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.
Aminata Conteh-Biger is an UNHCR ambassador, author, speaker and the founder of Aminata Maternal Foundation. In 1999, during the civil war in Sierra Leone, the then 18-year-old Aminata was a kidnapped from her home in Freetown by rebel soldiers. She was held captive for several months, and finally freed as part of a negotiated prisoner exchange. When she fled to Australia, with UNHCR’s assistance, she had no idea what it would be like. She arrived here with nothing and to had to start again.
Can small local makers compete with the big guys today, and should they try? Or is it time to build new networks that create a totally different playing field?
Meet one woman going her own way - and sharing what she’s learned along it. Simone Agius is the Melbourne maker behind Simetrie - a disruptive, hand-crafted accessories brand that's challenging norms. This a bright conversation about sharing, being a maker not a marketer - and how together we might reset fashion’s values.
CALLING ALL TREE-HUGGERS! Nicole Rycroft founded Canopy Planet at her kitchen table with a small budget and a big idea - to protect the world’s precious forests. Twenty years later, Canopy is one of the leading organisations protecting last frontier forests.
This not-for profit organisation works globally to protect our forest ecosystems, and engage business to ensure supply chains don’t use trees unsustainably. What’s all this got to do with fashion? You’re about to find out.
Do we really use ancient trees to make trivial things? Try pizza boxes and party frocks.
It’s an outrage - but it’s also an opportunity for change, and Canopy is doing something about it.
How big is sustainable fashion in Iceland? You might be surprised to find out. We also nearly called this Episode: The Secret Lives Of Sweaters. Listen and you will see why.
In this fascinating, surprising conversation about funny jumpers and changing the world, we meet Ýr Jóhannsdóttir - a textile designer, artist/activist upcycler from Reykjavik.
With her label Ýrúrarí (and her huge Instagram following) she is making a name for herself using creativity and humour to challenge fashion's unsustainable ways.
People want to have fun with fashion, she says, and if we can use that to get a serious message across, that's a powerful thing. Also up for discussion: Iceland's craft and wool tradition, appreciating the local, resourcefulness, tool libraries and the future of fashion as sharing.
Discover Ýrúrarí here.
ICELAND dealt with thousands of earthquakes for a few weeks before a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula exploded on March 19, 2021. Crazy stories here and here. Everyone’s safe tho. Phew.
SWEATER SAUCE (Peysa með öllu) saw Ýrúrarí and Iceland’s Red Cross collaborate for the 2020 DesignMarch festival. Here is the video of the show.
Ýr Jóhannsdóttir is currently in residency at the Museum of Design and Applied Art until the end of May. Find out more about her exhibition here.
Iceland produces 20 KILOGRAMS OF TEXTILE WASTE every year. In comparison, Australia produces 23 kilograms per year and North America produces 28 kilograms per year.
Wool has been incredibly important to the history of Iceland, with sweaters being favoured by fisherman and farmers in the notoriously chilly Icelandic weather. Most of Iceland’s wool is being sent to China to be processed. Read more about the struggling Icelandic knitting community here.
Vintage and second-hand is in the news more than ever before. It's set to eclipse fast fashion within ten years. The designer re-commerce sector is booming. But as shopping pre-loved becomes more aspirational, are those who rely on thrifted clothes being licked out?
What’s not up for debate, however, is that the piles of discarded fashion and textiles keep growing. The excess is real. Where it ends up, who pays the price, what that price should be, what’s selling, what’s not, what should be ... in this week's episode we address all this and more as our listeners take a seat in the interviewee's chair. Featuring Julia Browne, Liisa Jokinen & Ali Dibley.
MEET GREEN THUMBS NIDALA BARKER & KOBI BLOOM. Who else talks to their plants? This week's joyful episode is a love letter to what we grow - in gardens, allotments, veggie patches and pots on our windowsills the world over. But also what grows wild - in the woods, hedgerows, fields and scrub, the verges by the freeways, even the cracks in city pavements.
Kobi is a regenerative forager, gardener and weeds-appreciator based in Byron Bay, Australia.
Up for discussion: How can learning more about plants, and their wonder, help us heal the planet? What exactly is a regenerative farmer or gardener (and how can you be be one)? What happens if we donʼt pull out the weeds? What can we do about food waste? And why is compost so often the answer to life's big questions?
SUSTAINABLE FASHION IS A LIE WITHOUT THE WORKERS AT THE TABLE. Nazma Akter, founder and Executive Director of the Awaj Foundation, has been fighting to improve workers’ rights in Bangladesh's garment sector for 30 years - and she started out as a garment worker herself, aged just 11. Nazma is also the President of Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation, one of the largest union federations in Bangladesh, and co-chair of Asia Pacific Women’s Committee of IndustriALL Global Union. Hers is a powerful, persuasive, brilliant voice from the workers’ side. So why have't you heard it before? Or if you have, why not more?
The answer is because fashion - yes, even sustainable fashion - operates with a power imbalance that too often shuts workers out. We rarely hear from the people who make our clothes, especially those in low-wage countries. Instead, we hear from brands talking about garment workers, or well meaning white people talking on their behalf. Mostly, we hear from those who make the decisions, rather than those who must live with them. But if we are to build a truly sustainable and ethical fashion industry, we must make space for the people who make our clothes.
Everybody's talking about degrowth. Does this mean we’ve finally woken up to the reality of climate breakdown and ecological collapse? Are we ready to challenge capitalism’s obsession with GDP and perpetual expansion? If so, what’s the alternative? And how can we apply this to fashion, beyond simply "buy less"? How might we reimagine the whole system, and rethink how we measure success?
This week's guest is Jason Hickel author of Less is More - How Degrowth Will Save the World.
Jason is a rockstar economist (no grey suits here) focused on global inequality, political economy, post-development, and ecological economics. He teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London and serves on the Statistical Advisory Panel for the UN Human Development Report 2020, the advisory board of the Green New Deal for Europe and on the Harvard-Lancet Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice.
Belinda Duarte is a former athlete and educator, current inspirational leader, formidable female exec, proud First Nations Australian and the inspiration for Series 5 - #sharethepodcastmic
As a sprinter and heptathlete, she trailed for the Commonwealth and the Olympic Games. She was the inaugural director of the Korin Gamadji Institute (more below), and integral to the establishment and development of the AFL SportsReady’s National Indigenous Program. In 2012, Belinda was voted Football Woman of the Year. Today, she is CEO of Culture is Life, working to empower young people through Indigenous-led solutions and cultural connection.
While this Episode is just in time for January 26th - a significant day in Australia; it's time to #changethedate - there is lots more up for discussion: from Belinda's family story, to sustainability and Indigenous wisdom, raising strong young people, ethical leadership and how we can use sport and culture to move towards reconciliation.
Model mentor. Charlee Frazer is a New York-based Australian model and a proud Awabakal woman from the mid-north coast of New South Wales. In 2016, she made her international debut on Alexander Wang’s runway, after Guido Paolo had chopped her long hair into a chic bob. That season, Charlee walked 40 shows including Prada, Balenciaga, Chanel, Dior, Lanvin, Givenchy and Céline.
Now Charlee is working with First Nations Fashion & Design founders Grace Lillian Lee and Teagan Cowlishaw to support Australia's first ever Indigenous fashion council. This is a beautiful conversarion about reframing the fashion discourse, connecting to country, and mentoring emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fashion talent.
