This week's compelling interview is with manufacturer Shafiq Hassan, of the Echotex manufacturing facility in Gazipur, Bangladesh. Clare interviewed Shafiq in London, in September 2024, a little over month after peaceful students protests in Bangladesh toppled ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, then presiding over an increasingly corrupt and authoritarian regime.
So what's next?
“Key moments in our lives are charted by the textiles we bring close to our bodies," write curators Rebecca Evans the Leigh Robb in the catalogue to a major new exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia, RADICAL TEXTILES.
New York, London, Milan, Paris? So last season! It's time to spotlight less discussed design centres. This time, Dundee, Scotland, which is home the two emerging menswear designers you're about to meet - both recent graduates from the Jimmy Choo Academy…
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!
Fashion weeks are about to roar back with a vengeance, although the pandemic and climate change are still with us. In 2021, the fashion industry seems determined to get back to business as usual. This week's guest, London-based Kenyan fashion designer Anyango Mpinga has other ideas. Digital presentations could change the game, she says, but that's just one piece of the puzzle - Fashion must find it's heart again.
In this inspiring conversation, Anyango talks purpose, service and giving back - and how, in Anyango's case, coming from a family of strong African women shaped her. The designer shares her advice for independents trying to be as sustainable as possible, and the broader industry that needs to do better on diversity and inclusion.
Have you heard the one about throwing your clothes away being better for the planet than renting them? In this Episode, we get the real story on the study out of Finland that spawned so many clickbait headlines, then ask a British retail legend about what's driving the fashion rental boom. We hear from a purpose-driven millennial founder about what her company is doing to ensure rental really is a greener fashion option than buying new clothes; and learn the secrets of eco-friendly dry cleaning.
A positive knitwear designer from Canada who’s ongoing collaboration with Post Carbon lab sees her creating living garments that photosynthesise as you wear them. A British fashion multi-tasker who works as a sustainable womenswear designer focused on deadstock materials, a freelance writer, model and stylist. And a community-driven womenswear designer from Brazil who is wowing with his artful, high-craft textile treatments - and challenging fashion’s obsession with youth while he’s at it. Meet Olivia Rubens, Joshua James Small and Joao Maraschin.
Wardrobe Crisis talks to Lyn Slater - academic, professor of social welfare, and the New York fashion influencer behind the Accidental Icon blog. Since she began blogging in 2014, she’s become a poster woman for growing older stylishly. But now, she’s examining further what it means to be old, and what we, as a society, think about that word - from old people to old houses to old things.
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EPISODE 143 FEATURES AMERICAN FASHION DESIGNER EMILY ADAMS BODE
Lock up your linens! Emily Adams Bode has designs on your grandma's tablecloths. And her quilts. America's favourite emerging menswear talent made her fashion name upcycling characterful old domestic textiles and dusty deadstock - winning a CFDA award and a Woolmark Prize while she was at it. The result is menswear with meaning, designed to be passed down the generations.
This is a lovely quirky conversation about what inspires her as a maker and collector, the joys of upcycling and the layers of meaning in hand-worked and customised clothes. We discuss everything from growing up in Atlanta, Georgia and the influence of her grandfather’s bowties, to studying philosophy, to how independent businesses make up the essential fabric of neighbourhoods.
HUNTING & COLLECTING “A lot of it is provenance…If something has a particular narrative that goes along with it – maybe where it came from, the person’s name, a signature, a date, maybe a note attached – they’re the most wonderful finds,” as Emily told Vogue.
UPCYCLING ANTIQUE FABRICS The description of Emily’s work Clare likes best is from the Wall St Journal. “Often made from deadstock fabrics and decorated with charmingly anachronistic embroideries or appliqués, items look as though they’ve been rescued from a water-damaged steamer trunk in Great-Aunt Margaret’s attic.” Read the story in full here.
HARRY That “Custom shirt for Harry Styles from 1970s lace” of which we speak? Eyes here:
SENIOR CORDS “Senior cords were an Indiana tradition... The trend likely originated at Purdue University in the first decade of the C20th. As the story goes, some Purdue seniors noticed a bolt of yellow corduroy fabric displayed in the window of Taylor Steffen Co., a tailor on Main Street in Lafayette, in the fall of 1904. The seniors decided to have trousers made from the material, and the corduroy pants soon became a fashion statement for the rest of the class…As early as 1912, the trend had spread to other Indiana colleges as well as high schools.
For most, senior cords represented a rite of passage into the adult world. As such, they were reserved for seniors only. Early versions of cords were plain or listed only a few signatures from classmates. As time passed, however, new decorative themes were adopted: school mascots, cartoon characters, group and club membership, and sports themes. These items helped personalize senior cords for each wearer by showing off their activities, achievements and aspirations.” Via Indiana State Museum - read the rest here.
Here’s the Bode IG post Clare references, it’s from November 2018.
Caption reads: “National Corduroy Day tomorrow...come celebrate with us. We’re launching a special collection of “senior cords” that are customizable on site.” After the RSVP deets, it reminds attendees: “MUST WEAR CORDS.”
TOBACCO SILKS “The practice of inserting advertising in tobacco products and packaging began about 1870 and was common throughout the late 19th Century and the first decades of the 20th Century… One of the most popular of the tobacco inserts or premiums was the tobacco or cigarette “silk”. While they are called silks, they were actually made from a variety of fabrics such as silk or silk satin, a cloth combination of silk and cotton, a cotton sateen or even a plain woven cotton. The silks were often beautifully poly-chrome printed with varied subjects, and were usually printed with the tobacco company name.” Via Princetoniana Musuem.
D.I.Y. “‘How to Make a ‘Sweetheart’ T-Shirt” ran in the New York Times in 2020. Make your own. “Experienced sewing not required, can be made using a needle and thread or home machine. If you’re not keen on craft-making, you can commission a custom one by email…”
WOOLMARK Bode was the winner of 2020’s International Woolmark Prize The Karl Lagerfeld Award for Innovation. French fashion icon Carine Roitfeld was one of the judges, and praised Bode’s particular brand of nostalgia - “BODE’s story of working with old pieces and transforming them took me back to my childhood. When I was young there was no fashion like there is today so I would go to the flea market and my mother and I would sew patches onto clothes to make them new. BODE’s collection reminds me of this time and I like that."
More info on the prize here.
From Bode’s Woolmark-winning collection.
The British menswear designers Clare mentions are BETHANY WILLIAMS (listen to her on Episode 70) and PRIYA AHLUWALIA - both champion upcyclers of the new guard.
Emily combined her menswear studies with philosophy in a dual degree at PARSONS School of Design and Eugene Lang College in New York.
HAVING A RETAIL SPACE In November 2019, Emily opened her first store in New York’s Chinatwon. Check out more pics on Hypebeast.
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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.
