Madeline Miller moves seamlessly amid the chaos of piles of used clothing and fabrics crowding every available surface at NexTiles, the textile recycling business she founded at 1360 Oakman Blvd. in Detroit’s Durfee neighborhood. After graduating from the University of Miami with a master’s degree in marine sciences in 2020, then-24-year-old Miller searched for what direction to take her career next. Her initial idea was to work within the fashion and design industry. She had just completed a 4-month internship in 2019 as a data analyst with FABSCRAP, a Brooklyn-based textile reuse and recycling business.
