About Déjà Nu Aspen
Some things are worth doing twice.
Aspen has a way of teaching you that the best things aren't new — they're rare, considered, and earned. After more than two decades calling this place home — raising two daughters born at Aspen Valley Hospital, building a career around the brands and experiences that define this place — I came to understand that instinct deeply.
Aspen has also shaped me in ways that go beyond career. I lost my husband, Cory, a ski patroller, to an avalanche in 2008 — and the resilience of this community in the years that followed shaped who I am and what I choose to build here.
Déjà Nu began with a question I couldn't stop asking: how do we combine upcycling and luxury in a market like Aspen, where both exist in abundance? The answer was already here — in the beautiful things tucked away in local wardrobes. The stack of vintage silk scarves folded in a drawer. The perfectly worn trucker jacket that no longer fits anyone's life. The Italian shirts that deserve better than a closet shelf. These aren't discards — they're the raw material of something new.
So we set out to find them, and to give them a third act.
How it started
After a decade as Managing Director of the Aspen Ideas Festival at The Aspen Institute, I found myself at one of those rare moments of reinvention. My daughters — both passionate thrifters — had spent years nudging me toward a more conscious relationship with consumption. What Aspen has, and what most markets don't, is an extraordinary concentration of heirloom-quality materials that have lived one beautiful life and are ready for another. The challenge was connecting the people passing these things on to the people who would love them next. That's what Déjà Nu is built to do.
How the team came together
I'll be honest — when I started, I didn't know much about sewing. So I enrolled in a basic sewing class through Colorado Mountain College's Outdoor Soft Goods Program. What I found there changed everything.
The women in that program were extraordinary — skilled, creative, deeply committed to their craft. Several became the founding artisan team of Déjà Nu, working out of the surrounding valley: Eagle, Carbondale, Rifle, Snowmass Village.
Janette Adrian of Tumbleseed Studio in Eagle brings decades of craft and a relentless creative intelligence to every piece. In her own words: "It takes time to converse with the materials — and it's fun to see what pops out." Julianna Reese, a former Obermeyer pattern maker and CMC instructor, brings technical precision and quiet intuition to everything she touches. Together, they make pieces that are genuinely one of one — not as a marketing claim, but as a simple fact.
A Family Affair
Déjà Nu is, at its heart, a family project. My daughter Eryn is studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and brings a trained design eye to everything we create. Her sister Chloe weighs in on our social media and has been one of our most effective ambassadors — regularly stopped on the street in Aspen by people who want to know where her vest came from.
"I love being a part of it," Eryn says. "It's been really nice to have something we can do together."
Who I Am
My name is Killeen Brettmann. Over a 25-year career in luxury resort management and marketing, I've worked with Aspen Skiing Company, the Aspen Institute, Hotel Jerome, and helped build partnerships with NBCU ESPN, Meta, and Google. I was part of the team that launched FIJI Water from Aspen in its earliest days — watching a single product become a globally recognized brand by committing to a clear and unwavering story.
Déjà Nu is the most personal expression of all of it. Fashion shouldn't require the world to constantly make new extraordinary pieces. Sometimes the most extraordinary things are already here, waiting to be seen differently.
A Note on How We Work
We source with intention. We make in small batches, by hand, in Colorado. Nothing is mass-produced. Nothing is rushed. And nothing leaves our studio unless it's something we'd be proud to wear ourselves.
Thank you for being here.
Warm regards, Killeen Brettmann Founder, Déjà Nu Aspen