Meet the N.J. designer leading a sustainable fashion movement

With tape measure around her neck, a pencil and ruler in her hands, Terina Hill leans over her work desk to measure out the width of a handbag strap on brown kraft paper.

Using leather scraps that were saved from being thrown into a landfill, the 49-year-old makes a pattern for a patchwork hobo bag for herself.

“People don’t think that when they get rid of something (like polyester clothing) it doesn’t leave the planet, it’s still here,” Hill said from her studio in Waterfront South, Sustainable Style Studio. “It’s now sitting in a landfill.”

As a conscientious fashion designer, Hill’s mission is to use sustainable materials to design and create leather handbags and accessories. She also aims to teach Camden residents about sustainable fashion practices.

“I just feel like we’re killing our planet,” says Hill, referring to the millions of pounds of clothing that end up in landfills every year. “If you’re a mom and you hope to be a grandma and great grandma one day, you are worried about the type of environment your kids are going to live in.”

“I take that stuff very personal and so it would be selfish of me to know this and not share this,” says Hill, a mother of two.

Hill stumbled into sustainable fashion well into her career.

After growing up in Newark, Hill went to fashion school at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. After college she designed shoes for major companies like Me Too shoes, sold at stores like Macy’s and Nordstroms, and the Children’s Place, a children’s clothing brand.

She also got married and had her first child Jordan, a girl, now 21.

Hill eventually moved to Willingboro. She relaunched her luxury handbag line, Jypsea Leathergoods, a collection she started in college but had to close to focus on finishing school.

Customers often told her they were looking for more affordable bags. A frequent thrifter, she switched her focus to buying second-hand leather clothing to make make the bags more affordable.

“It was a common sense swap,” she says about being at the forefront of the emerging movement of up-cycling.

Years later, she learned about the damage the fashion industry inflicted on the environment.

For instance, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw away millions of clothes each year, many man-made fabrics, like polyester, can take centuries to decompose. There’s also the mind-boggling fact that it takes hundreds of gallons of water to produce one T-shirt, according to a World Wildlife Fund study.

“I started to really double down on sustainability,” Hill says. “I was making sure I was working in a waste-free environment.”

It wasn’t long after Hill’s signature designs of turning leather pants into tote bags that she began to draw attention from educators and nonprofits focusing on sustainability.

Eventually, Hill also obtained a masters degree in art with a focus in design and craft from New Jersey City University. Around the same time, she met her second husband, Steven. Both had their sights set on moving to Camden.

“I just felt a pull in my heart,” Hill says.

She named her son, now 7 years old, Camden, after their new home.

Today, Hill is a full-time fashion design teacher at Camden’s Creative Arts High School. At her studio and clothing boutique at 1912 Broadway, she teaches people how to use the sewing machine to enhance their wardrobe.

“People can come in, not pay for anything and learn how to repair their clothes,” says Hill, who hosts a monthly free community mend session where you can bring a torn item to fix. “It keeps them out of the landfills.”

You can also book classes to learn how to make items like leather sandals, African waist beads, and a pair of pants. Across they way from the workshop

At her boutique across the hall from her studio, she sells vintage clothes, accessories from local designers, and leather handbags and accessories from her line Jypsea Leathergoods.

Those who’ve encountered Hill say she’s among the first to shine a light on sustainable fashion in Camden.

Vedra Chandler, a Camden singer and actress, has worked with Hill during summer camps and has seen the fashion designer teach students of all ages how to upcycle clothing, she’s also taken one of Hill’s leather making classes.

“I really admire what Terina is doing and kind of bringing sustainability and fashion to a very personal and grassroots level,” says the 45-year-old, who has also taken one of Hill’s leather-making classes. “I don’t know if there’s anybody on the scene [in Camden] now doing what she’s doing.”

Kauthar Sumayyah Calvente, one of Hill’s fashion students at the Creative Arts High School, says her teacher inspires her to express herself — and look beyond the aesthetics of the industry.

“She’s taught us this many times, fashion is not just for the look,” the 17-year-old senior says. “We need to be mindful as humans who need to protect this earth.”