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.
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…
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.
Copenhagen-based designer Cecilie Bahnsen 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 . But although expensive, it’s not untouchable, as you will hear. Cecilie wears hers’ on her bike! A very Danish approach.
In this joyful conversation, we cover the challenges of upcycling precious scraps which defy standardisation. The idea of timelessness in a novelty-obsessed world. Building a creative business, and how Cecilie 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.
Meet Danish creative Henrik Vibskov - fashion designer, costume designer, curator, musician and professor.
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.
