About Us!

Mapaches is the child of Artist and Environmentalist Tara Hatzidakis. 

Tara comes from hispanic roots, her grandmother was a seamstress and taught her how to sew, which you could say is where all this began. 

The name “Mapaches” translates to Racoons in spanish. 

Raccoons are sort of synonymous with digging around in the trash. Having the desire to create but somehow always feeling a little guilty for continuing to have to feed the machine in the process Tara found herself looking at alternative ways to express creativity. 

She began using found paper in her artistic practice and for many year made collages and sculptures in this way. Having really been faced with the waste produced by fast fashion after working in events and for a merchandise company for many years, she found herself drawn to textiles more and more. Finding ways to reshape forgotten items into new wearables. 

The average wears for a typical garment is between 7 and 10 times! We hope to increase this number and create new items people use and appreciate more fully. 

The amount of human and environmental power that goes behind even a single piece of clothing is shocking. All the hands, time, resources used to get use one pair of jeans for us to just throw them away after a few wears feels like such waste. We can change our mindset around what constitutes “TRASH” and create new and exciting things. 

We hope to soon get workshops in order so we can work more with the community on appreciating these things around us a little more.