Bio:
Sarah Jane Mark is a fiber artist & clothing designer who grew up in the mountains of Northern California. Her love for nature and using repurposed materials is foundational to her work. She spent the first half of her career in Los Angeles designing for apparel manufacturers in the fashion industry as Design Director. After a decade of witnessing first-hand how mainstream manufacturers in the fashion industry operate, she made a shift to focus on design that puts people and the planet at the forefront of their company’s mission and purpose. She produced her own indie line of clothing in LA and helped start a fair trade company working with women in India & Africa. As a freelance designer, she focuses on working with companies that align with ethical fashion values. Since moving to Detroit in 2012, she has focused on fiber art & sustainable fashion education. Her current work is dedicated to raising awareness around circular and sustainable fashion and grounding in nature with an eco-spiritual awareness.
Sarah is dedicated to community education centered around the Slow & Sustainable Fashion movement. In 2018 she and her husband, Billy Mark, founded Neighborhood Art School where she taught sewing, pattern making & other sustainable fashion focused classes. In 2025 she co-founded Detroit Fashion United to connect Detroit to the global movement of Fashion Revolution. In 2025 she founded Slow Stitch Detroit, a creative incubator where artists and designers build a Slow Fashion economy rooted in sustainability, equity, and care for people and the planet. Slow Stitch supports makers with studio space, shared tools, and marketplace opportunities through a year-long residency, while also engaging the broader community with educational workshops that make sustainable fashion accessible to all.
Sarah resides in Detroit, Michigan with her husband and two sons. Sarah and Billy Mark have also founded the Selah House, which is an artist community dedicated to going deeper into their connection to God, their art practice, and communal living.
Artist Statement:
From my earliest memories, I have been driven to create—transforming scraps of fabric into playful creations while immersed in nature. Years in the conventional fashion industry gave me technical skill and professional experience, but it was only when I returned to a childlike sense of dreaming, making, and being that I discovered deeper purpose as an artist and designer. Retreats at a local monastery and life in artistic spiritual communities in Detroit helped me merge fiber art and clothing design into the Unity Collection—work rooted in craft, reflection, and intentionality.
This perspective now guides my teaching and community work. As founder of Slow Stitch Detroit, I create spaces for makers to explore sustainable fashion, honor cultural traditions, and tell their own stories through creative expression. My approach emphasizes hands-on learning, ecological care, and cultural awareness, helping students connect their craft to broader ethical and social contexts.
I envision fashion as a practice that reflects individuality, respect for the planet, and care for the people who create it. By integrating creativity, craft, and ethics, I aim to inspire makers to express themselves authentically, engage with cultural heritage, and contribute to a fashion culture that values beauty, responsibility, and justice.
Community Engagement Services
-
Speaker / Educator
Dream with me for what a future of fashion could look like that prioritizes people and the planet. I have over 25 years experience as a designer from designing for large apparel makers, to producing my own indie boutique line, to developing fair trade partnership with artisan groups around the world. I am dedicated to the eco-ethical aspect of the clothing industry. Depending on the group, I can customize talks to your demographic to educate about how clothing production impacts the planet and can inspire hope for the future and share examples of brilliant innovations in the industry. Complex conversations like these can be overwhelming so I always make sure to leave the group with tangible actions they can take in their own life.
-
Workshops
I love sharing my skills as an independent maker and as a fashion designer who has designed for large manufacturers as well as the Fair Trade sector. Some of the workshops I can offer are sewing, mending, upcycling, repurposing, patternmaking, designing collections, fitting, fashion illustration, textile sourcing, and best practices for eco-ethical production. Sign up on my newsletter to find out about local offerings or contact me if you want to host a class in your community.
-
One on One Sewing & Upcycling Sessions
Book a two hour private session with me and I will help you with your projects and teach you the basics of sewing and upcycle clothing design to help you make your own custom clothing. You will walk away from the session with some new pieces and feel empowered to continue on your own at home.
-
'Free To Be Me' Therapeutic Session
Book a private session with me where I will guide you in a listening & visioning session to aid you in your journey of self-expression through clothing. This is a virtual session aimed at helping you uncover your unique voice, increase self-esteem, and how to express identity through clothes, textures, patterns, and accessories.