WARDROBE CRISIS with Clare Press

Fashion schools everywhere are full of eco warriors and bright, brilliant kids who are determined to do fashion differently. London is the leader. Long known for its fashion creativity, this is the capital that produces the most vibrant student shows and earth-shaking emerging designers. The big international and Paris-based design houses look to London fashion schools like Central St Martins and the London College of Fashion for their future stars - but will they be seduced?Many in this new guard are questioning the validity of the exisiting fashion system, and asking if they want to be part of it at all. Now is a time of reinvention - young designers are redrawing fashion and re-imagining the way it might work in future. In this Episode, we hear from 3 young London-based ones to watch: Bethany Williams, Matthew Needham and Patrick McDowell.Find out why they care about sustainability and how they apply it to their work, what they're doing to combat fashion waste and redesign the whole system.Further reading & links - the shownotes are here.Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast in Apple, and join the conversation on social media. You can find Clare on Instagram and Twitter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Series 3! This Episode is a treat! It features Orsola de Castro, is one of the warmest, most generous, most knowledgable people working in sustainable fashion today. You may know her as the cofounder, with Carry Somers, of Fashion Revolution. But did you also know that she is the queen upcycling?In the that 1990s, after crocheting around the holes in a much-loved old jumper that she couldn't part with (although it was literally falling apart), she founded the fashion label From Somewhere. Her designs used only discarded, unloved, unwanted materials and turned them into the opposite: treasured, loved, wanted, and highly covetable.From Somewhere was stocked in stores like Browns in London, and Lane Crawford in Hong Kong, Orsola and her man Fillipo, who was also her business partner, did collaborations with the likes of Topshop, Jigsaw and Tesco. Later, they ran Esthetica, London Fashion Week's hub for sustainable for fashion.These days, Orsola teaches at Central St. Martins inspiring the next generation. She's an in-demand international speaker on ethical fashion, and is the Creative Director of Fashion Revolution. She is passionate about making, mending and loving clothes, and of course about upcycling, but also about treating workers with dignity, and about fashion justice.In this conversation, we talk about it all - from seeing the world in colours, through inspiring designers, from how to reconnect with your clothes to what sort of fashion future we want to create for ourselves. Enjoy!Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast in Apple, and join the conversation on social media. You can find Clare on Instagram and Twitter.Follow Orsola here and here.And last, but most certainly not least, join the Fashion Revolution movement in your country. Thank you for listening. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Livia Firth is the Creative Director of sustainability consultancy Eco-Age, and the founder of the Green Carpet Challenge and Green Carpet Fashion Awards. She is a UN Leader of Change, a founding member of Annie Lennox's women's advocacy group The Circle, and was a co-producer on Andrew Morgan's ethical fashion documentary, The True Cost. Livia is also a warm and wonderful advocate for ethical and sustainable fashion, and an absolute treat to interview. We are so grateful to Livia for kicking off this, our brand sparkling new series 3 of the Wardrobe Crisis podcast!In Episode, Clare and Livia discuss what it means to be a fashion activist, and why the world needs more of us (yes, including you!). We cover the big stuff - garment worker dignity, living wages, social justice - and the glitzy stuff - influencers, social media and the power of fashion to change stories.Livia shares about her childhood growing up in Italy in a pre-fast fashion world, being “a ballbreaker” and starting a business with her brother. She reveals how her eco fashion quest began: when her husband Colin Firth was up for a Best Actor Oscar for his role in the Tom Ford movie A Single Man - dressing “eco” gave her a role to play. And she explains how that first challenge grew and flowered into something truly extraordinary that has seen Eco-Age become one of the biggest players in sustainable fashion. Want to change fashion for the better? This Episode is full of inspiration.Don't miss our shownotes for links and further reading.Follow Clare on Instagram and Twitter, and join the conversation.THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From front row to front bench? Why not? It's time we stopped considering fashion as simply fluffy. The industry is a giant global employer with serious impacts on the environment, and yet it is not traditionally associated with being active in the political arena or central to government policy.Our guest this week, on the final Episode of Series 2, is Londoner Tamara Cincik, founder of the British policy organisation Fashion Roundtable, who is derminted to change this. Her timing's pretty good.In the UK in June, the Environmental Audit Committe (a select committee of the House of Commons) announced it would be looking in to fast fashion, inquiring into the carbon, resource use and water footprint of clothing throughout its lifecycle, and looking at how clothes can be recycled, and waste and pollution reduced. Over the next few months, loads of industry insiders made submissions, and the mainstream headlines hummed with fashion and politics. It's about time, says Tamara, that fashion stepped up its engagement in this space, because things like Brexit and modern slavery legislation affect the industry. And, in the UK at least, MPs are currently very interested in what fashion is doing to clean up its supply chains and environmental impact.Follow Clare on Instagram and Twitter. Find more podcasts and the shownotes at https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2018/12/25/podcast-ep-67-tamara-cincik-fashion-amp-politics-brexit-amp-the-environmental-audit-committee Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“We truly believe in the power of fashion to present a pro-social message of inclusivity and positive identity." How's that for a vision statement? These are the words of Catherine Teatum and Rob Jones, AKA London fashion duo Teatum Jones.Catherine Teatum and Rob Jones, are the London creative partners behind Teatum Jones - an inclusive, though-provoking label challenging fashion’s norms. What role can fashion play in empowering women and girls? How can we modernise fashion and make it way more inclusive? How do we smash the idea that you have to look and be a certain way to qualify as beautiful, stylish, in fashion? How come fashion ignores disability - and keeps on getting away with it? Why do designers have a responsibility in this area, and how can they maximise their positive impact? How come fashion ignores disability - and keeps on getting away with it? Why do designers have a responsibility in this area, and how can they maximise their positive impact? In this lively, thought-provoking Episode, we address these thorny issues and more, and have a laugh while we're at it.Follow Clare on Instagram and Twitter. Find more podcasts and the shownotes at https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2018/12/18/podcast-ep-66-teatum-jones Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Meet Indian designer Ruchika Sachdeva of Bodice Studio, the Delhi-based label that took out the 2017/18 International Woolmark Prize .Join us as we discuss how to make it in fashion, and build a successful small business, sustainability, our need for connection and the importance of provenance and craft. We explore the rise of emerging Indian fashion talent (and no, it's not all Bollywood) and look at how can design offer solutions to fashion's waste crisis. A recent British survey found that 25% of women have clothes lurking in their wardrobe that can't wear because they no longer fit. Extending the life of a garment by an extra nine months can reduce its environmental impact by 20 to 30%. Ruchika's collections often feature tie fastenings, and moveable pleats and buttons because she wants these clothes to last for years. She also sees designing classics as a way to mitigate against waste. “If they're too much, too loud or too trend-based, you're going to get bored of clothes more easily.”Our shownotes are packed with links and extra information. Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2018/12/2/podcast-ep-65-bodice-studios-ruckika-sachdevi-on-winning-the-woolmark-prize to read yours and #bethechangeTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING.We are always grateful for ratings and reviews. Don't forget to hit subscribe.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul van Zyl is a human rights lawyer and ethical fashion entrepreneur, who 2009 he founded Maiyet, a luxury fashion brand with a social impact purpose.The idea was to “incorporate ancient traditions in non-traditional ways by partnering with artisans in developing economies and by sourcing material in ethical ways.” It's about creating opportunity, local entrepreneurship, prosperity, and dignity in, as Paul puts it, the places that need it most.Maiyet partnered with Artisans in Colombia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, South Sudan. They showed on the Paris fashion week schedule and they really helped shift the conversation about ethical fashion in the luxury space.But Paul is not your obvious fashion man. His grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era, and served as the Executive Secretary of South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 1995 to 1998.In this interview we talk about what that was like and how it shaped him. We discuss the opportinities provided by the fashion industry to make positive social change, look at the rise and rise of business with purpose. Why are customers demanding more from brands? How are community values shaping fashion;'s future? And why is The Conduit the hottest private members club in London?Our shownotes are packed with links and extra information. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING.Love the podcast? We have a Patreon page - every little bit helps us keep telling these stories.We are always grateful for ratings and reviews on Apple. Don't forget to hit subscribe.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘Single-use' was named the Word of the Year for 2018 by the Collins Dictionary. Now that we know the oceans are choking with plastics, disposable has become a dirty word. We also know, there is no away. Nothing that uses synthetic materials is ‘disposable' – it has to go somewhere. Out of site, out of mind is a total copout. But what about so-called "disposable fashion"?Single-use fashion is perhaps a stretch – but we're not a million miles away. Clothing usability is declining. Stats vary, but according the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the average number of times a garment is worn before it ceases to be used has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago. In the US clothes are worn for around a quarter of the global average. The same pattern is emerging in China, where clothing utilisation has decreased by 70% over the last 15 years ago.Do you know how much fashion we throw away?Clothing production about doubled during that time; we now produce around 100 billion garments a year. Of the total fibre input used, 87% ends up landfilled or incinerated.Why have we become so wasteful and how can we turn it around? This week's guest thinks we need to reconnect with fashion's soul. She is Christina Dean, fashionwaste warrior and the founder of Redress, a Hong Kong-based NGO that works to reduce fashion waste. A former journalist, Christina is also the co-author of Dress [with] Sense (a consumer guide for the conscious closet), and the hosts of documentary series, Frontline Fashion. Our shownotes are packed with links and extra information. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What was it like to pioneer ethical fashion before that was even a phrase? For 27 years, Pamela Easton and Lydia Pearson ran the iconic Australian fashion label Easton Pearson, known for its exquisite artisanal fabrics and embellishments, colourful exuberance and sense of fun.They are the subjects of an exhibition at the Museum of Brisbane, The Designers' Guide: Easton Pearson Archive - an invaluable resource for fashion students and fashion fans. It's also an important contribution to Australia's cultural history, which fashion absolutely should be considered a part of.In this interview, we discuss why this Aussie icon, that sold at Browns in London and Bergdorf's in New York, was such a big deal. Pam and Lydia decode their design and making processes, and detail how they started out on the business of fashion, and kept at it for so long.We talk about how they pioneered and centred slow fashion and ethical production in the Australian context, and also in India, where their main workshop was located. We also have a frank discussion about the challenges of running an independent, slow fashion business in a fast fashion world.Our shownotes are packed with links and extra information. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING.We are always grateful for ratings and reviews onApple. Don't forget to hit subscribe.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it take to break through as an emerging fashion designer today? Do sustainable designers have the edge? Who are the names to know, now? Sara Maino is the deputy editor-in-chief of VOGUE ITALIA, and the fashion force behind VOGUE TALENTS, Vogue Green Talents and Who Is On Next?As she told the New York Times: “You will rarely see me at the big shows, those blockbuster events with a starry front row. That is really not my scene.” Instead, Sara combs the globe meeting students, attending independent shows and scouting under-the-radar studios and showrooms.In this Episode, recorded during Milan fashion week for Spring '19, Sara shares her insights on nurturing creativity and finding the next big thing. We discuss slow fashion, the pressures on young designers and the ways in which the industry can support new talent. We also hear from 4 new gen talents, who are changing fashoin for good - whether by choosing recycled and eco-friendly fabrics, re-energising age-old crafts or embedding social justice and radical localism into their business models.Meet Tiziano Guardini (winner of last year's Green Carpet Award for Best Emerging Designer), Shyma Shetty of Indian brand Huemn, denim upcycler Nathalie Ballout and print queen Sindiso Khumalo.Check out our shownotes for masses of links and extra information - https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2018/11/8/podcast-ep-61-sara-maino-vogue-talentsChat with Clare on Instagram and Twitter @mrspressTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.