‘A world of difference.’ Area tailoring duo helps people feel positive about their bodies
Hidden in the forest north of Belfair, Rheanna Pless bent over a tall work table Friday afternoon, carefully removing the soft inner lining of a jean jacket. Their partner in life and in business, Grey Ellis, stood in the back of the studio, pulling fabrics and other pieces the two have collaborated on over the years, from screen-printed mesh tops to artful shirts inspired by zodiac signs.
Pless, 35, and Ellis, 34, run a mobile tailoring business called Rhecycled out of a workshop in their backyard. They specialize in repairs, alterations and custom designs that emphasize sustainability, body positivity and gender-affirming clothing. While based in Mason County, Pless and Ellis make home visits to clients in places like Tacoma and Seattle and are looking to expand their services in Pierce County. You might have seen them at pop-ups or vintage markets around town.
The business combines Pless’s technical training as an apparel designer, artist and tailor with Ellis’s background in art, administration and pattern consulting. With Rhecycled the two seek to extend the life of existing clothing while also reaching those who have traditionally been excluded or not felt comfortable visiting a tailor.
Pless and Ellis both use they/them pronouns and said most of their clients identify as queer, non-binary or plus size (and sometimes all three). Ellis said the duo is sensitive to the fact that people have strong emotions about clothes and how they fit their bodies, and want people to know they’re there to listen and help.
Pless trained at a suit-tailoring and alterations house after graduating from the Seattle Central College’s Apparel Design & Development program. Pless said they saw there first-hand how a tailor’s perception of gender impacts the designs and alterations they do for their clients.
Clothing seen as more feminine would usually be altered to be more form-fitting rather than boxy and might fit differently on the body than how clients want, Pless said.
“There was also a lot of fat phobia [in the tailoring industry], so there’s also ideas about that and what should be shown and what shouldn’t be shown,” Ellis added. “Our whole idea is that people should feel good in their clothes, and what they feel good in is what’s going to look best on them.”
Pless said tailoring is a intimate experience, and they make an effort to make clients feel at ease, often meeting them in the privacy of their own homes. Ellis said Rhecycled is intentional about taking on a consent- and trauma-informed ethics approach to alterations.
“When we’re [tailoring], you have to be in somebody’s space. You have to be measuring their body. You have to touch them in certain ways,” Ellis said. “So I think that’s something that’s really important to us as a business: To ask, [to] tell people what’s going to happen, [to] explain what you’re about to do and why, so that if that’s not something they’re comfortable with, you can adjust.”
Rhecycled began in January 2021, and the duo has grown clientele largely through word of mouth. Clients can request alterations through a form on their website and repairs come later, as does pricing. Once complete, Pless and Ellis mail the items back to their owner.
“It happened really organically, which was really helpful for us in the beginning because people just kept coming. People just kept reaching out to us, and we realized, OK, there’s a need for this,” Pless said. “This is something that we need in our community as trans people, as queer people, as body-affirming folks. We need this service. It’s clearly overdue.”
Many of the services they offer are repairs to worn or ripped clothing, suit alterations, adjustments that take in the waist or the legs, in addition to more artful services that combine articles of clothing or fabrics to create something new. Ellis said they also help clients with disabilities who request modifications like pants that fit over an assistive device or who have trouble zipping and unzipping.
“There’s enough clothes that exist, and we want clothes that exist to stay in circulation,” Ellis said. “We’re sourcing used clothing for repairs. We’re sourcing second-hand fabric, we’re sourcing zippers from thrift stores. We’re always trying to source things that have been already created as much as we can.”
Pless said they understand the work is “just a drop in the bucket” in terms of sustainability, but said, “This is literally what makes us happy in our life, and this is the way we live our lives. And it draws people to us that also have the same values and want to be able to do the same.”
Feeling good in your body
Pless said many people never thought they could own custom clothes or like how their clothing looks on their body, which makes for a fun and sweet collaboration between clients who have a vision for what they want.
Many people associate tailoring with wealth and class, an association Pless said they want to break down. Depending on the alteration, how much work needs to be done and material expenses, pricing can vary from $30-$50 to $100-$500. It can take a month or more usually to get a garment back depending on how many projects are ahead in the queue, Pless said.
Rhecycled’s tailoring prices are not very different from the going rate for similar services, Pless said. Lots of clients bring in thrifted or vintage garments, including suits, with the purpose of altering or modernizing them. They’ve had clients bring in multi-generational wedding dresses to update or accessorize too.
“It’s not for the upper class that your clothes should fit the way that you like,” Pless said. “You should be able to have a custom experience with us in having a say about how you look.”
Tacoma resident Rhyannon Joy, who also uses they/them pronouns, has come to Rhecycled for alteration services for a while now. When living in New York, Joy said they once took a jumpsuit to a tailor there but found the result was skin tight, which wasn’t what they wanted. That experience discouraged them from going to another tailor for a long time.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Joy said, they started thinking about their consumption and buying habits and began looking to make a change. They happened to find Rheycled on Instagram. The business has since altered five pairs of pants for them. More recently, they made an appointment to combine two different shirts and pants into one set.
“I love clothes. I love what clothes can do for people,” Joy said. “I’ve always been interested in how people express themselves with clothing, but I’ve ultimately always been frustrated with clothes, just in terms of being a queer, non-binary person and with different experiences with body dysphoria and not really understanding how I wanted them to fit me, or how they could fit me.”
Until recently, Joy, who is 40, said they had a love-hate relationship with clothes, “where I appreciate the beauty and the creativity that goes into them, but [feel] frustrated that I couldn’t really make that for myself.”
Joy said it has always been challenging to find clothing that fits their body right and that isn’t degraded over time, like many fast fashion pieces are.
“I am a plus-size person, and for my body type things absolutely do not fit my waist while they fit my legs. Or things will fit my waist, but not fit my arms,” Joy said. “So it’s always been real silly trying to find things that are actually fitting my body or finding a tailor that understands that I don’t want things skin tight, and I want them to fit a certain way.”
While wearing clothing altered by Rhecycled, Joy said, they don’t feel as sweaty or anxious and worried, a bit more confident.
“It’s certainly a world of difference to go to somebody who won’t treat you like a rectangle, because most clothing is just manufactured really strangely,” they said.
