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228. What's Going on in Bangladesh? A Must-Listen Convo with Fashion Manufacturer Shafiq Hassan
56:22||Season 10, Ep. 228"Bangladesh has come out of a lot of difficulty in the past. Bangladesh is a place of hope, is a place of resilience ... We could again come together as a nation, with the ertailers and the brands supporting us, and make the transformation. It's a huge, huge opportunity."Rousing words from this week's compelling interview with manufacturer Shafiq Hassan, of the Echotex manufacturing facility in Gazipur, Bangladesh.Last year Bangladesh was ranked the third-largest exporter of clothing globally (after China and the European Union) exporting USD $38.4 billion worth of garments. The nation is home to over 40K garment factories of various sizes, and over 4 million garment workers.A decade after Rana Plaza, much progress has been made, including around environmental sustainability. Bangladesh now has 186 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified factories, and, according to Reuters, lays claim to 9 of world's top 10 'green' garment factories (considering carbon, water and energy footprint, waste, logistics, and using more sustainable materials).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. Her government's response to the protests - appalling violence - is well documented. This week, a new report by the current interim government, titled Unfolding the Truth, implicates Hasina in as many as 3,500 cases of forced disappearances during her time in office.Warned the Solidarity Centre in August: "The economy of Bangladesh, depends on garment factories, but producers say customers are concerned about violence and disruption." What's more, the previous government's "repression against workers seeking to form and join unions has prevented garment workers from achieving the living wages and safe working conditions they have sought to achieve."So what's next?The Nobel peace laureate and economist Muhammad Yunus (founder of the Grameen bank) is leading the interim/ caretaker government. The factories are back working. Leading facilities like Echotex continue to innovate. What's unfolding is very relevant to the fashion sector, and to all of us who care about ethical production and want to understand the role brands have to play when it comes to what we hope are long term partnerships with suppliers.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 / reviewing us in Apple orSpotify. Share on socials! Recommend to a friend.Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressTHANK YOU
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227. Tapestry! Embroidery! Quilting! Tailoring! Can Textiles Change the World? You Bet
44:18||Season 10, Ep. 227From Victor & Rolf's "Get Mean" frock through Jordan Gogos's radical upcycling projects to Paul McCann's "Sovereignty Never Ceded" gown, certain items of clothing speak loudly - with intention - about the times we find ourselves in. Let's not forget the long traditions of tapestry-making, quilting, embroidery, and the newer but related concepts of stitch-n-bitch craftivism. Cloth can be a radical medium. You might call it soft power, for its undeniable tactility - but don't mistake soft for weak. "Textiles galvanise communities. Through wars, pandemics and disasters, textiles have offered a way to mobilise social and cultural groups and build connections. In the late nineteenth century, British artist and designer William Morris sought to counter the mechanisation and mass-production of the Industrial Revolution by weaving tapestries on a manual loom with hand-dyed thread. Today, many artists are experimenting with the materials and techniques of textile design as a ‘slow making’ antidote to the high-speed digital age." With an introduction like that, how could we not respond? This week, Clare sits down with Rebecca Evans and Leigh Robb, curators of RADICAL TEXTILES - a major new exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia.Up for discussion: do textiles belong in museums? Is fashion so often dismissed as some sort of lesser art because it's considered unserious women's business? How did political movements of the last century use textiles to get their messages across? What's with Don Dunstan's pink shorts? And so much more!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 / reviewing us in Apple orSpotify. Share on socials! Recommend to a friend.Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressTHANK YOU226. Scottish New Gen Fashion Talent: Tartan, Tennent's, Tam O' Shanters - but with a Twist
31:02||Season 10, Ep. 226New York, London, Milan, Paris? So last season! It's time to spotlight less discussed design centres. This time, Dundee, which is home the two emerging menswear designers you're about to meet - both recent graduates from the Jimmy Choo Academy.First we'll hear from Sasha Clegg, whom with a wink, called her label The English Man. Despite being neither. She chose the name to call out the pale, male-dominated fashion industry. Sasha, who is of Zambian and Scottish descent, wants to "celebrate multiculturalism, heritage, diversity, and inclusivity." Her graduate collection, titled Mother’s Tongue, blends inspiration from her Scottish upbringing with nods to English football culture, and features kilts, tartan, and '80s-to-2000s influences. Our second interview is with Robyn Green, whose work explores subcultures and challenges Scottish stereotypes, with a political twist.Too often fashion mines working class communities for their idea and creativity without giving credit - that, says Robyn, is a form cultural appropriation. Her brand, Gadgie, is inspired by "the resilience and creativity of Scotland’s working-class communities" and she's on a mission to create opportunities for underrepresented voices in fashion. How to begin? Head home. After studying in London, she's back in Dundee, setting up her new studio, working with local hand-knitters and crochet artists and championing Made in Scotland.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 / reviewing us in Apple orSpotify. Share on socials! Recommend to a friend.Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressTHANK YOU225. Jimmy Choo - How to be Successful: Sage Advice from the Iconic Shoe Designer
40:19||Season 10, Ep. 225It's not every day you get to sit down with a proper fashion world icon and pick his brains for free!Dear listeners, you're in for a treat this week, as Clare meets the one and only Jimmy Choo. This magic name in shoe design is now professor - he runs his own fashion school, the Jimmy Choo Academy in London's Mayfair.This is a warm-hearted generous chat full over pearls of wisdom, like..."First, you must learn patience.""It all experience! Whatever happens, don't blame yourself - learn from it.""Somebody will always be better than you.""If you act like a know it all, no one will want to talk to you. If you are humble, people will want to pass on their skills and knowledge.""Trust your instincts to seize opportunities."Want more? Headphones at the ready. And don't forget to tell us what you think.Ultimately, Jimmy's message is, there's no point merely chasing fame, publicity and money. You have to stay true to your values.For him, that means craftsmanship, skill, and passing on your knowledge.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 / reviewing us in Apple orSpotify. Share on socials! Recommend to a friend.Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressTHANK YOU224. Is Fashion Ready for Ecocide Law? with Lucy Tammam and Jojo Metha
39:42||Season 10, Ep. 224If you listened to last week's interview w. Jem Bendell and wondered, "What on Earth do I do now?" And you weren't up for moving to Bali and getting collapse ready by starting a self-sufficient permaculture farm...we've got you! This week's episode is about practical action being taken right now to protect the rights of Nature.Clare is sitting down with two can-do women, fashion designer Lucy Tammam and Stop Ecocide International's Jojo Mehta to decode one of the topics of the moment, ecocide law. You might have noticed this idea gaining momentum. Ecocide refers to the mass damage and destruction of ecosystems – severe harm to nature which is widespread or long-term. The idea is to criminalise it. And it's happening! It's become national law in several countries with many more discussing it. In March, the EU passed a law that criminalises actions 'comparable to ecocide' - a revolutionary legal development; the first law of its kind to be adopted by a political entity with substantial global influence. In September, Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa submitted a proposal to the International Criminal Court for recognition of ecocide as a crime. What does all this mean for fashion? Listen to find out!Find the shownotes hereFind Clare on Instagram @mrspress223. Jem Bendell's Dangerous Ideas - What if Sustainability Is Just a Big Green Fairytale?
55:01||Season 10, Ep. 223Okay, brace yourselves...Brands love to set sustainability goals. But what if it's all nonsense? What if net zero, the obsession with carbon, and the idea that renewables are taking over from fossil fuels, are all part of a fake green fairy tale that we tell ourselves because the alternative is too difficult to imagine. Or that corporations tell us so that they can keep on with business as usual.WTAF? We know. It's... a lot.Is it true? You decide, after listening to this week's guest.Jem Bendell is an emeritus professor of sustainability leadership at the University of Cumbria, the author Breaking Together and founder of the Deep Adaptation movement, as well as Bekandze Farm school and folk band Barefoot Stars.If it sometimes feels like everything's collapsing around us, Bendell argues that's because it is. From the climate and cost of living crises to rising geopolitical tensions, and don't get us started in the widening gap between rich and poor. He says, it's not a sudden thing, like we see in Hollywood movies about the end of the world. Rather, he argues, collapse is a process, and one that's already begun. The question he's asking is: what can we do on the other side?Some people, he writes, are already: "dramatically changing their lives to prioritise creativity and social contribution. They are worrying less about their career, their financial security or following the latest trend. They are helping those in need, growing food, making music, campaigning for change and exploring spiritual paths. That is happening, because they have rejected the establishment's view of reality and no longer expect its officers to solve any of the worsening problems in their society." Others are just pretending nothing's wrong.Can cats help? Do doomsters really have more fun? Where does hope come into all this? Clare sat down with Professor Bendell after his keynote at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney to ask all this and more. Music: Mystical Cat by Barefoot Stars, launched in support of Villa Kitty, donate here.Check the shownotes for links & further reading.https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast222. Regenerative Thinking: "What Does A Bee Want?" Carole Collet on Designing with Nature in Mind
42:27||Season 10, Ep. 222What is the role of a fashion designer today? Thinking purely about gorgeous clothes is so last season. Gone are the days when designers could consider only a collection, how it will sell and what the customer might be looking for.Forward-thinkers are already beginning to take more holistic view and adopt a living systems approach. They’re asking questions such as, Can we make like Nature makes? How might fashion create nutrients instead of waste? How can we use biomimicry in sustainable ways? Program living systems to produce bespoke products? And, how can we build a truly regenerative system in place of the current degenerative one?“We won't have a choice in the future. We will all have to include sustainability in everything we do,” says this week’s guest Carole Collet - a bio designer, professor of textile futures and the director of LVMH’s Maison/0 incubator for emerging talent focused on regenerative luxury.Carole was raised in Burgundy, France, to respect Nature. Her mother worked in a flower shop, her father in a greenhouse. In 1991, she was in London studying for her Masters in textiles when she had a revelation: “It’s in biology that the answers will be.” Traditionally, textile design education focuses on weaving, knitting or maybe printing. “It's very craft based,” says Carole says, “and I love craft; I think it’s justified. But at Masters level, I felt like it was too restrictive.” She went on to set up the first Material Futures program at Central Saint Martins “to explore what textiles could be”.A philosophical conversation that extends way beyond fashion, encouraging us to ask the big questions about what sort of world we want to build - and our responsibilities in doing so.We might begin, suggests Carole, by challenging our anthropocentrism, and ask, "What does a bee want? How about a fish?"Thought-provoking!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 / reviewing us in Apple orSpotify. Share on socials! Recommend to a friend.Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressTHANK YOU