WARDROBE CRISIS with Clare Press

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 creative director/designer/dreamboat who?s beautiful work includes her own glorious self, as well as Paris-worthy, bow-bedecked frillies.

A frank convo on fat-shaming, where the body positivity movement fails, and the magical powers of backing your own vision. Even when people in your life keep telling you you?ll never make it? Especially then! Take that, naysayers!

Check the shownotes for links & further reading.

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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?!

Continuing our Pacific theme (don?t miss last week?s Episode with Fiji Fashion Week?s Ellen Whippy-Knight) these two stories are also from Fiji, but a long way from its capital Suva. They?re both about different aspects of Indigenous practices, and living in balance with the the land, the oceans, the skies and biodiversity.

First, meet Letila Mitchell, a renowned artist, designer and performer from Rotuma. Her work in the fashion space grew out of costume, & has developed into a practice that?s all about revitalising traditional Rotuman textile making, and re-finding cultural knowledge disrupted by colonisation.

Our second interview is with Noleen Billings, from Savusavu, on Fiji?s northern island of Vanua Levu. Noleen isn't famous or a fancy expert in anything other than common sense but her simple message is a powerful one: In the busy modern world, it?s easy to forget the Nature usually knows best. Indigenous wisdom is deeply connected with reading Nature?s signals, and we can all learn from that. There are universal lessons in here, as well as some thought-provoking questions. For example, what does it mean to be wise? Where does schooled knowledge, written down in books, fit in - and why do we have to so rigid about it? Knowledge that?s shared and passed down in different ways is just as important?

Check the shownotes for links & further reading.

Tell us what you think!

Can you help us spread the word ?

Wardrobe Crisis is an independent production.

We don't believe in barriers to entry and are determined to keep this content free.

If you value it, please help by sharing your favourite Episodes, and rating and reviewing us in Apple or

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Thank you!

Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Anna Wintour was introduced to Ellen Whippy-Knight as the founder of Fiji Fashion Week, the Vogue editor-in-chief exclaimed, ?Fiji has a fashion week?!? Sure does, Anna. It turned 16 last year, and is an established force in a small yet burgeoning Pacific fashion scene.

White sands and turquoise waters. Surf breaks. Rugby. Fiji is rightly famous for these things, it?s also an international garment-manufacturing country with an independent design community, mainly focused on the local market and the Fijian diaspora.

Now Ellen, a formidable fashion force in her own right, is determined to bring sustainability and technical design education into the picture...

Check the shownotes for links & further reading.

Tell us what you think!

Can you help us spread the word about Series 9?

Wardrobe Crisis is an independent production.

We don't believe in barriers to entry and are determined to keep this content free.

If you value it, please help by sharing your favourite Episodes, and rating and reviewing us in Apple or Spotify.

Thank you!

Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Addicted to thrifting? Wondering where all your money?s gone? Feeling the fashion clutter feels? If you answered ?yes? to any of the above, it might be time for a fashion detox.

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.

It all began for Jenna after she created a spreadsheet to track where her money was disappearing to. Turns out she was over-spending on ethical brands and treating second-hand like it was fast fashion ? ultra high turnover. It didn?t help that she works in a consignment store surrounded by temptation?

What rules did she set for herself? How did she stick with them? And, was it worth it?

Jenna says completing her challenge has left her with a thrilling sense of freedom.

Now, you can?t buy that!

Check the shownotes for links & further reading.

Can you help us spread the word about Series 9?

Wardrobe Crisis is an independent production.

We don't believe in barriers to entry and are determined to keep this content free.

If you value it, please help by sharing your favourite Episodes, and rating and reviewing us in Apple or Spotify.

Thank you!

Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CONTENT WARNING. A note from Clare: "While in this Episode, we talk about creativity and hope, baking and Strictly Ballroom, and address a wide range of things from the politics of climate action to biodiversity, we also discuss the details of going on a hunger strike. Personally, I would say that bit is not suitable for children, although I suspect Gregory would disagree. I'd also like to let you know there's mention of eating disorders in this interview. It's a compelling listen - there's much to think about and learn from here, and I admire Gregory's stand and his ethics. But do exercise your own judgement with little or vulnerable/ anxious ears around.

Thank you,

Clare xxx"

How far would you go for climate action? Changing your lifestyle? Sounds doable (to an extent!). Divesting from businesses that support the fossil fuel industry, perhaps? Would you consider getting into politics? Or more controversial actions, like risking arrest at a banned street protest, or harbour blockade, for example? Our guest this week embarked on a much more unusual - and indeed dangerous - strategy to spur the government into stronger action on climate issues.

Gregory Andrews is a former diplomat, and was Australia?s first ever Threatened Species Commissioner. He worked as a public servant for more than 30 years, including for 15 years in the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Environment, Climate Change, and Indigenous Affairs. Today he's an adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Canberra's Institute for Applied Ecology.

In November 2023, in the run up to COP28, he 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.

Check the shownotes for links & further reading.

Can you help us spread the word about Series 9?

Wardrobe Crisis is an independent production.

We don't believe in barriers to entry and are determined to keep this content free.

If you value it, please help by sharing your favourite Episodes, and rating and reviewing us in Apple or Spotify.

Thank you!

Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's that time of year again, when world leaders (along with marketers from brands, oil and gas industry lobbyists, celebs on their private jets) head to the UN climate conference to discuss what to do about greenhouse gas pollution and our warming world. Extreme weather! Rising sea levels! Phasing out fossil fuels! Wait, actually, maybe tone that last one down because it's a bit hard, and our mates in the extractive energy industry aren't keen ... okay, how about: Phasing down fossil fuels? That sounds more reasonable...

Luckily there are also voices of reason at these events.

It's time we listened more to them.

As a group of Pacific Climate Activists head to COP28 in Dubai to tell the world what it's really like to live on the front line of climate change in a low-lying island nation when one-in-100 year cyclones hit back to back, Clare sits down with Ni-Vanuatu woman activist Flora Vano, to hear about her work empowering women in the climate movement. Turns out it's going pretty well.

Flora is fab, and her message is one of hope and inspiration as well as hard truths. You need to hear her beautiful words about her connection to the oceans and what we can learn from Mother Nature. Plus she's a fashion fan. We start this conversation with the power of visual communications - Flora loves bright colours and often arrives at events with a statement bloom tucked behind her ear. But don't let that fool you into thinking she's not a serious player. She's travelling to COP28 with the demands of Vanuatu's 9,000-strong Women I Tok Tok Tugeta (women talking together) network, demanding gender equality and climate justice. Flora has a clear message to governments and industry: she wants them to start looking seriously at the losses faced by Pacific Island communities, and others, as a result of climate change they did not cause.

Check the shownotes on wardrobecrisis.com for links on how you can help Flora and her fellow activists at COP28, and for more info.

Can you help us spread the word about Series 9?

Wardrobe Crisis is an independent production.

We don't believe in barriers to entry and are determined to keep this content free.

If you value it, please help by sharing your favourite Episodes, and rating and reviewing us in Apple or Spotify.

Thank you!

Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

?When did we decide we couldn?t make stuff anymore?? asks this week?s guest, Meriel Chamberlin, the textile technologist behind Full Circle Fibres, an Australian startup producing ?paddock to product? garments on-shore.

We know that the fashion industry?s climate impacts are significant, and that most of it comes down to the textile production stage. So how can we do things differently, close to home? Who needs to come together to make that happen, to share expertise, innovate, and also to fund it? How might fibre production tread more lightly on the land? Protect, or even enhance, biodiversity? These are some of the big questions driving the initiatives we?re talking about on this week?s show.

We've often covered the trouble with factories on this podcast; issues around garment worker injustice and unfair conditions. Very important stuff! But we hardly ever hear about the excellent factories. This is an Episode about the opportunities to make fashion more sustainable at the factory level, and the skills and capabilities that already exist. That might mean some re-shoring, but it?s also an encouragement to value what's already in our backyards.

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, Meriel 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.

Full Circle Fibres is a recipient of the Country Road Climate Fund. Discover here.

Check out the shownotes on wardrobecrisis.com

Can you help us spread the word about Series 9?

Wardrobe Crisis is an independent production.

We don't believe in barriers to entry and are determined to keep this content free.

If you value it, please help by sharing your favourite Episodes, and rating and reviewing us in Apple.

Thank you!

Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

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Our guest for this Special Edition interview is JUNO GEMES, one of Australia?s most celebrated contemporary photographers.

Born in Hungary, she moved to Australia as a child. In 1970, then a young artist, she spent six months living on Country with Aboriginal communities at Uluru. She went on to documents First Nations activism and the Civil Rights Movement in this country for five decades. Juno photographed many of the early protests and meetings led by Aboriginal activists in the ?70s and ?80s, forming lifelong friendships with key figures in the Movement. She photographed the Uluru Handback Ceremony in 1985; marches and activations around the Bicentennial in 1988, and she was one of ten photographers invited to document the National Apology in Canberra in 2008.

Wherever you are listening across the world, these stories are important to discover. It?s obviously not just Australia that grapples with a legacy of colonisation, and you care about sustainability, the questions linked to all this are fundamental ones: how do we want to live, in relation in one another? How can we heal and listen and unlearn to change systems that don?t work anymore?

Missed part 1? Do go back and listen. Or find it here. Can you help us share it?

These podcasts are in addition to our usual programming and form a 2-PART SPECIAL EDITION ON THE VOICE REFERENDUM IN AUSTRALIA.

They came about because Clare kept speaking to people who hadn?t yet read the ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART.

We wanted to help with that, and to be active on behalf of our deeply felt support for the YES23 campaign in this referendum.

Part 1 is a mini pod on the Uluru Statement and the question of Indigenous recognition in the Australian constitution - it?s under 10 mins, ideal to share!

As Juno says at the end of this interview, whatever happens with the Aussie referendum on October 14th, this is part of a long fight for social justice that continues. And there?s hope! ?Don?t argue with people who don?t see it yet, because they will eventually ? We can see this groundswell of good will, of kindness of wanting to know, to learn, of opening up to each other.?

RESOURCES:

ulurustatement.org

yes23.com.au

reconcilliation.org.au

The Australian Fashion Council supports Yes - more here.

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In this mini pod, which is Part 1 of our Special Edition on the Voice, you will hear RACHEL PERKINS read you the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Rachel is an Australian filmmaker, a proud Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman and the co-chair of the YES23 campaign. She is also co-chair of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition, and is a signatory to the Statement from the Heart.

?As the largest consensus of First Nations peoples on a proposal for substantive recognition in Australian history, the road to the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a long one even without mentioning the decades of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activism that came before it.? Discover more here.

It forms the cornerstone the referendum that?s asking Australians to recognise Indigenous culture in this country?s constitution, and establish a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

?FOR THE PAST 250 YEARS, WE HAVEN?T PROPERLY LISTENED TO THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN HERE FOR 65,000. THIS IS OUR CHANCE TO FIX THAT.? Yes23

You will also hear from JUNO GEMES. One of Australia?s most celebrated contemporary photographers, she has been documenting the civil rights movement in Australia since the 1970s.

What next? For the full interview with Juno, listen to Part 2.

www.thewardrobecrisis.com

RESOURCES:

ulurustatement.org

yes23.com.au

reconcilliation.org.au

The Australian Fashion Council supports Yes - more here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It?s fashion month again and the big brands with the big budgets dominate our feeds. But amidst the commercial noise of the contemporary fashion circus, independent gems still exist. There are true artists who go their own way, and often set the future trend agenda (although they tend not to get the credit). Our guest this week is one of them. 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 when he was young. 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.

Now, a new generation that?s interested in sustainability is discovering him for the first time. Last year, Hypebeast heralded NOKI as ?a tried and true member of the sustainability movement ? arguably being a founder of the word before it even really became a thing.?

But does he relate to that? How does he see his work? What inspired it all back in ?90s London?s rave scene? And how does he see the future for fashion?s young waste warrior disruptors? Part fashion history lesson, part provocation to challenge our consumerist culture, this one?s an adventure - enjoy!

Check out the shownotes on wardrobecrisis.com

Can you help us spread the word about Series 9?

Wardrobe Crisis is an independent production.

We don't believe in barriers to entry and are determined to keep this content free.

If you value it, please help by sharing your favourite Episodes, and rating and reviewing us in Apple.

Thank you!

Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

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Woolmark's new ambassador Taylor Zakhar Perez is a rising Hollywood star known for his leading man roles. You might recognise him from a certain rom com that we're not mentioning here (in respect of the actors' strike), or his role in a royal drama based on a cult book (again, not going there). Maybe you know his Paris fashion week looks - snaps of him emerging shirtless from his car outside the Prada?s menswear show went viral in June.

But whether you?re one of his 4.7 million Instagram followers, or discovering his work for the first time here, there's no denying Taylor's charm. He's smart, down-to-earth, generous with his time and endlessly curious, and we love that he was up for a conversation about how to use influence for good.

In this conversation, we discuss the risks and rewards of daring to talk about sustainability when you're known for something else, why more famous names don't get involved in climate activism or rewear their clothes, and how this former competitive swimmer became a supply chain nerd. For Taylor, if he?s going to work with a brand, he wants to see what goes on behind the scenes. More of that please!

Check out the shownotes on wardrobecrisis.com

Can you help us spread the word about Series 9?

Wardrobe Crisis is an independent production.

We don't believe in barriers to entry and are determined to keep this content free.

If you value it, please help by sharing your favourite Episodes, and rating and reviewing us in Apple.

Thank you!

Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Series 9 has landed! Our first guest is Cyrill Gutsch, the fascinating founder of Parley for the Oceans.

With his partner Lea Stepken, this NY-based designer and branding expert started his global environmental organisation in 2012, after bumping into Pamela Anderson at an art fair. Pammy was wearing a Sea Shepherd T-shirt, and when Cyrill asked her why, she told him Sea Shepherd?s activist-in-chief Paul Watson was in trouble - he?d been arrested in Frankfurt on an international warrant. Cyrill, being German, thought he might be able to help, and went to visit Watson in his lawyer?s office. There, he learned that Watson?s strife was a drop in the proverbial compared with what's happening to the oceans. Plastic pollution! Climate change! Overfishing! Could creativity be the super power needed to turn it around?

The rest, as they say is history. Cyrill decided to ditch his regular clients, and donate his time to just one: OUR OCEANS. Specifically, ?raising awareness for their beauty and fragility? and ?collaborating on projects [to] end their destruction.?

Over the years, such projects have included: working with Adidas to phase out single-use plastics; partnering with big-name visual artists on everything from underwater sculptures to sustainable surfboards; funding research into new materials; and setting up programs in schools. On a practical level, Parley?s work is just as likely to play out as beach cleanups in the Maldives as it is to be a new Dior bag. It?s all in the mix, to beat what Cyrill calls ?our addiction? to virgin plastic.

Next on his To-Do List? Just a total materials revolution. ?We need to change the way we make stuff.?

Check out the shownotes on wardrobecrisis.com

Can you help us spread the word about Series 9?

Wardrobe Crisis is an independent production.

We don't believe in barriers to entry and are determined to keep this content free.

If you value it, please help by sharing your favourite Episodes, and rating and reviewing us in Apple.

Thank you!

Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danish designer Cecilie Bahnsen studied at RCA in London, and interned with John Galliano and Erdem before starting her own label in 2015. You?ve probably seen her voluminous dresses, or her recent sneaker collaboration with ASICs. Cecilie says she operates at the intersection of couture and ready-to-wear ? it?s high craft, she creates her own textiles, and loves to use embroidery and smocking which lends her work a certain whimsey. But although expensive, it?s not untouchable, as you will hear. Cecilie wears hers? on her bike! A very Danish approach.

We talk about the challenges of upcycling precious scraps which defy standardisation. The idea of timelessness in a novelty-obsessed world.

Building a creative business, and how Cecile approaches scale and growth. What it takes to make it - determination, for sure, but also a really clear sense of what you want, and how you treat others.

Ultimately, though, this Episode is about joy - the pleasure we can find in clothes, even down to the sound of fabric rustling. With all our worries about sustainability, we can easily forget why we came to fashion in the first place.

Thank you for listening to the show. This is the last Ep for Series 8. We'll be back in 4 weeks - Series 9 starts September 6!

Wardrobe Crisis is an independent creation and we need your help to keep going and grow our audience.

Please help by sharing your favourite Episodes. Thank you!

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Meet Danish creative Henrik Vibskov - fashion designer, costume designer, curator, musician and professor. He shows at Copenhagen Fashion Week (which is coming around again next week) but also Paris, and he has a store in New York. A supremely conceptual designer ? his last collection, Long Fingers To Ma Toes, was inspired by the tomato in weird and wonderful ways.

In this interview Henrik shares his experience of living up to CPHFW's recently introduced 18 Minimum Sustainability Standards. What did find de-motivating about trying to implement sustainability initiatives, and what kept him going? But also, how did he get here? Why the vegetable obsession? Would anyone come to a 3-hour fashion show? (Spoiler alert: they did!) What is fashion actually for in 2023? And what do the next generation of artistic designers need to make it? It's all up for discussion in this charismatic convo.

Enjoy the show? Wardrobe Crisis is an independent creation and we need your help to keep going and grow our audience.

Please help by sharing your favourite Episodes. Thank you!

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ICYMI: fashion has a greenwashing problem. No wonder policy makers, consumer watchdogs and NGOs are taking an interest. According to the UN: ?Misinformation and greenwashing are ubiquitous ... As sustainability has grown as a selling point, all manner of vague and inflated claims have appeared across advertising, marketing, media, packaging and beyond.?

Enter the UN's new Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook, an open-access guide that seeks to change that, while better aligning how the fashion industry talks with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. This week, we're delighted to welcome the Playbook's lead author, Rachel Arthur, to the show to deep dive into its recommendations.

We're asking: What if marketers, PRs, fashion journalists and photographers used their creative powers to encourage us to live a 1.5 degree lifestyle, instead of endlessly update our consumer goods? (Curious about a ?1.5 degree lifestyle?? Listen for the full explainer!) How could professional communicators use their talents to get behind a more sustainable future? Rachel calls them ?architects of desire?, and says people who work in advertising, marketing and media play a vital role in persuading us what to want. Which comes with great responsibility?

Access the Playbook here for free.

Check out the shownotes for more links.

Don't forget to tell us what you think! Find us on Instagram @mrspress @thewardrobecrisis

Thank you for listening!

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Hang on, what's the question? Why is everyone talking about regenerative farming, for starters. For fibre as well as food. #regenag is fashion's new favourite hashtag. What if we put back more than we took out? Stopped drenching the land with toxic chemicals? Worked in harmony with Nature? Could we feed and clothe the world if we produced less, and differently? Would we starve? Would prices skyrocket? How did we get to this place, where no one - not the land, not biodiversity, not the nutritional content of food, and not the farmers who are on the front lines - wins?

Oh, and have you heard the one about there being just 60 cycles of soil left on Planet Earth? That's no joke. While this oft-quoted stat has been disputed, there's no denying that intensive, so called "conventional" farming practices are depleting soil health the world over.

During WWI, food shortages had us in a panic. No wonder, in the 1950s and '60s, we were obsessed with maximising yields. Through a combination of hectic new pesticides and herbicides, cheap synthetic fertilisers, and tearing out trees and hedgerows to make managing monocrops easier, farmers produced so much, there was plenty to spare - and waste.

But the bonanza couldn't last forever...

Today, they are experiencing a backlash. Once celebrated for filling our plates, farmers now find themselves vilified for destroying our environment. That many are the very same people who remember when everyone loved and respected them, and are only doing what governments and consumers said they wanted, is not often discussed. Can regenerative farming save them, and our soils?

Sarah Langford is the author of Rooted, How Regenerative Farming can Change the World. She?s also a farmer herself, although she didn?t start out that way. A must-listen Episode as a stand-alone, but for maximum inspo, listen back to the Eps on sustainable materials, animal cruelty, and leather supply chains when you're done!

Check out the shownotes for more links.

Don't forget to tell us what you think! Find us on Instagram @mrspress @thewardrobecrisis

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There's much debate around the sustainability credentials of leather vs vegan alternatives (most of which are still PU - polyurethane). Is one natural and bio-degradable and the other simply plastic? Sorry, but it's not that simple, not least because today's global supply chains are so long and complex. Then there's all the toxic substances used in conventional tanning. And we haven't even talked about animal cruelty yet. But amidst the confusion, there are obviously better ways to do it than cutting down the Amazon to graze cattle, then drenching the hides in heavy metals.

Meet British accessories designer turned local leather supply chain builder, Alice Robinson. With her business partner Sarah Grady, Alice runs Grady & Robinson, a startup that?s trying to rebuild the local leather supply chain in the UK, in a totally traceable way, connecting regenerative farmers with processing and vegetable tanning in Britain.

Their goal is to offer a product that traceable to its farm source, made entirely in the UK, and biodegradable at end of life. That?s a big ask, because the industry has all but disappeared in Britain, so if you?re a emerging handbag designer ? as Alice was when she was studying at the Royal College of Art a few years ago - and you want to buy single-origin leather locally, you pretty much can?t. This didn?t sit well with her, so as you will hear, Alice decided to do it herself - buying a sheep five miles away from her home in rural Shropshire, and documenting its entire journey from the field it lived in, through its slaughter, through to the tanning processes and accessories production.

If you're vegan and don't believe in using animal products, that works. But if you're still eating meat and wearing leather, you need to understand how it's made.

Today Grady & Robinson is working with Mulberry and the Institute for Creative Leather Technology at Northampton University, through the government supported R&D project, The Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology to try to figure out a way to finish leather at a commercial scale in the UK, with ingredients that are known to be sustainable, natural and biodegradable.

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When it comes to the fabrics we make our clothes from, there?s much confusion. Many of us don?t have a clue what textiles we?re buying and wearing; we?re not really teaching it in schools and brands don?t tend to talk too much about it, not least because so many of the textiles they use are unsustainable synthetics.

But materials matter, and they are all around us. Getting back in touch with them can be really satisfying. And when it comes to creating a more sustainable fashion industry, their impact is enormous. What we choose, whether as designers or consumers, really makes a difference.

Amanda Johnston is an academic and former fashion designer who works on education projects for Sustainable Angle, which puts on the Future Fabrics Expos in London - the perfect person to take us through what?s happening in the world of sustainable textiles today.

Think of this as your Sustainable Textiles 101 go-to! We?re answering some of the popular questions we often get asked: How do you choose the most sustainable textiles? Why is the fashion industry still so dependent on polyester, and why is that a problem? What?s the story with MMCs (man-made cellulosics) and new gen feedstocks? Will biotech materials start to take over? And what do we think about the boom in vegan leather alternatives?

Check out the shownotes for more links.

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Why are animals so often left out of the conversation about sustainable and ethical fashion? We talk about people and planet, but less often about our fellow living creatures. This week's guest Emma Hakansson wants to change that. She challenges us to rethink the idea of animals as commodities - they are, she says, someone, not something.

Emma is the founder of Collective Fashion Justice, an organisation that puts animals as well as people and planet at the heart of an ethical fashion industry. A self-described ?activist, passionate about anti-speciesism, autonomy and collective liberation,? Emma is also an author, her books include How Veganism Can Save Us (Survive the Modern World) and she was one of the producers of, and also appears in the documentary, Slay.

In this interview, we zero in on leather. ?By the time it has been turned into a bag, a pair of shoes, a belt or a jacket, we tend to forget it, leather is skin,? says Emma. ?Thanks to long supply chains, the power of the global leather industry and big luxury brands, plus the pretty language used to market fancy handbag materials, most of us never think about how leather is produced. As with supermarket meat and dairy products, we?ve totally disassociated from its origins." Emma believes cruelty should never be in style. She?d like us to check our morals, and ask ourselves how comfortable we really are treating animals as a commodity.

Whatever your view on that, the way that most leather is produced in such high volumes today is an environmental nightmare, she says, while its supply chains conceal as much social injustice as cut-and-sew does for the garment industry - it just gets less attention.

Check out the shownotes for more links.

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Thank you for listening!

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You might know her from the cover of Italian Vogue, campaigning against Victoria's Secret for its lack of diversity, or her role as ambassador for organic beauty brand INIKA, but what Robyn Lawley wants to talk about is spinach. In this candid interview, she tells her powerful personal story of overcoming some pretty scary health issues, and challenges us all to rethink our relationship with meat and dairy products.

We're used to talking about vegan diets as planet-friendly and cruelty-free, but could their anti-inflammatory properties also help people heal from auto-immune conditions? While the studies are scant, and the official line remains that: in general, autoimmune disorders cannot be cured - what you eat obviously plays a role in the body's complex responses.

When Robyn was diagnosed, while pregnant, with Lupus, her health outlook seemed bleak. Doing the rounds of hospitals and conventional doctors left her feeling frustrated and hopeless. But as a young mum with a thriving fashion career, she was determined to try everything before succumbing to the suggested chemo treatments. For Robyn, following a strict "hyper-nourishment protocol" (powered by green veg and flax seeds) had far-reaching effects. Today, her lupus is in remission, and she hopes to help others.

Going vegan, she says, was a win-win - it also allowed her to reduce her climate impacts and do something about the nagging guilt she felt the more she learned about animal cruelty in the factory farming system.

Check out the shownotes for more links.

Don't forget to tell us what you think! Find us on Instagram @mrspress @thewardrobecrisis

Thank you for listening!

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This week Clare sits down with legendary Aussie Greenie, Bob Brown to talk Tasmania?s old growth forests - where towering eucalypts that have been standing for centuries are threatened with the chainsaw, thanks to government short-sightedness and corporate greed. The good news? Grassroots action is rising, as the numbers of tree-appreciating citizens swell, helped by a glowing new documentary, The Giants, by Rachel Antony and Laurence Billiet.

The film's subjects are indeed giants - not just Bob, but the towering Eucalyptus Regnens, Huon Pine and Myrtle Beech trees of the Tarkine forest. As Bob said back in the 1980s when another pristine wilderness in his adopted state was under siege - destroying these natural wonders would be like scratching the face of the Mona Lisa. Don?t worry fashion fans, we do talk about clothes at the end - Bob has thoughts on strategic dressing for getting what you want, including at protests.

This interview is both essential and a thrill for anyone who cares about forests and life on this planet.

Check out the shownotes for the background on Bob and the Tarkine.

Discover the movie at www.thegiantsfilm.com

Don't forget to tell us what you think! Find us on Instagram @mrspress @thewardrobecrisis

Thank you for listening!

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Ten years ago, the devastating Rana Plaza collapse in Dhaka proved just how deadly the business of making clothes could be for marginalised garment workers. In countries like Bangladesh where cheap clothing is produced at high volume, and wages are kept low, it?s these workers - mostly young women - who face the greatest exploitation and vulnerability.

As a result, a new consumer movement was born in the form of Fashion Revolution. New agreements, like what?s now known as the International Accord and Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry, were developed. Supply chain transparency became a buzz phrase. We?d entered a new era of scrutiny, spotlighting working conditions, poverty wages and brands that failed to do the right thing. So far so good, but today the power imbalances persist between brands and suppliers that result in unfair purchasing practices persist, the right to unionise is by no means universally upheld and almost no big brands pay a living wage.

Events commemorating the disaster?s anniversary went hard on the hashtag, #ranaplazaneveragain - but how much has really changed since 2013? Are factories everywhere safer? How about fairer? To what extent has fashion production really become more ethical?

You're going to hear from three people who spend their days advocating for a better deal for garment workers:

TAMAZER AMED is ActionAid Bangladesh?s lead for Women?s Rights & Gender Equity.

SARAH KNOP is Baptist World Aid Australia?s Advocacy Manager.

NAYEEM EMRAN is Oxfam Australia?s Economic Justice Strategic Lead.

Check the shownotes for links and further reading.

Value the show? Please help us spread the word by sharing it with a friend, and following, rating and reviewing in your fave podcast app. Got feedback? Tell us what you think! Find Clare on Instagram and Twitter @mrspress

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Psst! Mushroom leather is not actually made from mushrooms ? but it is fabulous! Much Like our guest this week. Merlin Sheldrake is the biologist and author of the extraordinary book, Entangled Life, How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures.

You might not give fungi much thought, but mycelium networks are working their wonders all around us. And we need them! Together with bacteria, fungi are responsible for breaking down organic matter and releasing carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus into the soil and atmosphere. Without fungi, nothing would decay. We partner up with fungi to make some of the foods and drinks we love the most (hello, bread and beer). And fungi is also causing quite the buzz in fashion, thanks to the invention of new leather-like materials and plastic alternatives derived from mycelium. Forward-thinking designers from Iris Van Herpen to Stella McCartney have been inspired by fungi?s wonderful properties and intriguing life.

Prepare to be wowed by this enlightening conversation that might just change the way you think about everything around you.

Essential listening this Earth Day! Value the show? Please help us spread the word by sharing it with a friend, and following, rating and reviewing in your fave podcast app. Got feedback? Tell us what you think! Find Clare on Instagram and Twitter @mrspress

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Whether it?s the joy of dyeing cloth with pomegranates, the age-old practicality of turning sheep wool into felts and knits, or the rich legacy of complex embroideries and silk Ikat weaving, Central Asian textile traditions are bonded by cultural meaning and a respect for the natural world. And resources: nothing gets thrown away, as this week?s guest Aigerim Akenova explains through her love for patchwork - her nomadic ancestors' answer to upcycling.

Aigerim is the country co-ordinator of Fashion Revolution Kazakhstan. With a global outlook (studied in Milan, lives in California), she's also a contemporary Kazakh designer determined to centre sustainability in the national fashion conversation, as the country she was born and raised in scales up its design and creative industries. Still, the big money in this former Soviet territory of 19 million people, is still in mining. The economy is based on oil, coal, gas, but also things like copper, aluminium, zinc, bauxite and gold. As Aigerim puts it: "We've got the whole periodic table." And Kazakhstan is the world's largest uranium producer.

What role could sustainable fashion play in growing newer, lower carbon industries here in line with SDGs? What do young urban Kazakhs and Central Asians in neighbouring countries want from the fashion today? As well as its craft heritage, Kazakhstan also has a vibrant modern fashion scene, its own fashion week, and (doesn?t everywhere?) fast fashion - so how can these two sides find balance in future? Aigerim says we have much to learn from nomadic traditions of sustainable clothing systems.

THIS IS OUR ANNUAL FASHION REVOLUTION SPECIAL BE CURIOUS, FIND OUT, DO SOMETHING. This year's theme is Manifesto for a Fashion Revolution - check it out here.

Value the show? Please help us spread the word by sharing it with a friend, and following, rating and reviewing in your fave podcast app. Got feedback? Tell us what you think! Find Clare on Instagram and Twitter @mrspress

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How much do you know about the chemicals you're exposed to through every-day things like cosmetics and skincare, clothing or even food packaging, and food itself? How about what chemicals might be contaminating air, soil and water from industrial processes? Do you ever even think about it? We often presume governments and companies will protect from harmful substances, but history is full of examples where the advice over what's safe and what's not changes over time (from asbestos to cigarettes to talc) - the science moves on, new studies are published and one day something everyone presumed was just fine turns out to have grim consequences. Can anyone really say what levels of chemicals with potentially harmful healthy effects are definitively safe for people, animals and the environment, given the variables involved?

Andrea Rudolph is a sustainability pioneer, and a much-loved Danish cultural force. A former TV and radio presenter, she started her organic skincare company Rudolph Care back in 2009, after taking part in a Greenpeace activation that tested the blood of eight Danish volunteers for chemicals present. What Andrea discovered rocked her world, and changed the path of her career.

Now she?s on a mission to raise awareness about toxic PFAS. Andrea wants to see ?forever chemicals? banned from consumer products, and to stop any more of them from building up in our environment. This is also the story of one woman?s battle with breast cancer, the power of Nature and how life gets even more precious when you fear losing it. A heart-felt and ultimately hopeful interview, about activism, vulnerability and what really matters. Andrea's message to the consumers: We can change things - but first we have to know what we're dealing with.

Value the show? Please help us spread the word by sharing it with a friend, and following, rating and reviewing in your fave podcast app. Got feedback? Tell us what you think! Find Clare on Instagram and Twitter @mrspress

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A year after Russia?s invasion of Ukraine, over 8 million Ukrainian refugees have been registered across Europe. According to UNHCR, the vast majority of civilians who have fled the war are women over 35 with one or more children. Men aged between 18-60 are not permitted to leave (except under special circumstances).

This week, instead of the regular fashion angles, I?m bringing you this very personal conversation with Olena Braichenko, a Ukrainian refugee who, with her six-year-old daughter, is currently staying with my best friends in London. When I go to visit them, they joke that I never want to leave. How must it feel when you can?t?

Finding refuge in a new country is obviously a wonderful thing - and we acknowledge the many millions who aren?t so lucky - but what?s it like to try to make your way somewhere far from home, with strangers? To have to learn a new language? When your husband, parents and many of your friends are back home, and you?re watching the war on the news? When your life, as Olena puts it, feels ?on pause??

This is also a story about sustainability and food culture, Ukraine?s famous ?ernozëm black soil, long traditions of foraging, pickling, small family farms and growing your own veggies. It's a story about home, what we love, and how we live.

Olena is a food writer, publisher and academic, who with her husband, Artem, founded Yizhakultura ? a project dedicated to Ukrainian cuisine, where scholars, chefs, food critics, and food anthropologists discuss its history, culture and heritage. She believes in the power of culinary diplomacy, to help get beyond the single story. War is devastating, but people, she reminds us, are more than their experiences of displacement. ?I am firmly convinced that everyone who has survived occupation needs to be seen not as a victim, but first and foremost as a person.?

Value the show? Please help us spread the word by sharing it with a friend, and following, rating and reviewing in your fave podcast app. Got feedback? Tell us what you think! Find Clare on Instagram and Twitter @mrspress

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Fashion doesn?t exist in a vacuum. As Coco Chanel once said, it?s ?in the sky, in the street; fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what?s happening.? So how, as a designer, you do respond to what?s going on in the world when that's a tragedy close to home or heart?

On February 6, 2023 a magnitude 7.8 earth quake hit south-eastern Türkiye, and northern Syria. It was catastrophic - causing unfathomable damage and loss of life. Official figures put the death toll beyond 50,000 people. And to make matters worse, it was bitterly cold winter. Against such a backdrop, fashion?s concerns may seem trifling, but the region is a textiles centre, while and the many garment factories on the other side of Turkey will also feel the effects, with huge numbers of people displaced and vulnerable. Plus through all this, fashion month went on.

What do you do as a creative from an affected country, when you?re reeling from this but not there on the ground? Or not physically impacted? How do you just carry on as normal? Should you even try? If not, then what? On a practical level, do you cancel your fashion show? Realistically, what good would that do?

Do you try to compartmentalise, or block it out, or use your platform to speak out and raise money? Probably all of the above, at the same time! There?s obviously no correct answer, but these are the questions. And also, the context for this week?s interview with London-based Turkish designer Bora Aksu, who shares candidly about what it means to be a creative trying to navigate all this.

But while this is how the conversation begins - it's not how it ends. At it's heart, this is a warm, hopeful and inspiring interview about fashion, family, craft, heritage, upcycling and the practical work of trying to choose the most sustainable textiles as a fashion designer ? Bora has been has doing it for years, long before sustainability became the next big thing.

If you?d like to make a donation to the ongoing relief and humanitarian work in Türkiye and Syria, please see the shownotes at www.thewardrobecrisis.com

Value the show? Please help us spread the word by sharing it with a friend, and following, rating and reviewing in your fave podcast app. Got feedback? Tell us what you think! Find Clare on Instagram and Twitter @mrspress

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How do you feel about trends? In sustainable fashion circles, that word can have negative connotations. After all, it's the sped-up trend cycle delivers us fast fashion. Flipping between different, and often conflicting, fashion trends, it's easy to lose control, buy and waste too much. But there's more to trend forecasting than predicting that next week you'll be wearing blue. Or Barbiecore. Or whatever momentary madness TikTok is serving.

Mapping cultural, lifestyle, economic and societal trends helps us form a picture of where we are headed and shape our strategies for everything from new business models to reaching our chosen audiences.

Want to know how the metaverse will impact retail? Or if consumers are really likely to spend more on sustainable solutions going forward? Keen to figure out how Gen Z thinks, or if that's even a thing? Some predict generational terms will soon be a thing of the past...

This week, Clare sits down with Christopher Sanderson, co-founder of London-based trend-forecasters, The Future Laboratory, to ask, what's around the fashion corner - and how they heck do they figure that out anyway? What's the role of intuition, and how can you hone yours? A must-listen for anyone in business who doesn't want to fly blind.

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Find Clare on Instagram & Twitter. Find extended shownotes on www.thewardrobecrisis.com

P.S. In Australia & want to book a presentation for your company? Here's the link to Chris's March 23 speaking tour.

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No doubt you?ve heard the buzz about regenerative agriculture. But who?s actually putting it into practice for the textile sector? At the soil level? Brands can say they want it, regulators can try to incentivise it, chemical companies might resist it, but at the end of the day, it?s the grower who has to actually do it.

What?s it really like for a small-scale Indian cotton farmer trying to make a living? What challenges do they face? And what?s in it for them if they do decide to transition their fields and methods back to the old ways? Yes, the old ways... because, guess what - regenerative agriculture is not at new idea!

This week, Clare meets Nishanth Chopra, founder of Oshadi, a "seed to sew" fashion supply chain, contemporary womenswear brand, artisanal textile company and regenerative cotton farm in India.

This is a story about how the future of textiles and modern artisanship relies on learning lessons from the past. It?s also about one extraordinary young man?s drive to make a difference, and his galvanising tactics - let?s just say, he?s not someone willing to take no for an answer. Nishanth is proving that it can be done.

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As New York Fashion Week rolls around again, it?s the perfect time to listen to this interview with Hillary Taymour, founder of the much-talked-about NYC label Collina Strada.

Collina Strada is produced locally in small runs, using mostly deadstock. They?ve been working with the Real Real to upcycle unsold items, and with Liz Ricketts at the Or Foundation to upcycle and divert T-shirt waste in America before it heads offshore, and ends up in places like Kantamanto Market in Ghana.

Known for shaking up the sustainability conversation stateside, this CFDA/ Vogue Fashion Fund finalist is also often heralded for its work around diversity and inclusion, and championing representation in their shows, but Hillary has no time for that. She says, they simply cast their community; their friends and artists they admire. Whether that?s the label?s co-designer Charlie?s septuagenarian mum; the model Aaron Philip (self- described ?a black woman in a wheel chair who happens to be trans?); or a musician like Dorian Electra - it's not that Collina is doing something radical. Rather, that the conventional fashion system is super out of touch.

This is a candid conversation about going your own way, finding joy on creativity, and the frustrations of trying to be a sustainable fashion designer inside an unsustainable system.

*Note: We've been saving this one up - this conversation one was recorded before the break after Series 7.Also before Alessandro Michele?s departure from Gucci was announced.

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On the surface, this is the story of Samorn Sanixay?s epic adventure to map Australia through a colour study of its natural eucalyptus dyes. Last year, she set out to do just that, spending a year travelling around the country collecting leaves from these wonderfully diverse trees wherever she went.

But that's just the starting point of this feel-good interview with the natural dyes expert and co-founder of artisanal weaving studio Eastern Weft in Vientiane.

Ultimately, this is a conversation about belonging, forming friendships and connections to country, and the idea that we have more in common than we think.

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Forget Vogue. Sourcing Journal should be required reading of you really want to know how the business of fashion works. Clare?s guest this week Edward Hertzman founded this trade journal (now part of FairChild, which owns WWD) out of frustration that no one in media was telling the full story about how supply chains operate. A former apparel sourcing agent himself, with a degree in economics, the tough-talking New Yorker tells it like it is.

In the garment game, suppliers and manufactures take most of the risks, while brands wield most of the power. ?It?s a very one-sided relationship,? he says. Add in unfair purchasing practices (which are way too common) and downward pressure on prices, and you?ve got a recipe for disaster - as we saw during the pandemic. And who do you think has to invest in all these new sustainability initiatives brands are talking up? Often, it?s the manufacturer. Remember what brands always say: ?Well, of course we don?t own the factories or the mills ??

Can the industry change? Who's doing it right? What does a true partnership - as opposed to a purely transactional relationship - between brands and suppliers look like? And what should we expect to happen this year when the cost of living crunch meets the realities of overstocked warehouses? Because many brands, particularly in the US, says Edward, are sitting on giant piles of unsold stock ...

Required listening for anyone working in the fashion sector.

Don't forget to check the shownotes for all the links. Find Sourcing Journal here.

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In our first interview for 2023, we make the case for why Fashion?s New Year?s Resolution should be to slow the f*ck down...

What does it mean to thrive in your career? How do you define success? Is that the same way that society, or your industry, defines it? Chances are there?s a disconnect. Because capitalism has been telling us for so long that it?s all about the hustle and the speedy output, that's become the dominant narrative. It's time you set your own pace. Fashion has a pretty terrible record on this, says Georgina Johnson, but it doesn't have to be this way. This inviting interview with the author of The Slow Grind is full of wise insights and practical inspiration.

Don't forget to check the shownotes for all the links. Find Georgina on Instagram here, and at www.theslowgrind.world

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Turn it up for the holidays! As he publishes his latest book, Reflections, Clare sits down with the colourful genius behind Alternative Miss World, who believes life is too short for muted tones...

Andrew Logan is an artist, sculptor, jewellery-maker, yoga devotee and one of legendary English counter-culture fashion eccentrics. He's also the founder of the Alternative Miss World event, which turned 50 in 2022. Billed as "a celebration creativity and beauty that goes beyond gender, age, race and sexuality", David Hockney was a judge at the first one in 1972, and over the years notable judges, co-hosts and contestants have included: Biba founder Baraba Hulaniki, Leigh Bowery, Divine, Jarvis Cocker, Derek Jarman, Grayson Perry, Brian Eno and the stars of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

This interview's got it all - from painting elephants for the Pirelli calendar in India with Zandra Rhodes, and going to Ozzie Clark?s fashion shows in the ?70s, to developing a spiritual practice, communing with the trees ("They don't say much!") and absent friends.

A high jinx conversation about finding and following your creative calling, fashioning the self with joy in your heart, and bringing the fun back to dressing up.

Don't forget to check the shownotes for all the links.

Love the show? We are proudly independent, and rely on our listeners to help us stick around. Can you share the episode on social media, or write us a glowing review in Apple podcasts?

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Ever worry that sustainability talk is so much hot air? Us too. So this week, we're focusing on... BURPS AND FARTS!

Now that we've got your attention, this is serious topic. According to UNEP, methane has accounted for roughly 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times and is proliferating faster than at any other time since record keeping began in the 1980s. While it hangs around in the atmosphere for less time than carbon does, while it is here, it's more potent. Where does it come from? Livestock emissions account for about a third of human-caused methane emissions. And yes, there's a fashion connection thanks to leather and wool. What if feeding livestock a certain type of seaweed could help? It can!

Meet Sam Elsom, the Aussie behind Seaforest - an environmental tech company set up to tackle climate change by the power of seaweed.

Don't forget to check the shownotes for all the links.

Love the show? We are proudly independent, and rely on our listeners to help us stick around. Can you share the episode on social media, or write us a glowing review in Apple podcasts?

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We hear so much about product in fashion; about the clothes, and the brands. Thankfully, we?re now starting to hear more about the makers, garment workers and skilled artisans behind the manufacturing scenes. But we still hear very little from the people and processes behind the raw materials.

This week, we?re looking at wool, with a lovely interview with Tasmanian woolgrower Simon Cameron, who Clare met seven years ago while writing Wardrobe Crisis. Simon manages Kingston in the northern Midlands of Tasmania, near(ish) to Launceston. His father farmed it before him. In fact, the property has been it in the family for four generations. Now, as then, Simon shares the joint with wombats, wallabies, bettongs even Tassie devils, and mob of superfine Merino sheep. But the little things are just as important - the native grasses and wild flowers, which, here, are largely intact in some of the state?s last remaining pristine grasslands as they were pre-colonial invasion.

What are the challenges of managing the land in this way? What?s life really like on the land? How is Kingston?s clip produced and what makes it so special? And what?s the story behind MJ Bale?s quest to make carbon neutral wool with Kingston as a partner?

Love the show? We are proudly independent, and rely on our listeners to help us stick around. Can you share the episode on social media, or write us a glowing review in Apple podcasts?

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The race offshore hollowed out the fashion and textile industries in much of Europe, the US and Australia. But if you happen to live there, chances are you've got amazing fashion skills on your doorstep but you just don't realise. While much of the infrastructure has disappeared, the talent is still there. And still coming through.

When Yoox-Net-A-Porter execs visited Dumfries House, Scotland to see how The Prince?s Foundation is working to inspire and upskill young people in the textiles area, they saw an opportunity: to support fashion graduates in luxury, small-batch production and produce a very special collection in the process. They called it the Modern Artisan project.

This week, Clare sits down with Jacqueline Farrell, education director at Dumfries House, and three of the eight participants in this year's Modern Artisan programme - emerging designers Isabelle Pennignton-Edmead, Emma Atherton and Emily Dey.

Who doesn?t love a royal connection? So yes, The Crown, but this is really an Episode about process - how do the clothes we buy get made? What goes into it?

If you can sew, could you do it? This is a lovely listen if you are studying fashion or want to. Or if you?re teaching it. But everyone who sees designer gear only once it reaches the stores, should find this insightful.

Love the show? We are proudly independent, and rely on our listeners to help us stick around. Can you share the episode on social media, or write us a glowing review in Apple podcasts?

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Welcome back! Series 8 is here ... finally! We're kicking off with a fascinating conversation about greed, excess, imagination, innovation, education and redefining sustainability for fashion. Phew.

More exclusive than Chanel - because they barely produce anything you can buy? An anti-establishment fashion duo that works with royalty? Why not? Vin + Omi rewrite all the rules.

They call themselves ideologists. They're also fabric inventors, creative thinkers and system-challengers. Now also feature film-makers. Hear about their manifesto, and why it includes this: ?We believe it is not enough to produce a new textile or product, artwork or designs; we can do more by thinking about the origins and surroundings of each project. In our fashion work, we have no interest in following the planet damaging ways most current fashion business models are run.? Be inspired! Be outraged! Tell us your feedback, we can't wait to hear from you.

Thank you for listening. Can you help us spread the word? Find Clare on Instagram & Twitter. More on www.thewardrobecrisis.com

Follow the brilliant Vin + Omi here and here.

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Fancy wearing a dress coloured sunny yellow by daffodils or a shirt dyed blue with woad? This week we're talking natural dyes and the magic of textiles derived from plants for a special episode produced with Fashion Revolution and guest-hosted by Carry Somers.

Carry's talking with garden designer Lottie Delamain and natural dyes expert Kate Turnbull. Together, they've created a garden for Chelsea Flower Show "to inspire visitors to re-imagine the link between what we can grow and what we wear, showcasing creative possibilities and innovative thinking around how we can use our resources to create more sustainable solutions."

They say: "Throughout history plants have played a fundamental role in fashion ? as dye, as fibre and floral motifs, connecting us to a place or culture. In our global world this connection has been lost. Today our clothing is likely to be created using fossil fuels and toxic chemicals, damaging human health and nature?s ecosystems."

We say: we love the power of plants!

Find out more about the garden here.

Follow Carry on Instagram here, Lottie here, and Kate here.

Don't forget to let us know what you think! As usual, further links are on www.thewardrobecrisis.com

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What comes to mind when you hear the phase: power dressing? In the 1980s, it was big news in the corporate world - with woman in big-shouldered designer suits, showing the men who was boss. But using clothes to communicate your status goes back as far as fashion does. In Ancient Rome, it meant the right to wear purple. If you were a courtier at Versailles, it meant the finest brocades.

 Today, you might think that if you can afford it, you can have it, but as Kim Kardashian proved at the Met Gala last week - it?s still complicated. There remain many circumstances when other people try to tell us what we can and can?t wear, and what is appropriate.

 ?There?s always been a way of using clothes as a powerful tool,? says this week?s guest, British costume designer Jessica Worrall. In her work costuming theatre and film productions, she uses clothes to signify what characters stand for and how they fit in to the storyline. Her latest project uses digital collage art to mash up Old Masters with high fashion runway. Have the power dynamics of fashion today changed since Elizabeth I of England?s sumptuary laws dictated how who wore what? You decide.

Check out Jessica?s work here.

Tell Clare what you think here.

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Earth Day is not about buying eco-friendly stuff. This year, we challenge you to put your feet in the grass or the ocean, and your credit card away (unless you?re using it to donate to an environmental charity). Let?s make Earth Day about raising our voices for better government policies to protect biodiversity and act on the climate crisis. Let?s make it about communing with the birds, insects, animals and the trees.

Start here! Meet Dr Greg Moore - a botanist and 'plant mechanic' at the University of Melbourne with a specific interest in arboriculture. His passion for trees is centred around understanding how they operate and cope with their environments, and appreciating the benefits trees provide in urban spaces. In this Episode, Clare and Greg take a walk in the park to talk about the genius of trees. And you?re invited.

Find all the links and further reading in the shownotes at thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast

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Fashion Revolution Week 2022 begins April 18th. This year's theme is Money, Fashion, Power. Why? As Fash Rev's communications manager Ruth Macglip says in this Episode's intro: "The mainstream fashion industry is built on the exploitation of people and the planet, with wealth and power concentrated in the hands of a few. Basically, it?s time to reimagine the values at the heart of the fashion system and scrutinise what it is we?re really paying for.?

You probably already know that the fashion industry has problems! Issues for garment workers range from low pay and unsafe working conditions through gender discrimination, bullying and intimidation, to a lack of social security or social safety nets when things go wrong. As they did - spectacularly - for so many during the pandemic.

What?s the answer? Improve transparency and uphold rights, pay a living wage and ensure workers have a seat at the table while all this is discussed. In this enlightening conversation, Clare and her guest Ineke Zeldunrust, Coordinator of Clean Clothes Campaign, unpack how this might happen - and why it must.

Find all the links and further reading in the shownotes at thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast

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What Can Fashion History Teach Us About Sustainability? Which fashion figures tower over the history books? Who?s fame stands the test of time, and who gets forgotten - and why? What can we learn from wartime rationing and the Make Do & Mend movement? How was life when home-sewing used to be the norm rather than exception? What new materials rocked the runways in the 1960s, and did disposable fashion originate with a faddish paper dress?

This week, we take a look at some of the sustainability angles and moral dilemmas from fashion history?s archives, with American fashion historian Rachel Elspeth Gross. It?s a conversation is full of intriguing stories from fashion?s past, that might help make sense of the present ? or encourage us to look at it in new ways.

Find all the links and further reading in the shownotes at thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast

Tell us what you think on Instagram @thewardrobecrisis @mrspress

Find Rachel @rachel.elspeth.gross

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How one company is turning greenhouse gases into a plastic alternative that biodegrades.

As Scientific American points out, "carbon is the giver of life - your skin and hair, blood and bone, muscle and sinews all depend on carbon. Bark, leaf, root and flower; fruit and nut; pollen and nectar; bee and butterfly; Doberman and dinosaur?all incorporate essential carbon. Every cell in your body?indeed, every part of every cell?relies on a sturdy backbone of carbon." Carbon isn't a monster - although it's sometimes painted that way.

Carbon dioxide, however, is obviously causing us serious problems. We can't keep pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Reducing emissions and switching to renewables are the obvious first ports of call. But might we also be able to rethink unwanted greenhouse gases as a feedstock - something useful that we could turn into a product?

That's what this week's guest is proposing. Meet Mark Herrema, co-founder and CEO of Newlight Technologies, the company behind Air Carbon. He?s hoping this bio-based material will revolutionise the plastics industry. And Nike agrees...

Find all the links and further reading in the shownotes at thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast

Tell us what you think on Instagram @thewardrobecrisis @mrspress

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We love to talk about our 2030 goals, but climate change is not some future worry ? it?s here today. It?s already bringing more frequent extreme weather events, as we?ve seen in Australia recently. In late February, early March, catastrophic floods hit northern NSW and southern Queensland, after intense rain fell over the eastern seaboard. Rivers burst their banks, sending houses, roads, farms, and public buildings underwater. People died. Communications were a struggle. It some cases, it took days for the emergency services to arrive, and people were left to fend for themselves, rescuing their neighbours in whatever floated, and organising their own-off road vehicles and even helicopters.

Three weeks later, it isn?t over for the thousands of affected. Beyond the mind-boggling extent of the clean-up lies a housing crisis. But this is not a gloomy interview. Our theme is radical hope. Meet Northern Rivers local Zoe Gameau, who shares how her local community, and women in particular, sprang into action to help and organise on the ground. And, yes, there?s a fashion angle ? clothes take on a special meaning when you?ve lost everything.

Find links and more in the shownotes here.

Follow Wardrobe Crisis on Instagram. Clare is @mrspress

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Have you bought digital garments for your avatar yet? Would you like to? You need to listen to this! Moin Roberts-Islam is the Technology Development Manager at the Fashion Innovation Agency, at the London College of Fashion, and he?s here to answer all our questions.

In this riveting interview, you?re going to hear him explain pretty much every entry level thing you need to know about how digital fashion works, why it?s exploding, what brands are doing, how gaming is involved, who is buying digital garments and why, plus we discuss the Metaverse and NFTs, and how all this relates to sustainability.

?Let us know what you think. Follow Clare on Instagram @mrspress @thewardrobecrisis

www.thewardrobecrisis.com

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On February 24th, Russia invaded Ukraine. The news headlines filled with terrifying stories of missile strikes on residential areas, hitting apartment buildings and killing civilians; of nuclear power plants being attacked and 1 million people fleeing country. What has fashion to do with all this?

The morning that Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war was also the first day of Milan Fashion Week. And as the violence continued, so too did the fashion shows, next in Paris. Fashion?s Instagram feeds were unsettling mix of commentary on Kim Kardashian?s outfits and blue-and-yellow street style looks inspired by the Ukrainian flag. Some brands used their platforms to take a stand for peace. But solidarity only goes so far.

How should fashion respond to war? What is our moral obligation? Saying you care about something is not the same as doing something about it, so beyond a social media post, how can an industry like fashion contribute meaningfully? Should brands the retailers impose their own sanctions on Russia and halt business there? What support do Ukrainian designers need? Is it okay not to speak out? And when does this become simply, as guest today puts it, common sense, or an expression of our common humanity.

In this week?s Episode, Clare sits down with Venya Brykalin, fashion director of Vogue Ukraine to ask these questions and more.

Want to help Ukraine? Please visit this website: https://how-to-help-ukraine-now.super.site/

Thank you for listening. As usual, find further links and details on the shownotes on thewardrobecrisis.com

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What does it mean to leave - voluntarily - your homeland, to make a new creative life in another country? How might the place you left behind and the new one you chose collide in your work? Thirty-five years after he left Koyoto and enrolled in East Sydney Technical College, with a big dream and small bag full of kimonos nicked off his mum, Akira Isogawa is an Australian national treasure. He's been the subject of major museum retrospectives, designed costumes for the ballet, and seen his work worn by supermodels, and championed by Vogue editors and influential buyers. But Akira is still as humble as they come.

Clare sits down with the iconic Japanese-Australian fashion designer to discuss home, roots and the future, and past, of fashion. It?s a delightful conversation touching on the artist's creative journey and his collaborators, his long fascination with Japanese textiles and his approach to sustainability - which considers minimalism, recycling, repurposing and mending.

?Let us know what you think. Follow Clare on Instagram @mrspress @thewardrobecrisis

www.thewardrobecrisis.com

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Have you heard about New York?s proposed sustainable fashion law? It?s called the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, and if it is passes those behind it say: this groundbreaking piece of legislation that will make New York the global leader in accountability for the $2.5 trillion fashion industry. Supporters include the likes of Stella McCartney and Jane Fonda.

So, why do we need it?

If New York were a country, it would rank as the world?s 10th largest economy, bigger than Canada, Russia and Korea. You already know that the global fashion industry has major climate impacts. It is responsible for around 4% of carbon emissions (some say 10%). Meanwhile, supply chains remain stubbornly opaque, garment and textile workers continue to get a raw deal and fashion waste is a major polluter. And New York, as an iconic commercial rag trade hub, has the potential to play a powerful role in transforming things.

This week, Clare sits down with Maxine Bedat, founder of New Standard Institute, one of the driving forces behind the Act. They discuss how it came about, what it hopes to achieve and whether it's likely to fly. Maxine is sustainable fashion pioneer, formerly one half of Zady and last year she published her first book - Unravelled, The Life & Death of Garment.

?Let us know what you think. Follow Clare on Instagram @mrspress @thewardrobecrisis

www.thewardrobecrisis.com

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This week we sit down with New Yorker Mara Hoffman to find out how she turned her namesake brand into a sustainable fashion leader, what makes her tick - from astrology and to the inspirational beauty of Mother Earth, and being a mamma thinking about the next generation.

The MH brand does a bunch of cool stuff, like working with natural dyes and regenerative agriculture projects. There?s even a peer-to-peer preloved Mara Hoffman marketplace called Full Circle. They also work with a local social enterprise called Custom Collaborative that provides jobs and training for from low-income and immigrant communities.

In this warm discussion, Mara and Clare discuss why we still need physical stores and spaces to connect is in ways that aren?t quite the same online. The burden of physical stuff,  the responsibility that comes being a designer today. And plants! And SATC legend Patricia Field. Enjoy! Mara is tops.

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