Tamalpais High School senior Harrison Engel has emerged as a pioneer for the digital advocation of sustainable fashion. At school, Engel is a traditional student. He spends his time leading the mock trial team to nationals, playing soccer, and running for the track team – even breaking Tam’s 200-meter record. However, Engel has another world outside of school. Behind one Instagram account lies a compelling narrative of innovation, dedication, and a commitment to intertwining style with sustainability.
“During quarantine, I started researching ways to generate income as a teen. Something I stumbled upon was an Instagram theme page, a page dedicated to a specific topic. I immediately created a new account, and at the time I was interested in fashion, so I made a page focused on that,” Engel said.
After some initial research, Engel officially created the username @piecesarchives.
“I first was posting style guides and new releases, but then I came up with the idea of an archive account, which is essentially posting pictures of clothes,” Engel said.
Running a business is a learning curve. As Engel attempted to profit off his account, he studied the Instagram algorithm and worked on mastering a system.“In the very beginning, I did ‘follow for follow’ with other accounts, and asked my friends to support me until I reached 1,000 followers. After I hit that benchmark, my photos were able to appear on the explore page, and that caused exponential growth,” Engel said.
@piecesarchive has amassed a total of 160,000 followers on Instagram today. Achieving such a large audience was not as easy as posting and waiting. Engel finally perfected a system to create maximum growth, profits, and retention.
“I did one post in the morning that I thought would go viral, one post at noon that I genuinely liked, and one post at night that was promotional for a brand that paid me,” Engel said.
@piecesarchive opened a whole new world for Engel. Following the success of the account, he launched an extension of the brand called Pieces Cash. Pieces Cash is described as “a sustainable fashion marketplace.”
“I helped my best friend Marcus Haun build a page after mine became successful. He has amassed almost the same amount of followers as me. Together we wanted to give back to the fashion community,” Engel said.
Engel and Haun launched Pieces Cache, an Instagram page for promoting sustainable fashion brands and a website that serves as a sustainable fashion marketplace.
“The unethical and wasteful brand and consumer practices of fast fashion brands need to change. To be promoted on our Instagram or website, we created guidelines that brands have to meet like, ethical treatment of workers, sustainable fabric sourcing, and other checkpoints,” Engel said.
According to Pieces Cache’s website, all profits are donated to environmental support organizations.
“I’ve followed Pieces since I was a freshman when Harrison started it and of course, all his friends wanted to support it. I never imagined it would get to this level. His hard work has paid off,” senior Will Richardson said.
Engel’s dedication extends beyond just fashion. Motivated to create positive social change, he used his platforms to organize a fundraiser for humanitarian aid for the people of Ukraine, raising money to help pay for resources including first-aid backpacks, medicine, medical instruments, and other forms of humanitarian and medical aid.
“He always has a bunch of these side projects [his friends] aren’t even aware of until they take off. He can utilize his platform from Pieces and create change. It’s very impressive,” Richardson said.
Further continuing his commitment to environmental causes, Engel collaborated with classmates Maren Jones and Harper Fox to establish the Tam Verde Club during his junior year.
“The club consists of me, Harrison, Maren, and Profe Joe. Harrison has used his marketing experience and knowledge of the digital world to help us get over 250 active members,” senior Harper Fox said.
This club partners with an app called Pave Commute, which is designed to incentivize sustainable commuting choices. While this endeavor does not necessarily follow the fashion path, it does further Engel’s commitment to sustainability through the digital realm.
“Harrison is truly making a difference in the environment. Through the app, over 1,500 kilograms of carbon have been saved and with the following Pieces Cache and Pieces Archive has, he is making a huge difference in eco-friendly fashion,” Fox said.
Harrison Engel Profile CUT VERSION
Tamalpais High School senior Harrison Engel has emerged as a pioneer for the digital advocation of sustainable fashion. At school, Engel is a traditional student. He spends his time leading the mock trial team to nationals, playing soccer, and running for the Tam track team – even breaking the school’s 200-meter record. However, Engel has another world outside of school. Behind one Instagram account lies a compelling narrative of innovation, dedication, and a commitment to intertwining style with sustainability.
“During quarantine, I started researching ways to generate income as a teen. Something I stumbled upon was an Instagram theme page, a page dedicated to a specific topic. I immediately created a new account, and at the time I was interested in fashion, so I made a page focused on that,” Engel said.
After some initial research, Engel officially created the username @piecesarchives.
“I first was posting style guides and new releases, but then I came up with the idea of an archive account, which is essentially posting pictures of clothes,” Engel said.
Engel spent months researching how to grow a business and studying the Instagram algorithm.
“In the very beginning, I did ‘follow for follow’ with other accounts, and asked my friends to support me until I reached 1,000 followers. After I hit that benchmark, my photos were able to appear on the explore page, and that caused exponential growth,” Engel said.
@piecesarchive has amassed a total of 160,000 followers on Instagram today. Achieving such a large audience was not as easy as posting and waiting. Engel created a system to create maximum growth, profits, and retention.
“I did one post in the morning that I thought would go viral, one post at noon that I genuinely liked, and one post at night that was promotional for a brand that paid me,” Engel said.
@piecesarchive opened a whole new world for Engel. Following the success of the account, he launched an extension of the brand called Pieces Cash. Pieces Cash is described as “a sustainable fashion marketplace.”
“I helped my best friend Marcus Haun build a page after mine became successful. He has amassed almost the same amount of followers as me. Together we wanted to give back to the fashion community,” Engel said.
Engel and Haun launched Pieces Cache, an Instagram page for promoting sustainable fashion brands and a website that serves as a sustainable fashion marketplace.
“The unethical and wasteful brand and consumer practices of fast fashion brands need to change. To be promoted on our Instagram or website, we created guidelines that brands have to meet like, ethical treatment of workers, sustainable fabric sourcing, and other checkpoints,” Engel said.
According to Pieces Cache’s website, all profits are donated to environmental support organizations.
“I’ve followed Pieces since I was a freshman when Harrison started it and of course, all his friends wanted to support it. I never imagined it would get to this level. His hard work has paid off,” senior Will Richardson said.
Engel’s dedication extends beyond just fashion. Motivated to create positive social change, he used his platforms to organize a fundraiser for humanitarian aid for the people of Ukraine, raising money to help pay for resources including first-aid backpacks, medicine, medical instruments, and other forms of humanitarian and medical aid.
“He always has a bunch of these side projects [his friends] aren’t even aware of until they take off. He canis able to utilize his platform from Pieces and create change. It’s very impressive,” Richardson said.