Scrap Happy
As Kye Harford sees it, whether in fashion or in life, there's always a new path to discover.
The Unfinished Project designer often sifts through strips of scrap fabric and vintage aloha garments, letting the materials guide him to create new fashion from old stories. Thrifted sweatshirts take on colorful "puddles" shaped from Hawaiian fabric, while an old Japanese rice sack becomes a striking bucket hat.
"Anything is an unfinished project, in the sense that you can customize it, mend it, repair it," says Harford. "I think it applies to life, too — until you die, it's an unfinished project to me."
Becoming a designer has been one of the unexpected turns on the still-winding road of Harford's life. Originally from Okinawa, Japan, he moved to Hilo in 2014 to study geology and agriculture. After joining a hula halau in 2015, he realized he enjoyed crafting things from scratch when making lei or sewing a malo for the first time. It wasn't until the pandemic hit, and he was no longer able to work as a tour guide, that a foray into sewing masks in the summer of 2020 would slowly but surely lead him to start his own brand, initially called UMIQUE.
Known as Unfinished Project since May, the brand has always focused on repurposing materials. Harford sources clothing and wares from estate sales, church thrift shops as well as kupuna who stop by Intra Design Studio, the coworking space where he sews in Downtown Hilo, to give him their leftover fabrics.
"I try to upcycle and bring a second life to all these things that are floating around and are meant to hit a landfill," he shares.
With a variety of bags and accessories under his belt, Harford would like to expand the clothing side of the business and continue working on custom pieces. A recent collaboration with Honolulu-based Reina Young Designs features a dual-purpose bucket hat made from hand-woven fabric that turns into a drawstring pouch.
Harford also offers sewing workshops in the hopes of encouraging more people to have the skillset to mend, alter and repair their own garments.
Explore Unfinished Project online at umiquellc.com, on Instagram at @unfinishedproject_hi, at Intra Design Studio's retail space in Hilo and at Island-Boy boutique on O'ahu.