Fab Scraps, Clever Pattern Cutting and Why Apparel Factories Need Design Thinkers, with Industrial Upcycler Agustina Comas
Continuing our theme of fashion's crazily wasteful ways, and our focus on Latin America, this week, more Brazilian goodness, as Clare sits down with São Paolo-based industrial upcycler Agustina Comas.We're talking fast fashion, big business, athleisure's reliance on synthetics and rethinking pattern-cutting.BTW: how much do you know about pattern-cutting?If you've ever done this yourself at home with paper dressmaking patterns, you'll know that you pin these onto the fabric and cut around them.Sometimes using tailor's chalk to add markings. It's often trickier than it should be!The scraps - or offcuts - are the wastage round the edges. And they can pile up.On an industrial level, technicians also use paper markers. Multiple layers of fabrics are laid on the table, and many garments are being cut at a time, often using computer-controlled machines.Of course brands try to make the most of fabric yields, even if only to save money, so if multiple styles use the same fabric, you might see these placed intricately on the marker to form a complex jigsaw puzzle. At the end of the day, they still sweep the offcuts into the bin. Who cares? It's just scraps.In some cases, these scraps account for 35% of the fabric.Instant waste! Mad!Making new stuff out of wasted old stuff is a noble idea.But wouldn't it be better if we used less in the first place?Agustina's got a plan for that.Also up for discussion - Brazil's mighty craft heritage, and how women are leading the way; Shein's designs on the country (and everywhere else); and which South American designers are pushing innovation.Find all the links & further reading at thewardrobecrisis.comTell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressGot recommendations? Hit us up!And please share these podcasts.THANK YOU x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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39:43
"Don't buy, rescue!" Fixing the Trash Pile of Clothes in Chile's Atacama Desert
Hello! What are we actually doing? Our unwanted clothes don't belong dumped in Chile's beautiful Atacama Desert...Everyone knows reasons why the global north exports used clothing to the global south - it's because fashion is too fast, quality is too low, volumes are too high, and for rich countries it's often cheaper to export your problem than it is to deal with it onshore. But even if that wasn't the case, even if you had a big dream and deep pockets, that horse has bolted - the system at scale today is about global trade.Certainly, some of it is a reuse stream, some of it does get re-worn and recycled. Also sorted, processed and re-exported. But the fact is, too many of of these clothes become unsustainable waste that, once they reach their final destination, escape into the environment and pollute Nature and communities.According to the UN, about 40% of the clothes imported through Chile's Iquique free trade zone in the northern Atacama, have no value in the local second-hand clothing market and cannot be re-exported. Many end up dumped in the desert.In our annual Fashion Revolution ep, we meet the activists and creatives behind a genius campaign - Recommerce Atacama. Bastian Barria and Angela Astudillo from Desierto Vestido have joined forces with creative agency Art Plan, ecommerce platform Vtex, and Fashion Revolution Brazil to sell these clothes back to where they come from. The price? Zero dollars. The slogan: "Don't buy, rescue!"Clare sits down with Fernanda Simon and Paula Lagrotta to unpack the issues.More info at thewardrobecrisis.comTell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressGot recommendations? Hit us up!And please share these podcasts.THANK YOU. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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53:28
"23 billion pairs of shoes every year and we're throwing out 22 billion!" - Chandni Batra on What the Sneaker Giants Don't Tell You
Twenty-two billion! What are we playing at?!Things get worse when we look at the materials most commonly in use. The sports shoe category in particular is a giant, influential sector, yet its waste footprint and chemical inputs tend to fall under the radar. And don't get us started on the Crocsification of everything! Injection-moulded EVA is coming to a clog near you, but don't let's pretend that's sustainable.Increasingly, our shoes are made of frankenstein plastics, and even their creators don't necessarily know what's in them. This week on the podcast, Clare's guest is Chandni Batra, founder of A BLUNT STORY - a disruptive Indian sandals brand on a mission detoxify your footwear, and challenge the industry to stop trashing the planet.This is a gob-smacking conversation full of revelations about how huge numbers of shoes are made today, using oil-based plastics, potentially-toxic foams and petrochemical ingredients for all sorts of uses you’ve most likely never even heard of. Could these chemicals be leaching into our skin? What are their effects on the environment? And on the workers who must handle them? Why are modern shoes to hard to recycle? And what can be done about all this. Chandni has solutions! Ears here!More info at thewardrobecrisis.comTell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressGot recommendations? Hit us up!And please share these podcasts.THANK YOU. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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1:05:38
Everything's Better When the Sustainability Team is in Charge - the Inspiring Tale of Lafaani
In the third of our four-part mini series on sustainable fashion in India, Clare sits down with Drishti Modi and Rashmick Bose, the duo behind slow fashion brand Lafaani. It's focused handcraft, handloom weaves, and natural dyes, and their clothes are gorgeous - we want them all!But the founders didn't always dream of fashion careers - they're sustainability professionals who met at university studying environmental resource management. At first, it was all about biodiversity, water use in marginalised communities, and regen ag.So how does one move from observing flying lizards in the Western Ghats, or surveying toilet numbers in remote villages, to staging runway shows? And making wonderful trench coats dyed with marigolds diverted from temple waste-streams. Somewhat of a winding road, it has to be said! Was it hard? What drives them? When you haven't been to fashion school, how do you get the design right? Who do you work with? How do you figure it all out, while staying true to your purpose? A warm, inviting conversation that will help anybody with big sustainability ideas trying to do fashion differently.More info at thewardrobecrisis.comTell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressGot recommendations? Hit us up!And please share these podcasts.THANK YOU. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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38:20
From Vintage Seller to Artisanal Manufacturer: Is Ritwik Khanna India's Most Promising New Designer?
More from our visit to India! If you listened to the last episode with stylist Daniel Franklin, you'll have heard Clare promise more to come from India's burgeoning sustainable fashion scene. This week's chat is with one of Delhi's most promising young designers, who's just shown his collection at Lakmé Fashion Week in Mumbai, and who won last year's Circular Design Challenge (run by R/Elan and UN India). He is Ritwik Khanna, founder of the edgy menswear offering and atelier RKive City. He's created a new system of working with post-consumer textile waste (lots of denim and camouflage gear) that he de-constructs, then recuts into brilliant new garments, often embellished with embroideries. The result blends cool modernity with high craft.What's up for discussion? His process, obviously, but this is also a conversation about dignified work, what people don't realise about the second-hand and waste textile supply chain in India, and ultimately - what makes a good life.Fancy your chances winning the Circular Design Challenge? Applications for 2025 close May 8th. Info here. More info at thewardrobecrisis.comTell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressGot recommendations? Hit us up!And please share these podcasts.THANK YOU. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
WARDROBE 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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