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Shop owner wears politics on her sleeve

By Farnoosh Torabi | Special to amNewYork

November 11, 2007

Kate Goldwater fashions clothes made from recycled materials. (Lane Johnson / November 26, 2007)

When Kate Goldwater visits the average thrift store in New York she sees opportunity, a chance to turn what's old into new, and more importantly, recreate clothing that inspires political change.

The 23-year-old NYU graduate is the owner of AuH20, a tiny clothing boutique on the Lower East Side that sells her personal designs made from recycled clothing and materials, like old tees and vintage dresses. The store is pronounced "goldwater," as in the chemical spelling of her last name. The year-old store is helping Goldwater pay her bills, she says, but it's still in its infancy. The vintage shop has yet to surpass sales from its grand opening in the fall of 2006: $600 in one day. Her shirts sell for about $25 and dresses for around $50.

To improve sales, she's begun selling jewelry and adding collections from other designers. "I'm making enough to get by. I'm not getting rich fast, but it's so wonderful to come in every day. Even if shoppers don't buy anything, it always feels really great," Goldwater said. "I just got this e-mail from a 13-year-old girl who said the store taught her about the environment. It's little things like that."

It was her political mission that ultimately convinced Goldwater's angel investor to grant her money, she says, despite her lack of professional training.

With his aid she was able to venture beyond her Web site, www.auh2odesigns.com, which she started in college, and open her small shop on 84 E. Seventh St. after graduating. "He likes that my stuff is environmentally friendly," she said. "There's no waste."

Originally from Milwaukee, Goldwater says she's never attended a business course and that her only fashion schooling was taking a home economics class in high school.

Her biggest influence was her mom, she says. "My mom] was ahead of the times with crazy outfits. She had all these crazy materials and I'd go through them and learn how to sew and tape things," she recalls. In eighth grade, Goldwater transformed her backyard tent into a pair of stylish pants.

Later at NYU, she studied at the Gallatin School, where she created her own major, focusing on art and clothing in social justice. "It wasn't until college that I realized making old clothes into new clothes was also a political statement -- that I was doing something for the good."