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.

Do you have a fab local cobbler or clothing alterations service? This episode is a reminder to thank them for being here and fixing our stuff. Meet mine - Roger Shoe Repairs…

Bobby Kolade is the designer behind Ugandan fashion label Buzigahill - which puts the politics of upcycling and waste colonialism at its core with the brilliant, provocative concept: Return to Sender.

Buzigahill's collections are made from items of secondhand clothing donated in the global north, and increasingly being dumped on the global south in unsustainable numbers. Why “return to sender”? Because much of Buzigahill’s clientele is in Europe and North America…

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.

If you’re interested in natural dyes, or want to know more about hands-on textile techniques, this episode is a joy. It's also a great one if you are into ideas around seasonality and connection to Nature. Aren't we all?! Two lovely conversations recorded at Fiji Fashion Week.

White sands and turquoise waters. Surf breaks. Rugby. Fiji is rightly famous for these things, it’s also an international garment-manufacturing country with a thriving independent design community, mainly focused on the local market and the Fijian diaspora. Meet Ellen Whippy Knight, founder of Fiji Fashion Week.

From Slow Fashion Season to ReMake’s 90-day No New Clothes challenge to the Rule of 5, more of us are looking for ways to circuit-break bad fashion habits. There’s a real movement going on with conscious fashionistas sharing what’s worked for them when it comes to slowing down, buying and wasting less.

Our first guest for 2024 is Jenna Flood, a slow fashion stylist who’s been sharing tips and tricks with her followers around what she calls her Wardrobe Freeze…

In November 2023, in the run up to COP28, Gregory Andrews stationed himself outside Australia's federal parliament, and staged a hunger strike for climate action. His demands included that the government stop permitting the logging of native forests, and end subsidies to fossil fuels companies. He lasted 16 days before ending up in hospital. This is his story.

Living so close to the ocean means connection to Nature is innate; it’s also an important part of Pacific culture. As this week’s guest Flora Vano says. “Nature talks to us, she tells us when something is wrong. These are things you might not get from a book; it’s not about what you’re taught at school. You have to learn it the way we learn it from the islands.”

Reports of the end of textile manufacturing in so-called consuming countries are exaggerated. We've still got it! Albeit on a smaller scale than when our parents were young. Wherever in the world you are listening, this week’s guest Meriel Chamberlin wants you to look around and recognise what you already have in terms of local skills, manufacturing & R&D capacity. Australia, for example, produces some of the world's best fibre, and there are still production facilities domestically for most stages of the supply chain. Find a gap? Might be worth working to close it…

JUNO GEMES, one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary photographers who for decades has documented First Nations activism and this country’s Civil Rights Movement, shares her stories and insights.

This mini pod was made to share! It’s Part 1 of our Special Edition on the Voice referendum in Australia. You’ll hear RACHEL PERKINS read you the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and photographer JUNO GEMES share her insights, after documenting the Australian Civil Rights Movement for five decades.

He’s been shaking up the London underground scene since the ‘90s. Meet Dr NOKI, the original upcycler. Just don’t call him that…

NOKI does fashion on his own terms, including the language he prefers to describe his work. He “custom-builds” his “mashups” and “landfill drops”. It’s a practice that owes at debt to dadaism and made sense of his dyslexia. The story reaches to back into the ‘90s club scene, through the culture jamming of the No Logo years to end up at the cutting edge where art and fashion collide today.

Woolmark ambassador Taylor Zakhar Perez is a rising Hollywood star known for his leading man roles. Why is he using his platform to raise awareness around fashion's supply chains?

Meet Cyrill Gutsch, the fascinating founder of Parley for the Oceans. He’s on a mission to raise awareness of the beauty and fragility of our marine environments, and collaborate on projects to end their destruction. Top of his agenda? Just a total materials revolution…