Seattle print artist and art director Ren Riley launches Fable & Fame, an upcycled micro fashion brand that merges medieval manuscripts, tattoo culture and 90s grunge into garments that treat sustainability, locality and the people who wear them as part of the art.
Ren Riley and Ryan Axxel met and immediately discovered they were wearing the same boots. From that starting point, and the instinctive recognition of kindred aesthetics it represented, Fable & Fame was eventually born. The brand took a year to develop and launched at a pop-up market in Seattle in December 2025. By the end of the first day, the inventory had sold down so fast that Riley had to bring in backup stock to keep the stall running.
That response confirmed what Riley had already committed to: that there was a real appetite for what Fable & Fame offers. The brand’s tagline, Classic Inelegance, captures the deliberate tension at its core. Riley describes her own style as dark academic, while Axxel, a Seattle illustrator specialising in comic book aesthetics, brought 90s underground rock to the table. His smoking knight anchors the brand’s logo; Riley’s contributions as primary illustrator and art director introduced the fantasy and whimsy that shifted the overall tone from gritty to something more dialectical. Medieval manuscript references, tattoo culture and grunge sensibility occupy the same garments, and the combination is stranger and more compelling than any single one of those references alone.
The upcycling is not incidental. Every Fable & Fame piece gives new life to an existing garment, and Riley is clear that the choices embedded in the brand’s existence are part of what the work is saying. “This project gave me a vector to bring my work as a printmaker off the page and into real life,” she says. “It feels like a kind of communal installation art piece where everyone who purchases garments from Fable & Fame, styles them, and wears them on the street becomes a part of the art.” The visual illustration system of the clothes is one layer; the decisions that put those clothes on particular bodies is another.
“The people who buy these upcycled garments from me, an independent artist, are choosing sustainability and locality over cheaper options like fast fashion,” she adds. “And I just think that’s so cool.”
Following the pop-up launch, Fable & Fame is expanding its range of screen print and sewing techniques with a website for online sales set to launch this spring.
Ren Riley is a freelance visual designer, art director and brand strategist based in Seattle. Her fine art is featured in Seattle galleries. She also has a very small cat.
Fable & Fame, launched December 2025. Upcycled garments with screen print. Photography: Ren Riley.
