It's not every day you get to sit down with a proper fashion world icon and pick his brains for free! Dear listeners, you're in for a treat this week, as Clare meets the one and only Jimmy Choo. This magic name in shoe design is now professor - he runs his own fashion school, the Jimmy Choo Academy in London's Mayfair…
You might have noticed this idea gaining momentum. Ecocide refers to the mass damage and destruction of ecosystems – severe harm to nature which is widespread or long-term. The idea is to criminalise it. And it's happening! It's become national law in several countries with many more discussing it. In March, the EU passed a law that criminalises actions 'comparable to ecocide' - a revolutionary legal development; the first law of its kind to be adopted by a political entity with substantial global influence. In September, Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa submitted a proposal to the International Criminal Court for recognition of ecocide as a crime.
What does all this mean for fashion? Listen to find out!
Okay, brace yourselves...
Brands love to set sustainability goals. But what if it's all nonsense? What if net zero, the obsession with carbon, and the idea that renewables are taking over from fossil fuels, are all part of a fake green fairy tale that we tell ourselves because the alternative is too difficult to imagine. Or that corporations tell us so that they can keep on with business as usual.
WTAF? We know. It's... a lot.
Is it true? You decide, after listening to this week's guest.
Carole Collet on the role of a fashion designer today. Thinking purely about gorgeous clothes is so last season. Gone are the days when designers could consider only a collection, how it will sell and what the customer might be looking for.
Forward-thinkers are already beginning to take more holistic view and adopt a living systems approach. They’re asking questions such as, Can we make like Nature makes? How might fashion create nutrients instead of waste? How can we use biomimicry in sustainable ways? Program living systems to produce bespoke products? And, how can we build a truly regenerative system in place of the current regenerative one?
Happy Secondhand September! Six years ago Oxfam UK came up with the idea of using September to encourage people to: "Shop second hand to take a stance against fast fashion and dress for a fairer world." They say it's a moment to come together “to choose a more planet-friendly way to shop, and dress for the world you want to see." This week, Clare sits down with model-thrifter-filmmaker-activist Eunice Olumide, ahead of her walking in Oxfam's LFW show.
"You can't farm spiders!" says this week's guest, scientist David Breslauer.
You can keep more them in serious numbers spinning webs off hula-hoops suspended from your office ceiling though...
Enter Bolt Threads, the Californian biotech company behind Microsilk - a bioengineered sustainable fibre used by Stella McCartney. Find out how they did it, where the science is headed, and what’s next (hint, it's involves mushrooms). Just don’t call David Spider Man.
FORMIDABLE! How did denim get so unsustainable? And did it all start with stone washing? Our guest this week accepts responsibility for the industry going so hard on that. Francois Girbaud was there at the start, when, as he says “I was just a stupid guy” - and didn’t know about the environmental impact of stone washing. After that, of course, came acid wash, sandblasting, all the rest of it. So, yes, we discuss all the important environmental stuff, but this is an epic interview about Paris, the history of fashion, and the birth of cool - and its full of great stories.
Outspoken, unafraid, and a true original, Francois Girbaud is fashion pioneer. Meet the man who brought denim to Paris in 1964 with his boutique Western House, who dressed Jimi Hendrix, counted Brigitte Bardot as a customer, and wanted to be a cowboy like John Wayne.
What do you know about how chemicals re used to manufacture our clothes? How fashion is cleaning up its act? Chemistry in fashion is still not a mainstream topic, and most people have no idea about chemical use in clothing production. But the fashion industry has made headway.
The Greenpeace campaign succeeded in making fashion take action. Initially 6 brands got behind the formation of the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) programme, with the aim of removing hazardous chemicals from apparel and footwear supply chains by 2020. It’s called Roadmap to Zero.
Discover how it works, learn about the wins and find out what’s left to be done.
Meet UNCHR’s Designer in Residence. In 2015, in the run up to the COP15, Helen Storey turned a decommissioned refugee tent, that had once housed a family in Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan, into a travelling fashion statement on climate change. She called it Dress For Our Time, and debuted it in a London railway station. That dress has since travelled to the UN in Geneva, the climate strikes, and even been on stage at Glastonbury. But it is Helen who has travelled the farthest.
Today she is the UN Refugee Agency's first ever designer-in-residence. Hear how she works in Za'atari, which is home to more than 75,000 displaced people.
The power of human connection. Photographer Giles Duley is the CEO and founder of the Legacy of War Foundation, and an activist for the rights of those living with disabilities caused by conflict. But he started out working in music and fashion, shooting for magazines like Vogue, GQ and Arena.
Since 2004, his portrait photography has taken him all over the world, from Iraq and Jordan to South Sudan and Angola, documenting human stories, often in post-conflict zones or crisis situations. In 2015 he was commissioned by UNHCR to document the refugee crisis across the Middle East and Europe.
In 2011, while working as a photographer in Afghanistan, Giles himself was injured by an improvised explosive device (IED). He is now a triple-amputee. He was back taking photographs the following year.
Make jewellery not war. Can fashion really make a difference? Can artisans be agents of change? Could a humble bangle help make post-conflict land safe for the people who live there?
It sounds crazy to be talking about war and bombs in the same sentence as fashion and jewellery. But that’s exactly what Article 22, a New York-jewellery brand and social enterprise that’s handmade in Laos, seeks to do.
They upcycle shrapnel and scrap metal from The Secret War into jewellery, and they called their first collection Peace Bomb. For every jewellery item they make, Article 22 donates to MAG, the Mines Advisory Group - an NGO that’s on the ground clearing undetonated bombs so that local families can live and farm in peace.
On World Oceans Day, we meet Australian big wave surfer Laura Enever. Laura started surfing as a kid in Sydney. She spent 7 years surfing professionally on the Women’s World Tour . Now she’s decided to reinvent herself as a big wave surfer. And we mean seriously big - these waves are scary, dangerous and remote, they break way out to sea, or on shallow rock ledges and only a few times a year.
What has the ocean taught Laura about resilience and conquering fear? Could we all benefit from mastering our breath?
How is fashion connected to biodiversity loss? What is the New Nature Agenda? How can fashion take action to not just protect biodiversity, but help regenerate it?
This week’s guest Helen Crowley is Kering's head of sustainable sourcing and innovation, where she works with brands like Gucci , Saint Laurent and Balenciaga. She lives in France, but she’s an Aussie with a PhD in zoology. And this year, she’s on sabbatical with Conservation International, and is an advisor to the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The WEF named 2020 the Year for Nature Action. It was to culminate in a big conference about the UN convention on biological diversity in Kunming, China in October. But the coronavirus pause doesn’t mean we get to hold off on action to protect Nature.
The second of our special COVID-19 reports looks at how fashion designers, makers and manufacturers are responding to shortages personal protective equipment, scrubs for frontline workers, and masks for all.
What is PPE? Why are there shortages? How have designers, insiders and activists around the world stepped up to produce it? Featuring British designers Phoebe English and Holly Fulton from the Emergency Designer Network, Jayna Zweiman of Masks for Humanity, PPE Volunteer, and more.
