L.A. Fashion Week Spring '09: Raquel Allegra

Designer Raquel Allegra elevates the concept of a deconstructed T-shirt to artistic heights. For her eponymous couture collection, the Los Angeles–based designer hand-picked discarded white T-shirts from the Los Angeles County Jail’s recycling program to use as her raw materials. The tees are dyed and the shirt threads are deconstructed by hand until what remains is a spider web–like net of drooping fabric. Allegra’s handiwork, shown at BoxEight in Los Angeles Oct. 19, explored multiple permutations of this technique, from scooping out just one side of a shirt to ultra-sheer dresses where the gauzy threads stretched down to the runway. Tie-dyed patterns crawled over the shoulders and down the center of a shirt like an X-ray ribcage and spinal vertebrae.

“Working with one actual material for five years, I got to know it on an intimate level,” said Allegra, whose couture collection is sold exclusively in Los Angeles at Maxfield. “Sometimes I’ll discover little details about how to cut the neckline or how to shape the sleeve because an inmate did that to their own piece. It inspires me.” —Rhea Cortado