Stay ConnectedFashion & Founders is a media platform exploring how fashion is actually built. Hosted by Victoria Smith, the show sits at the intersection of fashion, technology, and capital spotlighting the founders, investors, and operators shaping the industry’s next era.
Through long-form conversations, we go beyond trends to unpack fundraising, manufacturing, resale, AI, sustainability, career, and the evolving business of fashion. This is where fashion’s builders speak, share, and connect.
Copyright: © 2024 Interwoven Stories
This week I am joined with Jeanine Co-Founder and CEO of World Collective, the first digital transformation hub for the fashion industry. She has an incredible background in fashion with two decades of experience from the Otto Group to being the VP of Supply Chain at Calvin Klein to the Global VP at the Innovation Lab of PVH Corp to founding a nonprofit to support women and children working in the fashion industry to the executive Director of Fashion for Development.
Jeanine‘s vision for the future of fashion is so incredibly inspiring. You can feel how much she believes in the work she is doing and the possibilities it can create. everyone to create a more ethical, innovative fashion industry through the business model the world collective supports and has created, whether you’re a student interested in designing your first collection, a small business, or a large corporation or creating your own material collective has something and someone for you to connect with and learn from.
World Collective Links!
Insta: @worldcollective.official
Website
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Listener Story!
Insta: @dizzylizzyshopp
Depop!
Share your own stories about vintage, thrifted, preloved, secondhand, rental, and any meaningful pieces you have! Get featured and submit your own story here!
Thank you for listening!
This week I was joined with Genia the founder of Been London. Started in 2018, BEEN London is an award-winning accessories brand that was named 'one of the most innovative fashion companies in the world' by British VOGUE.
Genia is on a mission to make beautiful things out of waste and help us all reimagine what objects can be. She has a really cool approach to design and sustainability and I found this conversation inspiring and informative on what it’s like to be a founder of sustainable fashion brand revolutionizing a product.
BEEN London Links!
Insta: @been.london
Website
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Listener!
Insta: @destinyjoelivia
By Rotation Jacket
Code DESTINY15 for 15% a rental!
Share your own stories about vintage, thrifted, preloved, secondhand, rental, and any meaningful pieces you have! Get featured and submit your own story here!
Thank you for listening!
This week on Interwoven Stories, I spoke with Diana Kakkar the founder and chief executive of MAES London, a luxury garment manufacturing studio located in North London specialising in designer womenswear. I got the opportunity to tour her factory and it was incredible to see firsthand what she has built.
Diana is deeply integrated in the UK fashion scene as she is also a mentor at the British Fashion Council, a visiting lecturer at the University of art London, and an ambassador for the uk fashion and textile association.
We discuss her entrepreneurial journey and she shares some great tips as well as her advice for aspiring founders. She is at the forefront of fashion innovation and is on a mission to reconnect designers with the people who make their clothes.
Diana shares her knowledge from creating her own business to mentoring and teaching upcoming designers making this episode not one to miss for anyone looking to get involved in fashion from students to designers to founders.
Follow MAES London!
@maeslondon
@dianakakkar
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Listener Story!
@sugarsequinvintage
@katerina.styles
Share your own stories about vintage, thrifted, preloved, secondhand, rental, and any meaningful pieces you have!
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This week I spoke with Kelly Drennan, the founder and executive director of Fashion Takes Action (FTA).
FTA is Canada's only non-profit organization devoted to advancing sustainability in the entire fashion system through education, awareness, research and collaboration.
Kelly shares how she started Fashion Takes Action in 2007 and discovered a real need to education and collaboration in sustainable fashion and how in wake of the Rana Plaza Factory Tragedy she found a way to educate and empower young people. Kelly has become a true leader in the industry and served as Fashion Revolution’s country coordinator for Canada for the first three years.
FTA does a lot of work around education so if you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by media around climate change, Kelly offerers her insight with years of expertise on how to effectively approach and communicate these difficult topics. Her work around education in for young people to adults, using fashion as a channel to empower people to take action has created a ripple effect of change.
Follow Fashion Takes Action!
FTA Instagram: @fashiontakesaction
MCMW Instagram: @myclothesmyworld
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Listener Story!
Danielle
Perryman Studio
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Share your own stories about vintage, thrifted, preloved, secondhand, rental, and any meaningful pieces you have!
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This week I spoke with Natalia, the founder of Bipty a fashion rental platform.
She shares how she got started running around her college campus delivering clothes and how she built her business where it is today as they launch an app July 11th as well!
Natalia has great advice for people who want to start their own business and get started renting out their clothes and have a great side hustle.
She has built such an incredible community and I can’t wait to see what she continues to create.
For those interested in entrepreneurship, side hustles, fashion, and more you’ll learn a lot from this episode!
Follow Bipty!
Ig: @bipty.fashionrental
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Instagram: @interwovenstories.pod
Tiktok: @interwovenstories
Share your own stories about vintage, thrifted, preloved, secondhand, rental, and any meaningful pieces you have!
Thank you for listening!
This week I interviewed Georgie Hyatt a London based entrepreneur. She was named Forbes 30 Under 30 and Drapers 30 under 30 in 2022, for her fashion rental business Rotaro. Who What Wear featured her as one of “The Best Wardrobes in Britain."
Georgie’s fashion journey began at WGSN, a trend forecasting and analytics company. She then founded Rotaro, a UK based fashion rental company that offered rental as a service for brands. After consolidating Rotaro with another fashion rental company, Georgie moved into consulting and the VC space scouting for climate tech companies. She expressed her passion for building a great produce and business and will be starting her own company soon again and I can’t wait to see what she does.
Georgie has such an interesting background and if you are interested in fashion forecasting, consumer insights, entrepreneurship, fashion tech, and vc investing, Georgie has the experience and knowledge to learn from. she shares a a very fully circle story of how Ganni’s legal team sent them a letter at the beginning of their business so keep listing to find out how that ended.
Follow Georgie!
Ig: @georgiehyatt
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Instagram: @interwovenstories.pod
Tiktok: @interwovenstories
Share your own stories about vintage, thrifted, preloved, secondhand, rental, and any meaningful pieces you have!
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This week I spoke with Nora, the marketing manager at Colorifix. Colorifix is a business creating a natural dye solution through a biological process using bacteria as opposed to the toxic chemical dyes currently being used by most of the fashion industry. These dyes have multiple environmental consequences like water pollution which was the genesis for the founders of Colorifix to begin on this journey.
Nora breaks down how Colorifix creates dyes that mimic nature and I know it’s science but it also kind of seems like magic to me. They are able to sequence the DNA of the color wherever it is found in nature, transfer that DNA code into a microorganism that the can produce that color then through fermentation, and without using any additional harsh chemicals to fix the dye onto a fabric.
We discuss material innovation in the fashion industry, what is going on behind the scenes in the supply chain to help move the industry forward, the scalability of such innovations and the the big potential business opportunity in investing.
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Featured intro story:
@cbyevoli
@_clementine_music_
Vintage find:
Diane Freis Dress on Vestiaire Collective which can be altered with Sojo!
Share your own stories about vintage, thrifted, preloved, secondhand, rental, and any meaningful pieces you have! Get featured and submit your own story here!
Thank you for listening!
This week I spoke with Michelle Gabriel an educator, researcher, and sustainability strategist in the fashion space.
We met at The Sustainable Fashion Forum back in April as she kicked off the conference with a workshop on policy. Michelle has been involved with the New York Fashion Act and in this episode shares her insight and breaks down the act.
Michelle shares her diverse range of experiences in fashion and what lead her to where she is now in education and academia. For anyone not on a linear path with multiple interests who wants to work in fashion you will definitely find comfort and inspiration in hearing her background.
I find the New York Fashion Act to be a really exciting piece of legislation as it written in a way that attempts to tackle global issues the entire fashion industry faces on a state level since the fashion economy in New York is one of if not the largest in the world.
Whatever component of sustainable fashion you are interested in you can learn something from this episode and the different facets of this bill.
More on Michelle!
New York Fashion Act Links!
The Fashion Act
Ig: @nsifashion2030
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Featured intro story:
Upcycled jeans by Sadie!
Vintage find:
Dolce & Gabanna Jacket that Victoria Beckham wore
Share your own stories about vintage, thrifted, preloved, secondhand, rental, and any meaningful pieces you have! Get featured and submit your own story here!
Thank you for listening!
This week I am joined with two amazing leaders at Fashion Revolution on the US team, Kelly, who manages education and Madison who leads the community work.
Fashion Revolution is a nonprofit founded by Carry Somers and Orsola de Castro in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013. Fashion Revolution has a global reach with teams all over the world and is a go to source for educating yourself on ethical practices and they have lead a multitude of campaigns, you may have seen people holding signs that say “who made my clothes?” Or “what’s in my clothes?”
With many efforts towards creating more transparency in the fashion industry, the organization also releases an annual report called the Fashion Transparency Index where they rate the biggest fashion brands based on key indexes of disclosure, supply chain practices, and many other factors in ethical and sustainable practices.
Fashion Revolution has many ways for anyone to get involved and they are opening up their ambassador program and looking for city leads so check out the link in bio to apply to get involved.
Fashion Revolution Links!
Ambassador Application
Ig: @fash_rev
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Vintage Fashion Finds
Dress
Ig: @thegreatvintagescavengerhunt
Featured intro story!
Ig: @cg.dezign
Share your own stories about vintage, thrifted, preloved, secondhand, rental, and any meaningful pieces you have! Get featured and submit your own story here!
Thank you for listening!
Introducing the first episode of my new series Fashion 3, 2, 1: News, Trends, and Vintage Finds
This week covers
3 pieces of fashion news
1. Pre-loved luxury items being sold on TikTok Shop
Is this a step forward for secondhand, or a step back for slow fashion?
2. Chanel’s legal battle with upcyclers
Is there a way for fashion houses to work with upcyclers and resellers to give their products another life?
3. Luxury’s returns problem
Will brands decide for themselves that even though it's not the industry standard yet, they’re going to pioneer sustainability efforts and find solutions in what seem to be their problems?
2 Secondhand Finds
Linked to the trend so you can stay on trend and shop secondhand.
Depop & Poshmark
1 Fashion Trend
The Charlotte Russe Leopard Print Sequined Shorts that took TikTok by storm creating a bidding war in the comment section of a Poshmark listing that began at $6 and went to over $100.
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