Drawstring Skirt

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Issue 46

The Food Issue

Make a meal to die for
Make wine crate cabinets
Learn to screen print

Drawstring Skirt

Rogan Gregory for Loomstate

WHO
Rogan Gregory, the modernist designer of apparel, furniture, and even tepees

WHAT
Loomstate, Gregory’s latest line, whose most recent project includes a Target collaboration

WEAR
Offhandedly cool, seamless tonal pieces that make you want to swear off brights

by Ariel Ramchandani

Photos by Kathryn Gambel

Turning a men’s shirt into a simple paper-bag skirt is the perfect way to recycle an old button-down.

These days designer Rogan Gregory traverses lower Manhattan by skateboard, crossing west to east from his Tribeca offices to his Nolita store. This moving image captures Gregory’s eco-friendly style well: He has culled inspiration from his Colorado upbringing, New York city life, and even the wild beaches of Montauk, at the far end of Long Island. His aesthetic extends past clothing into furniture and design. Projects include an organic cotton line for Target, an objects collection for Barneys New York, a tepee construction in Montauk, and the signature ROGAN collection and flagship store at the old Bouwerie Lane Theater—and he still found time to pick up a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award in 2007.

Hold the shirt up to your lower half with the underarm seam at your waist to decide the length. Keep in mind that you will need about 13⁄4-inch seam-allowance material to turn back and create the drawstring, which will subtract from the final length. Our total length measured 203⁄4 inch, leaving a 19-inch skirt. Mark the turnback section with pins.
Using sharp shears, cut the skirt straight along the line you have marked. Remove the top button left on the shirt if it interferes with the section you have marked for the turnback.
Measure an inch below the turnback. Identify center seam on shirt and place two buttonholes or eyelet closures at this point, 1 inch from the bottom of the turnback, ½ inch apart, or ¼ inch each from the center seam. Cut holes and insert buttonholes or eyelet by hand or machine.
Fold turnback down into waistband, and stitch closed using sewing machine, making sure there is at least ¼ inch inside.
Lead ribbon or shoestring through the opening by attaching one end to a safety pin. Knot ends.

The $30 price excludes sewing machine and shirt.