Stay ConnectedWARDROBE CRISIS is a fashion podcast about sustainability, ethical fashion and making a difference in the world. Your host is author and journalist Clare Press, who was the first ever Vogue sustainability editor. Each week, we bring you insightful interviews from the global fashion change makers, industry insiders, activists, artists, designers and scientists who are shaping fashion’s future.
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Copyright: © 2022 Clare Press
"You can't farm spiders!" says this week's guest, scientist David Breslauer.
You can keep more them in serious numbers spinning webs off hula-hoops suspended from your office ceiling though...
Enter Bolt Threads, the Californian biotech company behind Microsilk - a bioengineered sustainable fibre used by Stella McCartney. Find out how they did it, where the science is headed, and what's next (hint, it's involves mushrooms). Just don't call David Spider Man.
Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2020/9/17/podcast-126-david-breslauer-on-spiders-biotech-amp-bolt-threads to read yours and #bethechange
Love the show? Don't forget to hit subscribe. You can contact host Clare Press on Instagram here, and follow the show here.
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How did denim get so unsustainable? And did it all start with stone washing? Our guest this week accepts responsibility for the industry going so hard on that.
Francois Girbaud was there at the start, when, as he says “I was just a stupid guy” - and didn't know about the environmental impact of stone washing. After that, of course, came acid wash, sandblasting, all the rest of it.
So, yes, we discuss all the important environmental stuff, but this is an epic interview about Paris, the history of fashion, and the birth of cool - with a great many pinch-me stories!
Outspoken, unafraid, and a true original, Francois Girbaud is fashion pioneer.
Meet the man who brought denim to Paris in 1964 with his boutique Western House, who dressed Jimi Hendrix, counted Brigitte Bardot as a customer, and wanted to be a cowboy like John Wayne.
This is a rare chance to hang out with one of the great fashion characters. ENJOY!
Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2020/8/27/podcast-125-francois-girbaud-denim-legend to read yours and #bethechange
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What's in my clothes? If you're asking that question, you probably expect the answer to be about fabric content. Polyester? Cotton? Wool maybe, or silk. But what about chemicals? You won't find these listed on your typical garment label.
Last Series, Clare interviewed Greenpeace activist Kirsten Brodde, who led the Detox My Fashion campaign, launched in 2011, to force fashion to wake up to the toxic trail of textile production. So what's changed since then?
Chemistry in fashion is still not a mainstream topic, and most people have no idea about chemical use in clothing production. But the fashion industry has made headway.
The Greenpeace campaign succeeded in making fashion take action. Initially 6 brands got behind the formation of the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) programme, with the aim of removing hazardous chemicals from apparel and footwear supply chains by 2020. It's called Roadmap to Zero.
Discover how it works, learn about the wins and find out what's left to be done.
Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2020/8/6/podcast-124-chemicals-in-fashion-supply-chains to read yours and #bethechange
Talk to Clare in Instagram and Twitter.
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You know those people who are always ahead? The true originals no one can catch? Helen Storey is one of them. This British former runway designer and current Professor of Fashion & Science uses fashion as a trojan horse for big issues.
Ten years ago she collaborated with a chemist to make garments that filter pollution from the air. She's made dresses that dissolve to show how we destroy what's beautiful.
In 2015, in the run up to the COP15, she turned a decommissioned refugee tent, that had once housed a family in Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan, into a travelling fashion statement on climate change. She called it Dress For Our Time, and debuted it in a London railway station. That dress has since travelled to the UN in Geneva, the climate strikes, and even been on stage at Glastonbury. But it is Helen who has travelled the farthest.
Today she is the UN Refugee Agency's first ever designer-in-residence. Hear how she works in Za'atari, which is home to more than 75,000 displaced people.
Recorded in London before the coronavirus shutdowns, this fascinating interview challenges us to rethink everything we know about fashion as a tool for change, connection and finding meaning.
Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2020/7/18/podcast-123-helen-storeys-dress-for-our-time to read yours and #bethechange
Talk to Clare in Instagram and Twitter.
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“I don't give voice to anyone, but I have a really amazing tool and that's my camera. I use my camera to amplify the voices of people who feel unheard.”
Today photographer Giles Duley is the CEO and founder of the Legacy of War Foundation, and an activist for the rights of those living with disabilities caused by conflict. But he started out working in music and fashion, shooting for magazines like Vogue, GQ and Arena.
Since 2004, his portrait photography has taken him all over the world, from Iraq and Jordan to South Sudan and Angola, documenting human stories, often in post-conflict zones or crisis situations. In 2015 he was commissioned by UNHCR to document the refugee crisis across the middle east and Europe.
In 2011, while working as a photographer in Afghanistan, Giles himself was injured by an improvised explosive device (IED). He is now a triple-amputee. He was back taking photographs the following year.
The legacy of war is violent and harrowing. Be warned, some of the stories Giles tells are graphic. And yet, this interview is full of warmth, laughter and mostly importantly hope and humanity.
Have you listened to Part 1? Don't miss the related Episode 121 on Article 22 in Laos.
Find Legacy of War Foundation here.
Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2020/7/9/podcast-121-anti-war-photographer-giles-duley to read yours and #bethechange
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Can fashion really make a difference? Can artisans be agents of change? Could a humble bangle help make post-conflict land safe for the people who live there?
It sounds crazy to be talking about war and bombs in the same sentence as fashion and jewellery. But that's exactly what Article 22, a New York-jewellery brand and social enterprise that's handmade in Laos, seeks to do.
They upcycle shrapnel and scrap metal from The Secret War into jewellery, and they called their first collection Peace Bomb.
For every jewellery item they make, Article 22 donates to MAG, the Mines Advisory Group - an NGO that's on the ground clearing undetonated bombs so that local families can live and farm in peace.
Why are the bombs still there? From 1964 to 1973, the U.S. dropped more than two million tons of ordnance on Laos during 580,000 bombing missions - equal to a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24-hours a day, for 9 years. Then acted like it never happened. It took 45 years for an American President (Obama, in 2016) to formally acknowledge the bombing campaign. Yet, Laos still lives with that legacy every day.
For this week's Episode, we travelled to Xiangkhouang province with Article 22 founders Elizabeth Suda and Camille Hautefort, to meet the artisans whose land is contaminated, and the NGO workers from MAG whose job it is to clear it. And along the way hear powerful stories of positive change.
Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2020/7/3/podcast-121-article-22-purpose-amp-peace-after-the-secret-war-in-laos to read yours and #bethechange
Talk to Clare in Instagram and Twitter.
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On World Oceans Day, we meet Australian big wave surfer Laura Enever.
Laura started surfing as a kid in Sydney. She spent 7 years surfing professionally on the Women's World Tour . Now she's decided to reinvent herself as a big wave surfer.
And we mean seriously big - these waves are scary, dangerous and remote, they break way out to sea, or on shallow rock ledges and only a few times a year.
What has the ocean taught Laura about resilience and conquering fear?
Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2020/6/5/podcast-120-big-wave-surfer-laura-enever-on-world-oceans-day to read yours and #bethechange
Talk to Clare in Instagram and Twitter.
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This week, we're hanging out on the Copenhagen kitchen of the brilliant "insecure overachievers" behind GANNI.
Married couple Ditte and Nicolaj Reffstrup are the force behind the cult Copenhagen label and they've have made it, according to Vogue, a "stratospheric success" beloved of #GanniGirls all over Instagram. Just don't call it sustainable fashion.
"A brand might do one organic T-shirt and call themselves sustainable," says Nicolaj. "We just do what we do, and try to do better every day."
They say their "mission is simple: We fill a gap in the advanced contemporary market for effortless, easy-to-wear pieces that women instinctively reach for, day in, day out." But they're also mapping their carbon footprint and trialling rental while trying to leave their kids a healthy planet. Oh, an hoping the women will take over soon.
Love the show?
Please consider rating and reviewing, share on social media, and don't forget to hit subscribe!
Find Clare on Instagram and Twitter.
Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2020/5/27/podcast-119-ganni-eco-evolution to read yours and #bethechange
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Friday May 22nd is the International Day for Biological Diversity. Actually this whole year was meant to be about that. The World Economic Forum named 2020 the Year for Nature Action. It was to culminate in a big conference about the UN convention on biological diversity in Kunming, China in October. But the coronavirus pause doesn't mean we get to hold off on action to protect Nature.
This week's guest is Helen Crowley, Kering's head of sustainable sourcing and innovation, where she works with brands like Gucci , Saint Laurent and Balenciaga. She lives in France, but she's an Aussie with a PhD in zoology. And this year, she's on sabbatical with Conservation International, and is an advisor to the World Economic Forum.
What is the New Nature Agenda? How can fashion take action to not just protect biodiversity, but help regenerate it? We cover all this and more in this episode.
Love the show?
Please consider rating and reviewing, share on social media, and don't forget to hit subscribe!
Find Clare on Instagram and Twitter.
Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2020/5/21/podcast-118-fashion-amp-biodversity-helen-crowley to read yours and #bethechange
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Welcome to the second of our special reports about the fashion industry and COVID-19. This one is about how designers, makers and manufacturers are responding to the shortages of PPE - personal protective equipment - and scrubs for frontline workers, as well as masks for all.
What is PPE? Why are there shortages? How have fashion designers and industry leaders around the world stepped up to produce PPE for frontline workers?
Featuring Shibon Kennedy, founder of PPE Volunteer; Emergency Designer Network's Phoebe English and Holly Fulton; Jayna Zweiman of Masks for Humanity, fashion educator Timo Rissanen and Aleksandra Nedeljkovic from Australian social enterprise The Social Studio.
Love the show?
Please consider rating and reviewing, share on social media, and don't forget to hit subscribe!
Find Clare on Instagram and Twitter.
Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2020/5/2/podcast-117-special-covid-19-report-how-fashion-is-rising-to-the-ppe-challenge to read yours and #bethechange
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