For Céline Semaan, the founder of Slow Factory, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing climate justice and social equity, no obstacle is too big—or too conceptual—to surmount. Underlying all of Slow Factory’s efforts is the notion of “fashion activism,” a term that’s been credited to Semaan herself. The organization’s past projects include “Landfills as Museums,” which served as a meditation on what “trash” really is, and among its upcoming efforts is “Garment-to-Garment,” an initiative that will teach designers to make clothes from existing apparel instead of from rolls of raw fabric. Semaan is also currently developing the new Slow Factory Institute in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, which will serve the dual roles of a factory for waste-led production as well as a Bauhaus-style school for climate justice.

On this episode, Semaan speaks with Spencer about fashion as a political act, the importance of finding ease with contradiction, and what a post-trash world could look like.

Special thanks to our Season 6 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts.

Full transcript
celinecelines.com
slowfactory.earth
[03:54] “Slow is Beautiful”
[06:16] Open Education
[10:58] “Cities at Night”
[30:16] “Applied Utopia”
[34:05] Slow Factory Institute
[35:01] Colin Vernon
[36:33] Slowhide
[41:13] “Landfills as Museums”
[51:25] “Garment-to-Garment”
[01:08:41] A Woman Is a School
[01:24:45] “The Revolution is a School”

Céline Semaan on Why Slowing Down Is Essential for Our Collective Survival