Fashion with Open Arms

 in Virginia-Highland is known for its specialty wooden furniture hand made by friends that mother-daughter co-owners Gail Silverstein and Jessica Berinato consider their "second family."

The design boutique is also known for supporting local artists and made-in-America products, and one of the newest products featured at the shop on N. Highland Avenue is taking on a life of its own.

Open Arms, a company started by a woman in Texas to help employ female refugees, takes donated recycled t-shirts and repurposes them into fashionable scarves, bags, pillows and skirts, which are now sold here in the neighborhood.

“I thought the scarves were adorable and clever but more then that, they are using tees that would have been thrown away and helping people at the same time! They are a creative, wonderful and special product. We are proud to help support and have them in the shop,” Jessica Berinato from Urban Cottage said.

The store also carries a 100 percent recycled glass line from Spain and Akola beads from Uganda that benefits the Ugandan American Partnership Organization.

“We have always carried items that have great stories,” Berinato said.

Open Arms founder Leslie Beasley developed an interest in helping refugees after serving in other countries.

“All of their human rights had been violated. A lot of women had been raped and their families had disowned them. They were so marginalized but they had such a spirit of strength and hospitality,” Beasley said.

Beasley returned to Austin, Texas after her travels and wanted to do something for the large community of refugees living in the United States.

“The women really compelled me, they had come from such hard circumstances, survived all of that and ended up in America with hopes and dreams for a future. But I was seeing them sit in the projects, lonely and isolated with a lot of fear and confusion. I had one of those moments when I realized that I couldn’t keep looking at these faces and not doing anything to help,” she said.

She asked the resettlement agency their most dire need - that response was the seed for her new company, Open Arms.

Open Arms provides sustainable jobs that pay living wages so that these refugee women can integrate into society and support themselves and their families.

The company employees four full-time refugee women. One woman is from Sudan, one is from Congo, and two are from Bhutan, near Nepal. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. However, a living wage in Austin, Texas is $11 an hour. Open Arms wages begin there.

“My favorite part is providing the opportunity for these women to be what they can be. They are empowered and the dignity in our little workspace is abundant,” Beasley said.