When Welcome Week brought Maria Alex and Maryam Muayad onto campus, neither expected to meet the person who would become a best friend, roommate and co-founder of a non-profit organization.
But something clicked instantly for them. Within weeks, the pair recognized shared passions: a love of fashion, a commitment to helping their community and a desire to contribute meaningfully even amid demanding academic programs.
Now in their second year — Alex in the Honours Health Sciences Program and Muayad in Honours Life Sciences Program — the entrepreneurial duo leads StyleCycle, a student-run, non-profit organization.
What began as a simple conversation about fashion and community need has transformed into a multi-branch operation that blends sustainability, research and direct support for local families.
‘Fashion for good’
While volunteering in Hamilton, Alex and Muayad often met families whose clothing was worn, ill-fitting or insufficient for the season. They saw children without warm shoes, parents wearing damaged coats, and community members without access to clothing that felt comfortable or dignified.
Many organizations collect clothing. But the pair felt something was missing.
“What we do is fashion for good,” says Alex. “Our hope is to bring dignity and style to women and children living in shelters. We believe that how you look can transform how you feel, and everyone deserves that kind of confidence.”
StyleCycle doesn’t simply hand out garments — they style complete outfits, wash and repair each piece, and thoughtfully pair items to help recipients feel confident and cared for. Minor fixes like sewing buttons or hemming pants not only extend a garment’s life but also reinforce the students’ commitment to circular fashion.
“What makes a difference is giving someone an outfit, not a random shirt,” Alex explains. “If you donate an orange top on its own, what can someone do with it? But if you pair it with a brown skirt, suddenly it becomes something people reach for.”
Their curated outfits, displayed at community centers like the Baby Depot, offer families the experience of browsing a clothing rack and leaving with a complete outfit.
Turning clothing donations into climate impact
Both students bring a STEM-based lens to StyleCycle — a strength they credit to their coursework and summer research positions. A shared elective in their first year, Sustain 1S03, introduced them to concepts like the circular economy and embodied carbon. And with clothing donations constantly flowing through the StyleCycle closet, they realized they had an unexpected dataset on their hands.
“We thought, we have so much data, what if we start quantifying what we’re doing?” recalls Muayad.
By weighing garments, estimating their surface area and applying carbon-emissions methodologies, Alex and Muayad have started quantifying the environmental impact of keeping clothes in circulation.
Their first research posters and abstracts — skills learned during Alex’s summer placement with the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging (MIRA) and Muayad’s summer placement with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) — are already complete. Now they’re working on papers that explore youth social psychology, sustainable fashion behaviours and the emissions reductions achieved through reuse.
“It’s been amazing because making posters, presenting them, writing an abstract – these are things that can be intimidating for a student at first. I remember our first conference, we didn’t even know where to print a research poster,” says Muayad. “But because we had the skills from our summer research placements, we could implement it for StyleCycle.”
Maria Alex, left, and Maryam Muayad sell hand-crocheted items at a MUSC vendor table to raise money for StyleCycle initiatives.
Creative fundraising
As they continued to donate styled outfits to the Baby Depot, the students noticed something important: Most supports focused on newborns, not the mothers caring for them.
And one day when they overheard mothers joking about turning donated baby clothes into makeshift diapers because of the cost of hygiene supplies.
“We were helping with clothing, but what about the essentials you can’t reuse, like diapers or shampoo?” they wondered.
To meet that need, they committed to assembling over 50 hygiene kits for mothers and newborns in time for the holidays. But without external funding, they had to get creative.
Despite midterms, research commitments and full course loads, the pair taught themselves to crochet and made festive keychains to sell at local vendor markets. They added baked goods and McMaster-themed sticker designs, eventually raising $300 across three markets: McMaster’s Holiday Market, the Faith United Fall Showcase and McMaster’s Entrepreneurship Week Vendor Market.
“I remember there were days during midterms where I’d knock on Maryam’s door and say, ‘Maryam, do you have time? Let’s crochet! And we would just sit there and make them, one after another. But we would have a whole pile at the end,” says Alex.
Their fundraiser fully covered the cost of the hygiene kits, each containing three carefully chosen items. Some targeted maternal needs while others had baby essentials like diaper rash cream. Mothers visiting the Baby Depot during the holiday season were surprised with a kit to take home.
Now, inspired by StyleCycle’s initiative, the Baby Depot has launched its own hygiene drive and is exploring a new branch of programming dedicated to these supplies.
A StyleCycle hygiene kit at the Baby Depot
Looking ahead
As their initiative grows, Alex and Muayad hope to reach more Hamilton families and deepen community partnerships.
They’re not looking for clothing donations — their closet is full. Instead, they want to connect with clients and local organizations who can benefit from outfit styling, youth fashion workshops, or future hygiene-focused fundraising drives.
For the two second-year students, StyleCycle is more than a project — it’s a way to feel at peace amid the pressures of university life.
And their work shows what’s possible when students bring together heart, skill and imagination.
“We feel that StyleCycle is our outlet. Truly, this is our passion project. We’re not doing this one time and then walking away,” says Muayad.
“We have big plans to keep going.”