Beau McCall’s life in buttons. A beautiful conversation about making, community, creativity and coming of age in 1980s New York.
What can you smell right now? Can you identify it? How does it make you feel? Is it fresh, bright, pleasant? Nostalgic? Disgusting? Prepare to have your mind (not your nose!) blown, as Susan Irvine decodes her fascinating work.
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.
Rising Australian fashion star Liandra Gaykamangu calls Darwin home, but that's the big smoke compared to where she grew up in Milingimbi (Yurruwi) in the Crocodile Islands - albeit with a sojourn to the Wollongong surf coast. Now her print-led namesake brand is making waves in fancy places. This mum of three used to be a high school teacher and her fashion-forward design is winning her prizes.
For this episode, we’re in London visiting British journalist Tiffanie Darke to talk about her viral wardrobe challenge, The Rule of Five.
She’s also got a new book coming out in the US. What to Wear and Why, Your Guilt-Free Guide to Sustainable Fashion promises to get you "rethinking what clothes we buy, wear, and toss out, knowing that we can have a positive environmental impact while still looking good and dressing well”.
In the latest of our names-to-watch from CPHFW, Clare sits down with Finnish menswear designer Rolf Ektroth.
Last season, his hand-knits, made with Finnish yarn manufacturer Novita, were made available as pattern and yarn kits, so that home knitters could recreate his runway pieces. He loves macramé and hand embroidery, yet his collections have a modern street wear vibe that feels very polished.
If you're not in Copenhagen for fashion week, here's your (virtual) ticket.Over the next three episodes, we’ve got interviews with some of the most exciting new names to watch from the region. First up, Alectra Rothschild, whose show for her Masculina label was one of the most anticipated, thanks to last season's electric on-schedule debut…
We hear it all the time: fashion students are overwhelmed by overproduction and the ruthless churn of creative directors at the big luxury houses. How can they forge a creative path without contributing to the problem? If they decide to operate outside the system - crafting extravagant one offs, for example, or only making to order - how will they survive financially? What is the point of fashion if you can’t wear it? Danish fashademic Ana Lynge-Jorlén has some ideas…
Meet Ane Lyne Jorlen is the Danish fashion academic beind Alpha, a fashion incubator for directional emerging design talent from the Nordics.
Empathy, kindness, wellbeing, caring, sharing, repairing - not traditionally the first words that spring to mind when I say "FASHION!" But things are changing. Are we moving towards a new paradigm where who cares, wins? If we accept that the old ways (overproduction, exploitation, rampant shareholder capitalism, waste) don't serve us, why not redesign the whole thing along radical new lines? What might that look like?
What does it take to make it as an independent, small, local, ethical business in a global world that favours big brands? How can we work together to ensure that our local businesses and creatives are literally sustainable - they thrive and stick around?
It's not just fashion this applies to, but all the beautiful, unique, heartfelt local businesses that make our neighbourhoods sing - the cafes and family-owned restaurants, the fruiters, newsagents, hairdressers and book stores. This week’s guests, Rowena and Angela Foong - two of the three sisters behind an ethically-driven, family fashion business called High Tea With Mrs Woo - want us to shop small and local.
