Bio

Jessamy Shay Kilcollins is a textile artist, mender, and sustainable fashion designer. She uses secondhand materials and handcraft processes to interrogate the roles of consumption and consumerism in modern society. Since 2022, she has been releasing creatively mended and upcycled garments made from textiles which might otherwise end up in the global waste stream under the label AMENDED. As part of her mission to educate others about the importance of textile repair and reuse, she teaches mending in the Boston area, and has taught at the The Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts, and the Cambridge and Somerville Public Libraries, among others. She also offers garment repair services to the general public.

Jessamy holds a BFA in Fibers and a Certificate in Fashion Design from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. In January 2020, she was one of eight designers from the Northeast selected to participate in a sustainable fashion design competition called Project Upcycle, and was awarded second place for her gala look sewed from repurposed materials. She also co-owns High Energy Vintage with her partner in Somerville MA, where they live with two cats and way too many chairs in an old nut factory.