Conscious Style Podcast

What if fashion brands put garment workers first? What if a fashion brand set the prices they pay to their suppliers based on ensuring workers were making a living wage, rather than negotiating the prices as low as possible to maximize profits?

This is part of implementing more responsible purchasing practices — purchasing practices meaning not how the consumer buys something, but how the brand purchases their orders from their suppliers, since most brands do not produce their own clothes.

The reality is that right now the system is set up with the wrong incentives. For example, Buyers at many fashion brands receive bonuses if they achieve larger margins with their orders they purchase from their suppliers — larger margins meaning they pay their suppliers less, and thus the supplier will have less money to pay their workers fairly or invest in sustainability initiatives like transitioning to clean energy.

So we need a paradigm shift. True systems change.

And one proposal for doing so is worker-centric pricing, which Stella and I are going to dive into in this episode!

>>> TRANSCRIPT

*****

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Sustainable Fashion Career Platform: Conscious Fashion Collective
• Community: Conscious Fashion Collective Membership
• Article: What If Fashion Prices Put Garment Workers First?
• Doc: Worker-Centric Pricing Model
• Organization: Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion
• Instagram: Aja Barber
• Podcast Episode: EP71: Is Sustainable Fashion Always More Expensive?
• Podcast Episode: EP60: Living Wages for Garment Makers with Anne Bienias of Clean Clothes Campaign
• Podcast Episode: EP45: Are Better Brand-Supplier Relationships The Missing Link to Ethical Fashion?

***

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

📧Newsletter: https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit

🌐Website: consciouslifeandstyle.com

📸 Instagram: @consciousstyle

📹 YouTube: @consciouslifeandstyle

📌 Pinterest: @consciouslifeandstyle

What if designers could go all the way back to the source of the fibers their garments are made from? Many of fashion’s favorite fibers — and our favorite garments — begin on farms. From cotton to wool, hemp, and linen. But, often, designers are so far removed from the places where these fibers are produced. Bringing designers back to the source would result in greater transparency and traceability in fashion that would allow designers to make choices that are kinder to people and the planet.

The fast fashion system thrives on building one, uniform, global fashion system that requires a lack of transparency and traceability to continue perpetuating its profit-seeking harms. On the other hand, a more equitable future of fashion will comprise multiple regional and local textile systems that are each in tune with the contexts of local communities.

But what will it take to get there, in practice? Well, in today’s episode, Stella chats with Laura Sansone, who is passionate about creating regional and regenerative textile systems. Laura is an Assistant Professor of Textiles at Parsons School of Design and she is the creator of New York Textile Lab (@nytextilelab) a design and consulting company that supports environmentally responsible textile methods and bioregional systems of production.

TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE HERE

***

EPISODE SPONSORS:

Kotn

Kotn is a slow fashion brand that's taking transparency to a new level with their fully traceable supply chain.

The brand sources the cotton for their collection directly from over 2,000 smallholder cotton farmers in the Nile Delta in Egypt and ensures living wages and fair working conditions along every step of the way, from seed to final stitch.

Each piece from Kotn is made ethically and transparently with natural materials — like long-staple Egyptian cotton, recycled cotton, and linen — by people earning living wages.

Get 15% off sitewide from June 20th to August 31st, 2023 by using the code CONSCIOUS15.

Juliemay

Juliemay offers a natural alternative to the synthetic-heavy lingerie market. They use GOTS-certified organic pima cotton as their main fabric, line all of their products with Mulberry peace silk’ and do not use harsh chemicals in production.

The brand is accredited by AllergyUK to be friendly for people with allergic reactions to synthetic fibers and who have sensitive skin. This is something that I have become personally really interested in since I started to experience psoriasis after wearing synthetic undergarments myself a few years ago.

Additionally, Juliemay has bras for a wide range of circumstances, like post-surgery bras or bras that offer back support. Juliemay also supports several environmental and social impact nonprofits.

Use the code SOCIAL15 for 15% off at Juliemay!

***

SHOW NOTES & LINKS:

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/laura-sansone

***

CONNECT WITH US!

📧Newsletter: https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit

🌐Website: consciouslifeandstyle.com

📸 Instagram: @consciousstyle

📹 YouTube: @consciouslifeandstyle

What is it like to work as a designer for a fast fashion brand? And what is it like to build your own sustainability minded small fashion brand, from circular design practices to figuring out your pricing?

That's what we're getting a glimpse into in this episode with Dani Des Roches, designer and founder of the upcycled brand Picnicwear, recognizable by its groovy 60s/70s aesthetic, bold and playful use of color, and most notably its use of vintage towels as its primary material.

Before that, Dani attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and was behind the scenes as a sweater designer for household names like Urban Outfitters and Express.

Feeling dissatisfied with the industry, Dani started her own B2B design studio, Kismet Concept Studio and of course her Direct to Consumer brand, Picnicwear, which creates high-quality pieces using 95% pre-existing materials.

In this conversation, Dani is giving us a look under the hood of the operations at big fashion brands and sharing what she thinks we should all know about how these brands operate.

She's also getting transparent about her own journey building a small slow fashion business.

If you want to learn more from Dani, Dani is leading a Circular Fashion Design Workshop that we're hosting over at Conscious Fashion Collective.

It will be an educational and interactive event for designers, industry professionals, sewists, and sustainable fashion advocates wanting to learn more about sustainability in fashion.

You'll learn how brands and designers can use circularity as a foundation for design, what a holistic approach to circular apparel design looks like, and tangible strategies to integrate circularity into apparel production and post-consumer reverse supply chain.

Hope to see you there!

>> Get tickets for the circular design workshop led by Dani here!

Or join the Conscious Fashion Collective Membership to attend for free.

***

SHOW NOTES:

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/dani-des-roches

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Event: Finding Creativity In Circularity —Circular Apparel Design Workshop
• Clotheshorse Instagram
• Interview with Selina Ho

***

CONNECT WITH DANI:

🌐 Website: www.picnicwear.com

📸 Instagram: @picnicwear

👍 Facebook: @Picnicwear

📱 Tiktok: @picnicwear

***

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

📧Newsletter: https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit

🌐Website: consciouslifeandstyle.com

📸 Instagram: @consciousstyle

📹 YouTube: @consciouslifeandstyle

📌 Pinterest: @consciouslifeandstyle

What is the process like to create a regenerative conscious fashion label? What does it mean to create long-term partnerships in a localized supply chain that are beneficial for people? Or to make clothes that are beneficial for the earth?

In this episode, Stella interviews the founder of slow fashion brand LilaBare, Ria Ana Sejpal, about building a Kenyan fashion brand, rethinking traditional supply chains, and the value of building long-term relationships with the people involved in them.

Plus they cover how Ria measures the impacts of the garments LilaBare creates and how size-adjustable gender fluid clothing can make sustainable fashion more inclusive.

***

EPISODE SPONSORS

Kotn

Kotn is a slow fashion brand that's taking transparency to a new level with their fully traceable supply chain.

The brand sources the cotton for their collection directly from over 2,000 smallholder cotton farmers in the Nile Delta in Egypt and ensures living wages and fair working conditions along every step of the way, from seed to final stitch.

Each piece from Kotn is made ethically and transparently with natural materials — like long-staple Egyptian cotton, recycled cotton, and linen — by people earning living wages.

Get 15% off sitewide from June 20th to August 31st, 2023 by using the code CONSCIOUS15.

***

Juliemay

Juliemay offers a natural alternative to the synthetic-heavy lingerie market. They use GOTS-certified organic pima cotton as their main fabric, line all of their products with Mulberry peace silk’ and do not use harsh chemicals in production.

The brand is accredited by AllergyUK to be friendly for people with allergic reactions to synthetic fibers and who have sensitive skin. This is something that I have become personally really interested in since I started to experience psoriasis after wearing synthetic undergarments myself a few years ago.

Additionally, Juliemay has bras for a wide range of circumstances, like post-surgery bras or bras that offer back support. Juliemay also supports several environmental and social impact nonprofits.

Use the code SOCIAL15 for 15% off at Juliemay!

***

SHOW NOTES:

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/ria-ana-sejpal-lilabare

***

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

• Podcast: EP88. What Is Regenerative Fashion? with Safia Minney
• Podcast: EP31. The Reality of the Secondhand Clothing Trade with Nikissi Serumaga
• Podcast: EP61. Behind Fashion’s Waste Crisis in the Atacama Desert
• Podcast: EP29. Compostable Clothing, Natural Dyes, and Localizing Fashion Systems with Lydia Wendt

***

CONNECT WITH RIA ANA SEJPAL AND LILABARE:

🌐 Website: https://lilabare.com/

📸 Instagram: @lilabare

***

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

📧Newsletter: https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit

🌐Website: consciouslifeandstyle.com

📸 Instagram: @consciousstyle

📹 YouTube: @consciouslifeandstyle

📌 Pinterest:

@consciouslifeandstyle

Fashion's returns are a massive waste and emissions issue. In fact, 23 million returned garments were sent to a landfill or incinerated last year in the UK, and returns caused 750,000 tons of CO2 emissions just in the UK fashion industry alone, according to The Institute of Positive Fashion's report: Solving Fashion's Products Returns.

Generous free returns policies from brands and retailers have also helped fuel the trend of buying clothes to wear just once or only for a social media post and then return them.

However, the days of these free return policies may be coming to an end. Zara, Boohoo, Uniqlo, and Next have all recently announced return fees.

These brands are likely making the decision to implement return fees for financial reasons, but what are the implications for sustainability?

In this Green or Greenwashing segment, Elizabeth and Stella explore the nuances of fashion's product return fees.

LINKS MENTIONED:

Giveaway! Win 3 books written by previous Conscious Style Podcast guests.

Report: Institute of Positive Fashion Solving Fashion Product Returns Report

Article: How the end of free returns will change the way we shop by Sophie Benson

Subscribe: Conscious Edit Newsletter

It's time for an urgent shift in fashion. And not just towards a path of doing less bad, but of bringing positive change. Not just less harmful fashion. Not even just more sustainable fashion. But building a regenerative fashion future.

Recently I read the book Regenerative Fashion: A Nature Based Approach to Fibres, Livelihoods, and Leadership*, by Safia Minney. And this book could not have come at a better time for me. I was feeling discouraged and overwhelmed by the weight of it all and the stories and changemakers highlighted throughout this book was the inspiration that I needed.

So I am super grateful that I was able to have the author, Safia Minney — who has been a disruptor in the fashion space for decades — onto the show. You may know Safia Minney as the founder of fair fashion brand People Tree, or you may know her as an activist, consultant, thought-leader, or author of books like Slave to Fashion and Slow Fashion.

In this episode, Safia Minney discusses the themes of her latest book on regenerative fashion, including regeneratively grown fibers and decarbonization, but also regenerative leadership and regenerative relationships, the importance of revitalizing artisan crafts and textile traditions, why living wages and a just transition are central to regenerative fashion, and how our current economic systems are completely at odds with a livable future. Hit play to dive in!

*Bookshop.org affiliate link

***

ENTER THE PODCAST BOOK GIVEAWAY HERE

If the link is not clickable in your podcast player, here is the URL: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/6490c7a33b413b66d0ce7727

Giveaway closes July 6 at 4pm CDT. Winner will be announced in July 8th's newsletter.

***

EPISODE SPONSORS:

Brook There

Brook There creates organic cotton bralettes, underwear, and slip dresses ethically cut and sewn by their team in Massachusetts. Their GOTS-certified organic cotton is even milled and dyed domestically in the US too.

Brook There has a beautiful range of colorways — from ballet pink to bright orange to versatile neutrals, which are all colored using low-impact fiber reactive dyes.

***

Kotn

Kotn is a slow fashion brand that's taking transparency to a new level with their fully traceable supply chain.

The brand sources the cotton for their collection directly from over 2,000 smallholder cotton farmers in the Nile Delta in Egypt and ensures living wages and fair working conditions along every step of the way, from seed to final stitch.

Each piece from Kotn is made ethically and transparently with natural materials — like long-staple Egyptian cotton, recycled cotton, and linen — by people earning living wages.

Get 15% off sitewide from June 20th to August 31st, 2023 by using the code CONSCIOUS15.

***

SHOW NOTES:

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/safia-minney

***

CONNECT WITH SAFIA MINNEY:

🌐 Website: https://safia-minney.com/

📸 Instagram: @safia_minney

🐦 Twitter: @SafiaMinney

***

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

📧Newsletter: https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit

🌐Website: consciouslifeandstyle.com

📸 Instagram: @consciousstyle

📹 YouTube: @consciouslifeandstyle

Overconsumption is a major problem in the fashion industry. And secondhand is often advocated for as a solution. But is it possible to overconsume secondhand fashion as well?

This is a loaded question that comes with nuance and obviously, lots of opinions... which makes it perfect for a segment for our Green or Greenwashing series — we love to cover complex and controversial topics in this series!

And we want to hear YOUR thoughts on this topic as well. DM Elizabeth over at @consciousstyle on Instagram with your thoughts and takes on this topic or to request a future topic you want to hear covered.

***

SUBSCRIBE TO THE CONSCIOUS EDIT:

https://consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit

***

LINKS MENTIONED:

Article: "The trouble with secondhand: it's becoming like fast fashion"

Graphic: Linear Economy vs. Recycling vs. Circular Economy

Podcast: More Creativity, Less Consumption with Alyssa Beltempo

Podcast: Building a Better Secondhand Fashion System with Emily Stochl

***

GET THE TRANSCRIPT HERE

Fashion industry players — like big brands and their billionaire owners — have to be held accountable for their impact on our environment and on the people involved with making their clothes.

Independent journalists can play a crucial role in this accountability, since they can provide a critical outsider's look on what's happening in the industry, such as ascertaining if a fashion brand's sustainability claims are legitimate or not. And it's also a role that comes with a lot of responsibility.

One of the sustainable fashion journalists that both Stella and I have immense respect for is Sophie Benson. If you're subscribed to our weekly newsletter, The Conscious Edit, you know that I often share articles written by Sophie in those Saturday emails. So it's exciting to have her on the show this week.

In this episode, Stella is interviewing Sophie to discuss her journey and her insights as a journalist in the sustainable fashion space. For more on sustainable fashion journalism as a career path, check out Sophie's Conscious Career Chat on Conscious Fashion Collective.

***

THIS EPISODE WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY...

Brook There

Brook There creates organic cotton bralettes, underwear, and slip dresses ethically cut and sewn by their team in Massachusetts. Their GOTS-certified organic cotton is even milled and dyed domestically in the US too.

Brook There has a beautiful range of colorways — from ballet pink to bright orange to versatile neutrals, which are all colored using low-impact fiber reactive dyes.

***

The Rounds

Looking for the convenience of grocery and product delivery to your doorstep, but not a fan of the wasteful packaging? Enter in: The Rounds.

This closed loop, two-way logistics network offers a zero waste delivery process by delivering your essentials with refillable containers in a reusable tote bag and picking up the empties for you — mostly by e-bike — to clean and reuse them.

See if The Rounds is offering services near you or get on their waitlist.

Use the code CONSCIOUSLIFE to get 1 month free and $10 off your first order!

***

SHOW NOTES:

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/sophie-benson

***

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

• (Interview) Sustainable Fashion Journalism Career Chat
• (Jobs) Conscious Fashion Collective Job Board
• (Article) Was 2022 The Most Important Year for Sustainable Fashion?
• (Article) Fashion Is In Its Copy And Paste Era
• (Podcast Episode) 79) The Role of Fashion Legislation | Elizabeth Cline
• (Podcast Episode) 64) How Journalists Can Shift The Sustainable Fashion Conversation | with Jasmin Malik Chua of Sourcing Journal

***

CONNECT WITH SOPHIE BENSON:

🌐 Website: https://sophiebenson.com/

📸 Instagram: @sophiebenson

🐦 Twitter: @SophieBenson_

***

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

📧Newsletter: https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit

🌐Website: consciouslifeandstyle.com

📸 Instagram: @consciousstyle

📹 YouTube: @consciouslifeandstyle

📌 Pinterest:

@consciouslifeandstyle

When we talk about sustainable and ethical fashion, we often think about the future — at least I do: we ask every guest that comes onto this show what a better future for fashion looks like to them!

But I also see immense value in looking to the past. To see where we came from so we understand how we got here and what solutions could actually be effective in bringing about change.

So I was intrigued to read the book Worn, A People's History of Clothing, (bookshop affiliate link) to understand this history more deeply — and it did not disappoint. I learned so much from this book and I knew I had to get the author, Sofi Thanhauser (@Yesfutureyes) onto the podcast.

And here we are today, Sofi is joining me to talk about some of the key themes covered in the book: like how the industrial revolution spurred mass-production in fashion — and not just from the standpoint of technology — how the rise of advertising helped enable the rise of fast fashion, the toxic shocking history of rayon, the factors that enabled synthetics to dominate garment production, and what we can learn from successful labor movements as we advocate for change in the fashion industry.

This season of the podcast is focused on fashion's role in our climate crisis, but we don't take a super narrow view of that theme and I think this episode shows a lot of the overlaps between workers in fashion and the industry's environmental impacts. We see how lack of worker rights and low wages connects to overproduction, how lack of worker safety is connected to the continued production of toxic synthetic materials, how advertising covers up the realities of how our clothes are made and enables fast fashion to continue to thrive.

***

We also will be continuing our Green or Greenwashing ending segment in this episode. This week Stella and I will discuss our thoughts on the trend of climate-change ready clothing — do we really need clothes that are, quote: designed for the apocalypse? Are they filling a need or just getting us to buy more stuff. Stay tuned until the end to hear our thoughts on that.

*****

EPISODE SPONSORS:

Brook There

Brook There creates organic cotton bralettes, underwear, and slip dresses ethically cut and sewn by their team in Massachusetts. Their GOTS-certified organic cotton is even milled and dyed domestically in the US too.

Brook There has a beautiful range of colorways — from ballet pink to bright orange to versatile neutrals, which are all colored using low-impact fiber reactive dyes.

***

The Rounds

Looking for the convenience of grocery and product delivery to your doorstep, but not a fan of the wasteful packaging? Enter in: The Rounds.

This closed loop, two-way logistics network offers a zero waste delivery process by delivering your essentials with refillable containers in a reusable tote bag and picking up the empties for you — mostly by e-bike — to clean and reuse them.

See if The Rounds is offering services near you or get on their waitlist.

Use the code CONSCIOUSLIFE to get 1 month free and $10 off your first order!

***

SHOW NOTES:

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/sofi-thanhauser

***

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

• (Book) Worn: A People's History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser*
• (Podcast) EP82. Rana Plaza 10 Years Later: What’s Changed and What Hasn’t?
• (Petition) Tell brands to sign the Accord
• (Article) Clothes for the “apocalypse”: How to design for a climate crisis

*Bookshop affiliate link

***

CONNECT WITH SOFI:

🌐 Website: https://sofithanhauser.com/

📸 Instagram: @yesfutureyes

***

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

📧Newsletter: https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit

🌐Website: consciouslifeandstyle.com

📸 Instagram: @consciousstyle

📹 YouTube: @consciouslifeandstyle

📌 Pinterest: @consciouslifeandstyle

Want to work in sustainable fashion but not sure how to begin or how to transition from what you do now? Or maybe you work in sustainable fashion now, but you're ready for a bit of a change. In this episode, I'm sharing my sustainable fashion career and entrepreneurial journey and the lessons I learned along the way.

FIND JOBS IN SUSTAINABLE FASHION:

Conscious Fashion Collective Job Board

HIRE FREELANCERS OR PROMOTE YOUR SERVICES:

Check out the Sustainable Fashion Freelancer Directory

ACCELERATE YOUR SUSTAINABLE FASHION CAREER JOURNEY:

Join the Conscious Fashion Collective Membership

***

MORE EPISODES YOU MIGHT LIKE:

EP6: My Sustainable Fashion Journey

EP62: Conscious Entrepreneurship and Crafting with Saskia de Feijter