Photo credit: Monty Hamm
interview by Maisie McDermid
New York-based designer Anna Molinari, 27, is the definition of thrifty. For Molinari, plastic forks, when melted and reconfigured, double as voguish rings. Gold and silver beer tabs, when hooked together, become a one-of-a-kind bikini. She sees the potential in everything– her motto: Why not extend its life?
Three years into running her fashion business, Instinct Brand, Molinari has accomplished what many find un-accomplishable: maintaining a sustainable business model with significant growth. Instinct Brand's buying demographic has expanded from friends and family to 130,000 followers (between @annamo.1 and @instinct.brand) who come across Molinari's bubble-wrap corsets or trash bag high heels online. While her talent emerges from her iconic upcycled pieces, she has recently prioritized making custom pieces for public figures like Julia Fox and Pattie Gonia. This paradox — being a successful and sustainable business owner — won Molinari a position on this year's Forbes’ 30 under 30 list.
MAISIE MCDERMID: I saw a video on your Instagram of a dress you made from straws when you were seventeen. How young were you when you started designing clothes? Have you always prioritized sustainability in your designs?
ANNA MOLINARI: I started sewing when I was a kid, around eight years old. I’d have Project Runway marathons and call my then five-year-old sister, Lily, up to our little playroom and start immediately pinning things on her and hand-stitching them. I’d use materials that were lying around the house, like old curtains or leftover fabric from Halloween costumes that my mom would make. It was sort of in my nature to be scrappy from the start because my mom is too. Why buy something if you already have something you could use?
In high school, I took an AP 3D sculpture class and got permission to do my 3D portfolio as wearable 3D sculpture. So, that's when I first started experimenting with real, unconventional materials. I made one of the sculptures out of a million perfume caps that my art teacher, Mr. Hansel, had for some reason in the art room. I got all those black straws for the dress from a cafe that was switching over to paper, and didn't want the black plastic anymore. And I also did like a red Solo cup top.
Then in college, I continued doing experimental art classes and learned how destructive the textile industry is. I just feel this guilt every time I throw something that is single use away, so I made a conscious decision to only use second hand materials. Why not extend its life?
MCDERMID: I see you left Syracuse for a semester in 2019 to study at the London College of Fashion. How was this experience, and how did conversations on sustainable fashion vary compared to those in New York?
MOLINARI: I didn't really feel like it was a priority at the time. I don't think it was as progressive in that way; I think it was more of a traditional fashion experience.
But since COVID, really, there has been a major social push towards being sustainable – people thrifting all the time. I feel judged or guilty anytime I buy something new or from Amazon. I recently saw that at London Fashion Week, designers weren’t able to use plastic packaging or furs anymore. So, I think a lot has been happening in the last five years. It was right on the cusp when I was there, but now the real change is starting, which is exciting and hopeful.
MCDERMID: I see the ways your passions for sustainability and fashion have aligned, but when did you realize you wanted to start your own brand?
MOLINARI: Since I was a kid, that was always the goal. But my college professors kind of ingrained in us that you're supposed to get out of college and have corporate design jobs. Then maybe, down the line, when you're middle aged, you can work your way high enough to have your own brand.
So when I got out of college, I had a corporate design job, and it was horrible. It felt like, what's the point of this? This isn't helping anybody. And it was mass production. Even though it was supposed to be sustainable yarns used to design sweaters, it was still mass production. I had also started making more money from social media than from my full-time job, and I was working until like 4 AM every day, so I had to decide to take the leap and start my brand.
Since then, I have been growing it more as a source of inspiration than a shop. I feel like I can be most valuable by putting ideas and inspiration about sustainable fashion out there, as opposed to selling things.
MCDERMID: A lot of your Instagram content is of you picking up your phone and sharing your thoughts on current sustainable fashion trends, pieces you’re working on, etc. This really distinguishes Instinct Brand as a more personal label compared to others that prioritize selling clothes. Have you always felt comfortable voicing yourself to large numbers of people?
MOLINARI: I've never really felt any anxiety about sharing my thoughts on the environment and global warming. Something I had not expected to be so tricky is navigating how to post things when other things in the world are going on. When I post about the environment, I have experienced people getting upset that I'm not talking about other things too. So, that's something that makes me a little bit uncomfortable, because social media is just so public, and a lot of things are so polarizing to talk about. But I try to keep it light, while still touching on things that are more serious.
Photo credit: Monty Hamm
MCDERMID: Has Instinct Brand evolved the way you thought it would?
MOLINARI: No, because I thought I would need to sell things consistently through consistent drops of thrift-flipped items. But now, we sort of just do customs and experimental projects for fun. The rest of the brand is sharing other inspiring work and process videos.
I've loved how it has sort of evolved into more of just a platform. People send us their projects, and we feature them on our stories. We post mood boards and share things about fashion weeks. I really enjoy how it has become a hub of fun ideas that are all in the sustainability world. That's what I look for whenever I'm trying to find inspiration.
MCDERMID: One of my questions for you was actually going to be about how possible it really is for a small, sustainable brand to maintain its sustainable priority as it grows. In many ways, I imagine it becomes impossible as the brand inevitably transitions to big-brand business models that are not always sustainable.
MOLINARI: Yeah, it really is due to social media. I fund Instinct with the money I make from social media, so I don't have to rely on sales. But the one stressful part of that is social media itself. Tik Tok was almost banned this year, so it’s inconsistent. You never know when a video is going to hit or not. You never know when people are going to approach you for brand deals and stuff like that.
But that's why I also do large-scale customs. It’s a great way to generate income in the least wasteful way, like taking on large scale sustainable projects. Every once in a while, I think that's a lot better than having to churn out affordable things. Unfortunately, many small businesses don't make enough money by making affordable things, and that's why they have to turn to mass production or less sustainable methods. It's expensive to be sustainable, and you're trying to appeal to the masses who aren't going to pay the $500 that that shirt is worth.
MCDERMID: How do you feel shifting from creating smaller pieces for your followers to now bigger ones for public figures? Are you under more pressure?
MOLINARI: I actually love doing customs because I get to create an entire look as opposed to just taking a button down from the thrift store and turning it into something else. I'm taking tons of things from eBay and Poshmark, taking them all apart, and pairing them with shoes, bottoms, tops, jackets, everything. It feels more fun as a creative person to see an idea fully come to life from head to toe.
And the fun thing about customs is that each one has its own vibe and theme. In an ideal world, I would love it if my career could just be one insane custom every month for a public figure. That would be the most fulfilling thing to me, the act.
MCDERMID: I see you have worked with Pattie Gonia, a well-known environmentalist, musician, and drag artist. Tell me about the experience. How much do you collaborate with the public figures you’re working for? Do they express an idea of what they want for the custom piece, or do you take the lead?
MOLINARI: In Pattie’s case, she will tell me the theme, and then I'll sketch out a bunch of ideas, make mood boards, and pick out hypothetical materials and everything. And then, I'll review with the stylist, we pick one, and from there, I get into construction.
Working with Pattie is great because we have a very close relationship now. We've done probably around seven or eight at this point. I'm working on two more right now, and those ones are really fun, because drag is a whole different genre. It's cheeky and camp. You can be really crazy and it doesn't need to be something you can wear to a gala. The thing that we're working on right now is a construction worker themed outfit that we are calling “Cuntstruction worker.” It’s all of these things that I got on Poshmark and Ebay that we're taking apart, putting together, and bedazzling.
MCDERMID: Can you talk a bit about “A Piece of Meat?” What was your vision for this creative project, and did you feel satisfied with it in the end?
MOLINARI: I'm trying to do more creative projects in 2025. With that one, I had been collecting a bunch of cellophane, bubble wrap, and clear packaging from my studio’s building. They get a lot of shipments in, and then they just have all this plastic wrap. So as I was collecting that, I started making the skirt. I thought about how this woman is going to look like a piece of meat wrapped in cellophane and how it feels to be looked at like a piece of meat as a woman in New York. You really can't walk down the street dressed up without somebody making you feel uncomfortable.
So, we used a piece of meat as her clutch to round out the whole point. That's one of my favorite projects, because it was such a social experiment. A lot of men were getting angry. Some people were upset that we were taking pictures of strangers, but they were taking pictures of her. A lot of interesting conversations came up because of that photo shoot, and I really enjoy that as a designer. I think it's important that people argue about these things and hear each other's differences.
MCDERMID: Are you usually able to step out from the conversations once you’ve started them? Do you ever feel like you need or want to be participating in the conversations with people?
MOLINARI: There was one person that I engaged with, because he was saying the shoot didn't have a point and that people were just staring at her because it was a spectacle, and that it was poorly executed and everything. Which is stupid, because I know that it was a spectacle. I would stare at her, but that wasn't the point. The point was to just capture a vibe.
He didn’t get it because he doesn't know what it’s like to be that girl who is getting stared at and spoken to. Those pictures don't capture the comments that people were making as they walked by. But normally I don't engage because it does make me angry, and I kind of regret it, because men can't get things through their thick skulls.
MCDERMID: I would love to hear more about the collecting you do— the specificities of it. Do you feel like this collecting part of your brain is always on? When you get takeout food, do you always save the bag? Do you ever ask people to crowdsource certain items?
MOLINARI: You kind of hit it spot on. There's stuff in every single bag and every single pocket. I try to keep most of the single-use plastic that my roommates and I use, and that alone is so much stuff that I had to get a storage unit. Everything at the grocery store is sold in plastic. You really don't see how much waste you're producing until you start collecting it.
If I see a long sheet of bubble wrap in the street, I'll grab that, or I will dumpster dive, depending on the place. For specific things – like if I need bulk soda can tabs or bulk bread tabs – people literally collect them and sell them on eBay.
Photo credit: Monty Hamm
MCDERMID: Wait, did I hear you right? You said you have a storage unit now because you’ve collected so much stuff?
MOLINARI: Yeah, oh my gosh, to the brim. I might have to get another one.
MCDERMID: Wow, the philosophy of this is so intriguing— if every person could visually be confronted with how much they consume, as you do for yourself. Can this degree of self-recognition be isolating in a way?
MOLINARI: That's a great question. I wish people could see it, like make videos about this or something. It does make me really upset that people aren't doing the bare minimum by sorting their trash. This is something that is so easy and that has such a large effect. I wish I could shake people and show them how much waste they aren't disposing of properly.
MCDERMID: Your brand is about making sustainability instinctual. Can you speak about this mission statement?
MOLINARI: In college, I made the decision to only use materials that would not negatively affect the environment. I thought about everything that we know and that it should be instinctual to choose the sustainable option. With every emerging younger designer, it should just be innate.
And that even extends to consumers. Why would you buy this brand-new pair of designer shoes when you can find a cooler, vintage version online, secondhand? Everybody needs to have that reaction to things in order for real change to happen.
MCDERMID: We’re, of course, seeing a lot of continued success with luxury brands who don’t use sustainable practices. Have you noticed a rising awareness amongst designers you know?
MOLINARI: I definitely feel like I'm the minority. All three of my closest friends work in the fashion industry, and they shop mostly by designer, but sometimes they buy designer vintage. It's something I really can't relate to, and it is frustrating to me.
But I have a network of social media upcyclers that have large platforms, and they are really helping the movement. People who do their thrift hauls are helping the movement, but as long as these luxury brands exist, it's not going to go away. Hopefully, they’ll all go bankrupt someday; we can just use things that already exist. People are slowly moving to the green side of things, but it's not enough for it to really make a serious dent yet.
MCDERMID: I understand why luxury brands will be around, considering their legacy statuses and classic elements, but I'm just baffled by why people by from fast-fashion companies like Shein when there is higher quality vintage clothing for less. Do you think fast fashion brands will really make it in the long run?
MOLINARI: I don't know. There are just so many people that don't understand how real this problem is. You can order a bunch of really cheap stuff and it comes right to your door. It doesn't feel harmful. You see headlines about Shein, but you never see video exposés, and what happens to all of the unused textiles that get thrown into rivers in Africa, and then pollute the rivers and kill people.
MCDERMID: Tell me about Forbes’ 30 Under 30— what it meant to you.
MOLINARI: I didn't even know that the list was coming out, or that I was on it back when it did. I was honestly shocked, because I feel like I'm just one person who works out of one little room and is doing a project. To get that sort of validation— it's a win for the sustainable people. It’s one of those steps in the right direction for Forbes and for business owners to see that sustainability in the fashion industry is a priority.