For Erin Beatty, 2016 was a trying year. After facing the closure of her eight-year-old womenswear label Suno (which she designed alongside Max Osterweis), Donald Trump was elected to the highest political office in the country shortly before Beatty was set to deliver her second child. “It was kind of a dark time,” she recalled. “I was also meeting different companies about working with them and I thought, ‘The system is broken. We’ve got to start to rethink this system. How can I contribute to that?’” This month, Beatty shares her vision for effecting change in the fashion industry through a collection made entirely out of vintage garments. Dubbed Rentrayage—the French word for mending which Beatty discovered in author Amy Novesky’s book Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois—the nascent label addresses more than sustainability through upcycling.

Beatty unveiled her collection on Louise Bourgeois-esque kinetic installations. They were created by set designer Carin Scheve and carpenter Daniel Quinn inside of Chelsea’s Lehmann Maupin gallery, which is currently host to Italian painter Margherita Manzelli’s striking portraits of female figures in eerie settings that gaze intently at their viewer. There’s a bit of poetry in the setting’s relationship to Rentrayage considering Beatty’s state of mind in recent years. “I’ve had to look closely at what it means to be an American and figure out how to be proud of that and celebrate it,” she explained. With vintage clothing sourced from suppliers in Florida and Tennessee along with her own finds (mainly quirky T-shirts and pieces festooned with idiosyncratic prints) from around New York City, Beatty is reconstructing American style for our times.

“I met a tailor named Albert Torres and we started coming up with ideas,” Beatty recalled. “It started slow. It was almost like playing.” The resulting silhouettes – from prairie dresses and jackets, to vibrant blouses, T-shirts and sweatshirts –  are mashups of disparate garments. Cable, waffle, and rib knits from various sources converge in a pleasantly off-kilter vest, while a pinstripe blazer is fitted with ruffle trimmed sleeves from a baby blue button-down. “If I try something on and feel that I like it the way it is, I refuse to cut it up,” she attested. “I want to give these pieces a new life not chop up pieces that still have life in them.”

Irrespective of their collaged or not status, Torres and Beatty completely reconsidered the fit of each style to bring it into a contemporary context.

“At first I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll just think of this as an art project and see where it goes,’” she admitted. “But the response has been beyond what I expected.”

Beatty’s modern, folkloric take on quintessential American dressing is already striking a chord with family, friends, and fashion insiders who’ve missed her since Suno. In an effort to unite her “tribe,” as she calls it, under one flag, Beatty enlisted graphic designer and Opening Ceremony art director Su Barber to create a seven-pointed geometric symbol that feels more like a prehistoric etching than a logo. “It’s all a part of creating something that feels one-of-a-kind,” Beatty said.

For Beatty, who just turned 40 and wanted to usher a new decade of her life with a grand statement, Rentrayage signifies progress and hope.

“I feel I’m on the other side of something and the wind is up my back,” she beamed. “I haven’t felt that way for a while.”