New Rephrase Line Touts Graphic Tees with Eco-Friendly Focus

It was a quote she saw on Pinterest that got Belinda Frazer thinking.

Chase your dreams or you'll be hired to chase someone else's.

She had just moved to Phoenix to work for a small candle company, handling all of their creative and advertising operations-a learning experience, she says, but a draining one, too.

"I really started thinking about at the end of the day what I wanted to do," the 28-year-old says.

She had spent a few years in New York City, working at Omega, a Swiss luxury watch brand, and had grown up working in retail. Couple those jobs with a fervent love for all things fashion, and Frazer decided she just had to launch her own clothing line.

So the idea for Rephrase was born.

The brand, sold at rephrasethelabel.com, features graphic and minimalistic t-shirts, tank tops and bags made with quality materials and priced between $39 and $49. It officially launched in early May.

Frazer, who now resides in Grandview, has built up a following from her House of Phrase blog and spent the past year editing her designs. She's also taking pains to use eco-friendly fabrics for each product.

"It's time for manufacturers, as well as consumers, to start paying attention a little bit more to the care tag and reading the label on clothes," she says.

She's using 100 percent ring-spun and organic cotton and a poly viscose for the line, and she's focused on increasing her use of environmentally friendly fabrics over time. She'll donate 10 percent of each sale to a nonprofit, too.

Frazer's passion for giving back to Mother Nature stems from her childhood spent outdoors in Australia. (Her parents are originally from there.) After moving back to the U.S. in college, she found herself giving in to the lure of fast fashion.

"I would spend a fortune on a college student's budget, and at the end of the day, I was always like what do I have to show for this? " she says.

So she started pushing herself to save up and buy quality pieces, which led to a love for clothing, albeit a little higher in price, that lasts.

Now, she's hoping others will feel the same way.

"I have this huge billion-dollar vision," she says. "But you have to start somewhere."

-Taylor Starek, @taylorstarek

Photos courtesy Rephrase