Meet The Designer Making Watch Bands From Apple Peels

When Sami Miró started her eponymous label in 2016, she was one of the few designers who exclusively used vintage or deadstock fabrics.

“I would get a vintage piece or vintage denim, and cut pieces out of those and incorporate them into the [designs],” Miró tells Bustle.

Her focus on sustainability resonated quickly: In just five years, Miró’s line has become something of a celebrity favorite, garnering the attention of everyone from Hailey Bieber to Kendall Jenner to Stephanie Shepherd. Miró and Shepherd also just teamed up on a collection for Future Earth, Shepherd’s climate change nonprofit, that has sold out in almost every style. And Miró’s latest venture, a collab with Samsung, involved creating limited-edition watch bands for the brand’s new Galaxy Watch4 series.

“Personally, I use this watch,” Miró says. “It is an instrumental part of my day-to-day life, whether it’s being active, working out, or meditation, and just being connected for work.”

For the four designs, Miró drew inspiration from the themes of sustainability, the planet, and mindfulness. The cool, moody palette — featuring pinks, purples, blues, and blacks — reflects the overall vibe Miró wanted to convey with the watches.

“Since your watch is something you wear every day, I wanted to bring out a positive reminder to be good to yourself and the earth,” she says. “The fluidity, the colors, and the movement of the watch faces and the watch band are supposed to bring out positivity, calmness, and just good energy.”

She takes a similar approach with her ready-to-wear line. Her latest solo collection features design flourishes, like playful mesh and asymmetric silhouettes, created to make people feel “confident and amazing,” she says.

“It’s to bring out their natural beauty,” says Miró. “When I design, I have the shape of the human figure in mind. I want to accentuate the things we love about ourselves. And the shapes of the pieces are for all body types because they just make us feel good.”

And true to the brand ethos, she makes sure the materials for both her clothing and watch bands are sustainable. For the latter, she used a fabric sourced from the trash.

“The watchbands [are] made from recycled apple peel skins and other sustainable materials,” Miró says. “My personal initiative with Sami Miró Vintage is to always educate people and show that sustainability should be the primary focus for everybody. We should be mindful of the fabrics we purchase, the fabrics we touch, and that touch our body and skin.”

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