WARDROBE CRISIS with Clare Press

Yves Saint Laurent, Loulou de la Falaise, Pierre Cardin, Chanel, Givenchy, couture, prêt-à-porter and vintage shopping in the Paris flea markets, this week's Episode trés chic.Meet Paris-based Australian-raised stylist and César-winning costume designer, Catherine Baba.Vogue calls her a “fashion eminence”. Vanity Fair? An “original”. Indeed that magazine just included her on its 2017 Best Dressed List.She is also an accessories designer with her own line of sunglasses, a massive vintage fan and a walking fashion encyclopaedia with a particular fascination with the history of Paris fashion in the 1970s. But best of all, she's a mad keen cycler. Could there be there a more glamorous eco-aware-transport influencer? Pas possible! Please do check the shownotes to see some delightful photos of her pedalling around Paris. Riding a bike to the fashion week shows wearing a vintage kimono, high heels or even couture? No problem, darling. “It creates an aero-dynamism to the look,” she says.We recorded this interview at the Perth Fashion Festival soon after Yves Saint Laurent's partner Pierre Bergé died, and we drill deep into what makes Paris fashion tick and how it has changed. This Episode is another insider's guide, a companion piece to Epsiodes 12, 13 & 14 with Simon Doonan, Stephen Jones and Linda Jackson. For anyone who loves the creativity and artistry that makes fashion tick, these shows are for you.Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2017/10/2/podcast-ep-18-catherine-baba-cycling-in-heels to read yours and #bethechangeMusic is by Montaigne http://www.montaignemusic.com.au/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Australia's GREAT BARRIER REEF is the largest living thing on earth. Visible from outer space, it's the size of 70 million football fields and is home to 400 different types of coral and more than 1500 species of toprical fish. It's a magical underwater garden. No wonder fashion is obsessed with its beauty.But climate change is killing the reef, and fashion, being a major manufacturing industry, has its part to play. About 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the fashion sector.This week we meet Tim Flannery, internationally acclaimed scientist, writer, explorer and conservationist. Actual proper legend.Our interview was recorded at the Heron Island Research Centre 80 kilometres off the Queensland coast on an pristine part of the reef, undamaged by recent bleaching events.It's a very special opportunity to hear from an expert on the front line of climate change science about how the whole thing works, and what can be done about it. We hope you will share the Episode with your friends and communities.The WARDROBE CRISIS show notes unpack the issues addressed in each Episode. Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2017/9/25/podcast-ep-17-tim-flannery-climate-change to check them out.Music is by Montaigne http://www.montaignemusic.com.au/Enjoying the show? Please leave a review in Apple. It helps other people find us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's Episode is little different from normal. It was recorded in September at a live Q&A event at the Wheeler Centre for Books & Ideas in Melbourne, and moderated by Madeleine Morris, a reporter for ABC television's 7.30. We touch on a whole lot of issues front and centre in an industry currently in overdrive, from slow fashion, overconsumption and waste, to what brands are doing about supply chain transparency, as well as Australia's move towards a Modern Slavery Act, the role of magazines in the fashion transparency conversation, and even how body mapping technology might reduce dead-stock.For more on these issues, don't miss the shownotes here.WHO'S TALKING?Clare Press, yours truly, presenter of the Wardrobe Crisis podcast.Clara Vuletich, a sustainable fashion consultant with a PhD in sustainable textiles, who has worked with clients such as H&M and Kering. Rebecca Hard, CEO of Sussan. The Sussan Group is the Australian women's fashion retailer that owns retail brands Sportsgirl, Sussan and Suzanne Grae.Jessica Perrin, one of the co-founders of Not My Style, a UK-based ethical shopping app that “tells you how much your favourite fashion brands share about how they treat the women and men who make our clothes.” The app launched after a successful Kickstarter campaign last year.Music is by Montaigne Enjoying the show? Clare would love to hear from you - Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2017/9/25/podcast-ep-16-fast-fashion-question-time to read yours and #bethechangePlease consider leaving a review in Apple. It helps other people find us!  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We live in a our throwaway society. "Landfill fashion" has become a phrase - we literally buy clothes to throw them away. With fast fashion brands dropping new stock into store sometimes as often as every week, we're consuming new clothes like never before. The average woman wears just 40 % of what's in her wardrobe, meanwhile it's cool to declutter. Or is it? Have you considered where all that "clutter" ends up when you remove it from your house?In this Episode, fashion model and Heart People frontwoman Rachel Rutt makes the case for making mending great again! Rachel is a mad-keen mender, weaver, knitter and sewing person. She is especially excited about patching up old denim, and wants to make that a craze - why buy pre-ripped jeans? "If you wear them enough, they will get there." Authentically aged denim is much more satisfying. By mending your clothes, you deepen your connection to them, argues Rachel.Listen to Rachel's story of being home-schooled, shaving her head as a kid, finding herself in modelling and learning to harness the creativity within. Can fashion be a beautiful, supportive place to be? It can!Music is by Montaigne http://www.montaignemusic.com.au/Enjoying the show? Clare would love to hear from you - get in touch https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2017/9/15/podcast-ep-15-rachel-rutt-making-mending-coolPlease consider leaving a review in Apple. It helps other people find us!  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Linda Jackson is an iconic designer who, with Jenny Kee, created a new visual language for contemporary Australian fashion in the 1970s, inspired by Australia's flora, fauna and landscapes.Until then, the Australian fashion industry had mostly looked outward, copying what Europe did. But Linda and Jenny shook that whole thing up, and the world took notice. In Sydney they engergised the fashion scene, collaborating with creative friends like Peter Tully and David McDairmid, who went on to become leading lights of the Mardis Gras movement. In Milan and Paris, they were photographed by Italian Vogue and made a big splash. In the US, they were key to Neiman Marcus's Australian Fortnight in 1986 and in London, three years later, to the V&A show Australian Fashion: The Contemporary Art.Linda opened her Bush Couture studio in 1982 and began collaborating with Indigenous women batik artists at Utopia Station.This Episode is about culture and respect, and valuing originality. It's also, broadly, about craft and technique and the hands-on practice of making clothes. And it's a window into another era via the story of how an arty kid from Melbourne grew up to be one of the wildest style voices of her generation.Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2017/8/21/podcast-ep-13-linda-jackson-inventing-australian-fashion to read yours and #bethechangeMusic is by Montaigne http://www.montaignemusic.com.au/Enjoying the show? Please leave a review in Apple. It helps other people find us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen Jones is the most extraordinary, the most famous, and the most marvellous milliner working in fashion today.This interview took place at the National Gallery of Victoria on the eve of the opening of the exhibition, THE HOUSE OF DIOR: SEVENTY YEARS OF HAUTE COUTURE.During John Galliano's tenure at Dior in particular, from 1996 to 2011, Stephen made some of the house's most jaw-droppingly fabulous hats.Stephen also designed hats and headpieces for the designers who came after Galliano at Dior: for Raf Simons and now for Maria Grazia Chiuri. He's collaborated with pretty much every other iconic fashion you can think of too, from Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo to Jean Paul Gaultier and Louis Vuitton. He's made hats for Lady Gaga and Rihanna, curated exhibitions of hats and written books on them.In terms of the sustainable and ethical fashion conversation, this story is all about fashion as high art and the celebration of the hand-made. No mass production here.But it's not just his own hats that fascinate Stephen Jones. He's a font of knowledge on the history of millinery, and its role in fashion and culture. In this Episode, we touch on those things, and so much more. We talk the importance of Christian Dior and his New Look, and of the London club scene and the New Romantics that were so integral to forming Stephen's taste.And we talk about Marie Antoinette, Anna Piaggi and Princess Di, because they were all major hats fans. And you will be too after listening to this!The WARDROBE CRISIS show notes unpack the issues addressed in each Episode. And there are some amazing pics this week. Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2017/9/4/podcast-ep-13-stephen-jones-hats-off-to-christian-dior to check it out.Music is by Montaigne http://www.montaignemusic.com.au/Enjoying the show? Please leave a review in Apple. It helps other people find us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before ecommerce changed the world, designers knew they'd made it when their collections were stocked by Saks, Bergdorf's or Barneys. The iconic New York department stores hold a special allure, even when you live elsewhere. But retail, globally, is in a state of flux. Will there even be physical stores in 10 or 20 years' time? As customers continue to head online, it seems like every week there's news of another “bricks and mortar” closure. In the US, analysts predict 25 % of malls could shutter within the next five years. Will we ditch consumerism on mass, as the anti-shopping / buy nothing movements expand? Will renting fashion and clothing libraries become major trends? Or is it still all about experiences?The latter is where Simon Doonan comes in. He calls himself a carnival type, likens his celebrated window displays for Barneys New York to something out of Coney Island – and indeed he has put some very unusual objects in shop windows in his time.Creative director, writer, fashion commentator and OTT window dresser extraordinaire, Simon Doonan is an actual proper fashion legend.Wait till you hear how he got into it. Growing up gay and dreaming of glamour in 1960s Reading, he moved to Manchester then London in search of “the beautiful people”, cadging window dressing jobs off the likes Tommy Nutter (tailor to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones) and cult filmmaker Ken Russell's wife.Simon was a Blitz Kid (part of the famed London party set) then moved to LA, where he did windows for luxury boutique Maxfield. In mid-80s Manhattan, he worked for Diana Vreeland at the Met, before joining Barneys, where, you know, he was JUST CASUALLY FRIENDS WITH JOAN RIVERS. And nearly starred in The Devil Wears Prada.Simon's story is both extraordinary, and, in a weird way ordinary – in that Fashion Land has long been a place where eccentric, creative kids from small, unremarkable towns can find a home and thrive.In this Episode we talk about his professional path, and how today's new generation of designers and dream weavers can navigate the changed fashion landscape. We discuss Simon's unwavering belief in the value of originality - ("Conformity is the only real fashion crime," he says) and some of the fashion geniuses he's encountered. And of course we talk shop.The show notes are here: https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2017/8/16/podcast-ep-12-simon-doonan-on-the-fashion-asylum-dressing-barneys-windows Enjoying the show? Please leave a review in Apple. It helps other people find us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The ethical fashion movement is gathering momentum. Not so long ago sustainable, ethical, eco-fashion (whatever you want to call it) was a too easily dismissed as some way-out, niche concern. Something kooky, and very possibly hairy and hemp-y, that belonged on the lunatic fringe. Well, no longer. Today sustainability is a buzz word. Everyone wants a piece of the activism action. We're in the middle of a Fashion Revolution, where the coolest, smartest most creative fashion fans are starting to ask more questions about who made their clothes, where how and from what.Podcaster Kestrel Jenkins is a pioneer in this space. She's been asking these questions since she was in college, became fascinated by fair trade, then went to intern at People Tree in London. In 2016, she launched Conscious Chatter “I always have wanted to learn the stories behind things,” says Kestrel. Her favourite word? "Curious."In this Episode Clare and Kestrel discuss the power of the podcast as a medium, who we think is listening and why, and how we keep them tuned in.They share their perspectives on ethical and sustainable fashion, discuss how the conversation has changed since they both first joined it, and where they see it heading.Read the show notes here:https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2017/8/23/podcast-ep-11-conscious-chatters-kestrel-jenkins-curiosity-counts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beauty is one of the major motivators for people who work in creative industries – they want to make beautiful things, whether it's a garment, textile, show or picture. They want, as Megan Morton puts it in this Episode, to chase down true beauty wherever they see it. Not to push the beautiful lie but to try to capture and understand it.Megan is a stylist, author and “house whisperer” with a life-long love for vintage and the stories behind old things. She grew up on a banana farm in Queensland, where her mum subscribed to 1970s back-to-the-land magazine, Grass Roots. Megan grew up seeing the beauty in nature, while figuring out how to make stuff.Today her styling work is focused on houses and interiors, but she turns her eye for beauty on everything from her wardrobe, to teaching to travel to Instagram. She's worked for magazines like Vogue Living and Elle Decoration, and is the author of four books. The latest? It's Beautiful Here (Thames & Hudson).In this Episode we go off on a lot of beautiful tangents about managing stress in the creative industries, the heart and soul of getting dressed, the value of vintage and the importance of the handmade. We try and pin down beauty, what it means and why we seek it, and discuss the beauty of provenance, generosity and sharing.“Being flush and doing well affects everybody in your circle and the only way to keep that going is to be generous with your knowledge. The more you give away, the more free you are.” says Megan. For the show notes, go to:https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2017/8/6/podcast-ep-10-megan-morton-chasing-beauty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do you think is possible? How about impossible? Kim Pearce and Katherine Davis are living proof of the old adage: where there's a will there's a way. The Possibility Project, which they cofounded after meeting on the school run, “delivers social justice programs through the mindset of social entrepreneurship”.What does that look like on the ground? Try their womenswear label Slumwear 108, and made in the slums of Jaipur in partnership with the NGO i-India. The number 108, in case you're wondering, is considered sacred in may eastern religions and traditions. Ask Kim what it means to her and she says, “It's all about spiritual completion.” But these clothes and accessories aren't some mystical idea – they are real. Whether it's a jacket made from upcycled old saris or a string of silk covered beads, they offer measureable benefits to the people who make them, and to their communities.How do you begin to set up a social enterprise? How do you keep it going? What qualities and resources do you need? These two demonstrate that it can be as simple as giving it, as we say in Australia, a red hot go. They insist that they are two ordinary mums, but their spirit and energy is obviously EXTRAORDINARY.In this Episode, we discuss the politics of happiness, the practicalities of rethinking what's conventionally deemed possible and how fashion can be a fabulous way to build bridges. Listen up, and you'll come away thinking anything is possible. Make sure you visit clarerepress.com for the shownotes which include a bunch of links and further reading. By the way if you're enjoying the podcast I love it you to review it in iTunesThe WARDROBE CRISIS show notes unpack the issues addressed in each Episode. Way more than just links, it's like a mini magazine! Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2017/7/31/podcast-ep-8-the-story-of-slumwear-the-possibility-project to read yours and #bethechangeMusic is by Montaigne http://www.montaignemusic.com.au/Enjoying the show? Please leave a review in Apple. It helps other people find us.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.