designs in small batches to help avoid waste, and dyes fabric with a low-water immersion technique that is more environmentally-friendly than traditional dyeing techniques. “I don’t want to just make stuff for stuff’s sake,” she said. “It needs to be more than that.”