Wrapped in Nature: Fashioned from the Forest

One local designer reimagines Rhode Island’s open spaces through garments made from the land itself.

June 25, 2025

Jennifer Skuce-Spira,

Wrapped in Nature.

On a rural forty-acre homestead in western Coventry, in what she calls her “sacred place,” fashion designer Sara Seelenbrandt has crafted a collection inspired by Mother Nature.

The RISD grad’s vision, “Wrapped in Nature,” comes to life on Sunday, June 29, in a showcase of original designs at The Spiral Labyrinth in North Kingstown. The collection is a literal assemblage of raw materials —pine cones, branches, acorns, flowers, honeycomb, fruits and fibers — harvested by Seelenbrandt and her friends from Rhode Island’s diverse natural landscapes.

The product, explains Seelenbrandt, is an expression of “raw beauty, possibility and consciousness.”

The idea for Wrapped in Nature sprouted from a meeting with the Eco-Land Art Project and Susan Fox, a professor at Salve Regina University who mentored Seelenbrandt in graduate school. The nonprofit builds meditative environmental art spaces with an aim to foster human reconnection with nature; The Spiral Labyrinth, opened in May 2024, was its first public installation.

“Given my background, they asked if I could host a fashion show at The Spiral,” says Seelenbrandt. “I wondered if we could make nature the main attraction.”

Her studio is, in part, a muse for the earthly collection she’s built. Once the glass-walled breezeway of her grandparents’ sprawling ranch, the space is now a sunlit studio where she’s spent months intertwining vines into headpieces, fastening pine cones to wire skirt frames and gathering pussy willows, dried orange peels and seashells for a reimagining.

Seelenbrandt spent more than a decade in the luxury fashion industry in New York City before returning to the Ocean State to help care for aging family members. As the latest in a long line of “makers,” she draws deep inspiration from the fingerprints her grandparents left on the home, from the living room walls of Everglades cypress to the imposing stone fireplace hearth and handmade quilts lain across four-poster beds.

Growing up in a home so crafted with care has undoubtedly informed her lens on modern consumerism. A self-described nature artist and activist, she creates many of her own clothes and eschews fast fashion. Her hopes for Wrapped in Nature are elemental: to rekindle her audience’s connection to both nature and fashion.

“It’s an exploration of collecting, building, honoring, remembering and being in relationship with what we put on our bodies,” she explains. “By honoring nature and craftsmanship through garment making, and detailing the relationship to nature in words, I hope to change the way we see clothing, and experience our natural surroundings.”

The event blends art, fashion and the environment in an unforgettable outdoor setting. To learn more about Sara Seelenbrandt and to purchase tickets for Wrapped In Nature, visit feelwrappedinnature.com. To learn more about the Eco-Land Project and upcoming installations, visit ecolandartproject.com.