Fashion communication isn't just about the clothes. It's about how we talk to each other.
Meet Lou Croff Blake, a Berlin-based non-binary fashion practitioner, scholar, artist and community organiser. Their work merges queer theory with community-building, advocating for intersectional equity and amplifying the visibility of marginalised genders. Which sounds like a of words! Because it is. Carefully considered words chosen to challenge the dominant narrative.
British model Junior Bishop - who just so happens to be a wheelchair user - spoke at the Houses of Parliament recently, she called on the fashion industry to do more to tackle its disability access issues. Representation is an important first step, but we can’t stop there.
Bet you can think of a thousand places where career progress is affected by your postcode, where you went to school and what your parents did. And lurking behind all that: race, gender, sexuality, difference, not to mention how much cash you've got...It's time for a power shift.
Meet Rahemur Rahman, a British-Bengali artist, educator and designer who is determined to change the system, not simply tinker round the edges of representation.
Here are some questions for you: How much is enough? How can creatives incorporate the idea of sufficiency in their output? If you make physical objects, what does it really mean to be sustainable in your practice? And, how can you, as my guest this week, Irish fashion designer, artist and maker Richard Malone, puts it, "do your own thing and stick to it" in the context of fashion's relentless push for newness?
Why does fashion have such a problem in accepting all bodies they way they are, and recognising the beauty in different shapes and sizes? I know, I know, we’ve heard it all before, yet depressingly little changes.
Our guest this week has had enough! Self-described as “that body morphing b*tch”, Michaela Starck is a super-talented London-based Aussie dreamboat who’s beautiful work includes her own glorious self, as well as Paris-worthy, bow-bedecked frillies.
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 determined to change this.
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?
Meet Indian designer Ruchika Sachdeva of Bodice Studio, the Delhi-based label that took out the 2017/18 International Woolmark Prize . She trained at the London College of Fashion and interned at Vivienne Westwood, before returning home, where she showed as a “Gen Next Designer” at Lakme Fashion Week in 2010. A year later, she launched Bodice Studio. Her idea? To make thoughtfully designed modern classics with integrity, and a respect for artisanal producers.
Let’s get ethical. Paul van Zyl is a human rights lawyer and ethical fashion entrepreneur. He 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 2009 he founded Maiyet, a luxury fashion brand with a social impact purpose. The idea? “We incorporate ancient traditions in untraditional ways by partnering with artisans in developing economies and by sourcing material in ethical ways. We create limited exquisite product in limited editions. The hope is that by doing so we promote entrepreneurship, prosperity, and dignity in places that need it most.”
How about we stop throwing clothes away?
Stats vary. Does the average woman discard a piece of clothing 4 or 7 times before she gets rid of it? Depends who you listen to, but it’s never good. Everyone agrees that clothing production is rising while usability is declining.
According to 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 only 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.
Despite this, clothing production has about doubled during this time. We now produce around 100 billion garments a year, and of this total fibre input that is used for clothing, 87% ends up landfilled or incinerated.
Iconic Australian fashion designers Pamela Easton and Lydia Pearson and their Easton Pearson label were known for their slow fashion approach. Think artisanal fabrics and embellishments, ethical production and made in India. But could they survive in the new fast fashion era? A frank discussion about the challenges of running an independent, slow fashion business in a fast fashion world.
Meet legendary thinker, innovator, disruptor and Cradle to Cradle hero, William McDonough. Architect, designer, thought leader, and author – his vision for a future of abundance for all is helping companies and communities think differently. He was the inaugural chair of the World Economic Forum’s Meta-Council on the Circular Economy and currently serves on the Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security. For more than 40 years, he has defined the principles of the sustainability movement. This interview is a must for anyone who is interested in the circular economy, or indeed just cares about the future of our planet.
Sustainable fashion innovation steps up! Meet Katrin Ley, managing director of FASHION FOR GOOD - the world’s first sustainable fashion museum in Amsterdam. The organisation that was co-founded by William McDonough and set up to bring together the entire fashion ecosystem with incentives, resources and tools for sustainability. At its core is William’s concept of the Five Goods, which, he says, “represent an aspirational framework we can all use to work towards a world in which we do not simply take, make, waste, but rather take, make, renew and restore.”
