When Haven DeAnglis arrived at MICA as a Fiber major, she was already thinking about materials, where they came from, how they were used, and what happened when they were discarded. Drawn equally to experimental fashion, sustainability, and social practice, DeAnglis found in fiber a language expansive enough to hold artistic expression, environmental responsibility, and cultural identity all at once.

Today, that language lives and breathes through STITCH AND DESTROY, a Philadelphia-based clothing brand and studio DeAnglis founded in 2019. Rooted in punk’s do-it-yourself ethos and driven by a commitment to reducing textile waste, the venture transforms rescued fabrics, pre-loved garments, and reclaimed materials into handmade clothing designed to last, each piece carrying both aesthetic edge and ethical intention.

From Fiber Studio to Founding Vision

DeAnglis’s path toward sustainable fashion was shaped early by hands-on learning. Summer internships during their first two years at MICA proved especially formative. At TerraCycle in Trenton, New Jersey, DeAnglis worked with post-consumer waste, materials like toothpaste tubes and chip bags, turning them into functional sewn products. The experience sharpened her technical sewing skills on industrial machines while revealing the scale of global waste and the possibilities embedded within it.

A second internship at MamerSass Reinvented Fashions in Chincoteague, Virginia, offered a different lesson: how a small, mission-driven fashion business could thrive through creativity, community, and reuse. There, DeAnglis helped design and construct garments from textile remnants while also assisting with storefront operations. The intimacy of that environment—  equal parts studio, shop, and collaborative space — sparked the realization that art practice and entrepreneurship could coexist.

By senior year at MICA, those influences converged. Coursework in business planning helped DeAnglis imagine a sustainable fashion venture, while a thesis collection rooted in punk history and constructed entirely from textile waste became the first true expression of STITCH AND DESTROY. Recognition soon followed. DeAnglis received the competitive Lenore G. Tawney Scholarship from Fiber faculty and later won funding through MICA’s UP/Start program, seed support that helped transform a student idea into a working enterprise.