Conscious Style Podcast

I receive questions through Instagram frequently, often I get repeat questions, and I feel like a podcast is a perfect place to answer them, elaborate more on the question, and give you  in-depth responses.

So today on the podcast it’s going to be a Q&A solo episode. Yup, just you and me!

In this episode, I will talk about:

• The different options for rehoming your old clothes
• Where and how to send or recycle old clothes responsibly
• Tips for upcycling and recycling damaged clothes that can’t be resold or re-worn
• Where to find sustainable underwear, bras, and socks
• My recommendations for sustainable fashion platforms or marketplaces (including secondhand ones)

If you have a question that you would like me to address in a podcast episode, or invite a guest on to address, you can send me a DM on Instagram @consciousstyle.

Make sure you are subscribed to this podcast so that you don't miss those future Q and A's!

FULL SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT:

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/what-to-do-with-unwanted-clothes/

SUBSCRIBE TO THE CONSCIOUS EDIT

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit

OTHER EPISODES MENTIONED:

• EP31 The Reality of the Secondhand Clothing Trade
• EP17 ​​More Creativity, Less Consumption: Tips from Slow Fashion Stylist Alyssa Beltempo
• EP7: How to Make the Most of Your Wardrobe with Jess Atkins
• EP25 #SwapBeforeYouShop: The Many Benefits of Clothes Swapping with Nicole Robertson
• EP23 How Can We Make Fashion Rental More Sustainable? with Eshita Kabra of By Rotation
• EP1 What is Ethical Fashion? Here’s What You Need to Know
• EP2 What is Sustainable Fashion + Why Does it Matter?
• EP3 What is Slow Fashion and How Can You Participate in the Movement?
• EP4 How to Tell if a Fashion Brand is Green — or Just Greenwashing
• EP20: How We Can Make Mending Mainstream with Josephine Philips of Sojo

GUIDES MENTIONED:

• How and Where to Recycle Your Old Clothes
• How to Host a Clothing Swap
• Conscious Fashion Brands with Online Secondhand Marketplaces
• Organic & Eco-Friendly Underwear Brands
• Sustainable Socks 
• Eco & Organic Bralettes
• 18 Best Online Secondhand Stores to Shop (and Sell!) Preloved Clothes

ORGANIZATIONS & APPS MENTIONED:

• Swap Society
• Nuw
• By Rotation
• Hurr
• Tulerie
• Free The Girls
• Freecycle Network
• Trash Nothing
• TerraCycle

BRANDS & ORGANIZATIONS MENTIONED :

*contains affiliate links*

• Patagonia
• Eileen Fisher
• Knickey
• Organic Basics
• Pact
• Conscious Step
• Poshmark
• Depop
• Plato's Closet
• The RealReal
• Vestiaire Collective
• Made Trade
• ourCommonplace
• Consciously
• Galerie.LA
• Fox Holt
• Eco Fashion Labels
• Know The Origin
• The Green Labels
• Adjoaa
• Macondo
• Ikkivi

CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH & CONSCIOUS STYLE:

• Website
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• YouTube

What is the difference between stylists and style coaches? Today on the podcast we are going to learn a bit more about style coaching with personal style coach, Elyse Holladay.

Elyse is on a mission to help women transform their relationship with clothes and show up fully as their authentic selves.

In this episode, Elyse is going to talk about:

• The power of style — and why that power has been so underestimated
• What personal style coaching is all about
• The importance of habits, why it's so challenging to shift consumption behaviors, and how we can start to interrogate that
• How she integrates her values into her business
• The balance of fair pricing as a socially conscious business
• Her advice for others who want to start service-based slow fashion businesses of their own.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Elyse as much as I did — if you know someone who would find this episode on the power of style and running a values-based business interesting or useful, share this episode with them!

FULL SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT:

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/personal-style-coaching/

RELEVANT LINKS:

• Jessica DeFino
• The Unfolding
• Shakaila Forbes-Bell
• Jennifer Armbrust
• Lindsay Goldsmith

CONNECT WITH ELYSE & ELYSE STYLED: 

• Website
• Instagram - @elyseholladay
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest

CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH & CONSCIOUS STYLE:

• Website
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• YouTube

SIGN UP FOR THE CONSCIOUS EDIT:

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit

So, when you hear the word marketing, what do you think of? 

Do you think of glitzy advertisements with photoshopped models that make us feel we're not enough? Greenwashing campaigns from fast fashion brands that tell us we can buy our way to sustainability? Perhaps sales emails telling us the latest and greatest discounts & doorbusters?

Well, I don't believe that marketing has to look this way.

So, today on the show, we're talking about marketing, and how to do it more mindfully. Because as it stands now, it doesn't exactly have a great reputation!

In this episode, I am talking with Natalia Gomez of Green Studio Marketing. With over 8 years of marketing experience, Natalia offers ethical content marketing services for conscious entrepreneurs. 

You're going to hear Natalia talk about:

• What ethical marketing is all about and how she helps small conscious brands sell their products in a mindful way,
• Why branding and content marketing are important for small businesses,
• What her experience was like working in marketing for a mass consumption brand, and how that differs from what she does now,
• Her advice for anyone else who wants to start their own conscious business, and more

If you have any takeaways or thoughts on what we talk about in this episode, we'd love to hear them — you can find me on Instagram @consciousstyle and Natalia is over on @green.studiomx. 

And if you know a small brand owner, share this episode with them if you think they'd find it helpful or interesting!

FULL SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT:

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/ethical-marketing-authentic-content/

LINKS MENTIONED:

• See You Tomorrow: A Resale Shop by Nordstrom

CONNECT WITH NATALIA & GREEN STUDIO

• Website
• Instagram - @green.studiomx
• Pinterest

CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH & CONSCIOUS STYLE:

• Website
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO THE CONSCIOUS EDIT:

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

Do you want to know what it takes to launch a conscious fashion brand and how to do it in a more sustainable and affordable way?

Whether you're a fashion designer who wants to launch a label, an aspiring sustainable fashion entrepreneur, or just someone curious about this whole process (like me!) you will get a lot out of this episode. 

In this episode, I interviewed Shannon Lohr, the founder of Factory45, an online sustainable fashion startup school that has been trusted by over 500 Fashion entrepreneurs since 2014. Shannon has worked with aspiring designers from all over the globe to launch and grow their brands in a way that is better for people and the planet.

You are going to hear Shannon talk about:

• How Factory45 helps fashion entrepreneurs get started from scratch without VC funding or thousands of dollars to invest
• How to create an eco-friendly product that considers the context of functionality and durability
• The unique challenges that small, slow fashion businesses face
• What pre-selling and on-demand manufacturing are and why she recommends these models as more environmentally and financially sustainable approaches
• How entrepreneurs can build an authentic audience before they've even produced their product, and more.

If you have an entrepreneurial friend or a designer friend looking to start a label, perhaps you can share this episode with them in case they would find it useful!

FULL SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT:

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/how-to-start-sustainable-fashion-brand/

LINKS MENTIONED:

• Vesta by Kendall Wilson
• Factory45 Application

CONNECT WITH SHANNON & FACTORY45: 

• Website
• Instagram - @factory45co
• Youtube

CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH & CONSCIOUS STYLE:

• Website
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Conscious Edit Newsletter
• YouTube
•  

When we think about sustainable fashion, we often think about the supply chain of a garment: the fabrics, dyes, and worker rights along the way. But increasingly, the reverse supply chain of clothes — i.e. the secondhand supply chain — is also becoming part of the sustainable fashion conversation.

To dive deeper into this topic, I interviewed Kampala-based filmmaker Nikissi Serumaga, who I have been wanting to speak to for months, and I was so humbled and excited that she agreed to come on this show. 

Nikissi is the creator, director, and co-host — along with Bobby Kolade — of VINTAGE OR VIOLENCE, a six part limited podcast series that explores the world of secondhand clothing from a Ugandan perspective.

In this episode, you'll hear Nikissi share:

• + The complex reverse supply chain that donated or recycled clothes go through,
• + The social and economic impacts of secondhand clothing imports in Uganda,
• + Who is really benefiting from this so-called circular fashion system or secondhand trade,
• + Why Uganda — or other countries in East Africa — don't just ban the import of secondhand clothes, as is often suggested.

FULL SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT:

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/secondhand-clothing-trade-vintage-or-violence/

LINKS MENTIONED:

• “Charity has become commerce.”, a quote by Andrew Brooks
• Vintage or Violence Podcast
• AGOA Act
• (Article) Secondhand fashion: Is it really good for Africa?
• (Article) This Is Not Your Goldmine. This Is Our Mess. by Liz Ricketts

CONNECT WITH NIKISSI & VINTAGE OR VIOLENCE: 

• Vintage or Violence Podcast
• Vintage or Violence Instagram: @2ndhandviolence
• Instagram: @thisiskissi

CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH & CONSCIOUS STYLE:

• Website
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Conscious Edit Newsletter
• YouTube
•  

This is the second season finale of the podcast! 

As you probably know by now, the focus of this season is circular fashion and in the past 15 episodes or so, we've talked about secondhand, swapping, renting, slowing down production, repairing and mending, recycling and upcycling, and beginning in last week's episode, composting and building soil-to-soil circularity.

We will be continuing that conversation today and also discussing regenerative fashion and regenerative agriculture a bit more. I am going to be interviewing Nishanth Chopra, who is the founder of Oshadi Collective, an initiative that is re-creating a circular and regenerative seed-to-sew-supply chain that is rooted in ancient Indian agricultural practices and artisan heritage.

Oshadi is truly breaking molds and boundaries and re-imagining a better fashion future that can uplift rather than degrade; regenerate rather than destroy; celebrate rather than exploit.

And so I was so humbled that I had the opportunity to talk with Nishanth all about Oshadi's seed-to-sew supply chain and discuss their approach to regenerative fashion, and circularity, and building a more equitable fashion supply chain. Nishanth had some really interesting points about minimum wages and living wages in this interview that really got me thinking...

I actually did this interview a few months ago, but I decided to leave this episode for the very end of this season because Oshadi is just doing so many incredible things that provide a great blueprint for what a more positive fashion system could look like.

I thought it would be fitting to end the second season with  an inspirational episode, so I hope you enjoy it! (And don't forget to leave a rating and/or review in Apple Podcasts if you're liking the show so far.)

FULL SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/regenerative-fashion-oshadi-collective/

LINKS:

• Christy Dawn Farm to Closet Collection
• Nishanth on the Green Dreamer Podcast
• Nishanth on the Conscious Chatter Podcast
• Nishanth with Holly Rose

ABOUT OSHADI COLLECTIVE:

Oshadi is a regenerative fashion initiative, mindfully building a seed-to-sew supply chain in rural India. 

Originally founded by Nishanth Chopra in 2016 as a womenswear label, Oshadi now is involved in every element of the production process, from growing the cotton, to printing and dyeing, to weaving and spinning.

Rooted in ancient Indian agricultural practices and artisan heritage, at the heart of Oshadi is a 50-acre regenerative cotton farm and a simple ethos:  to give back more than they take.

CONNECT WITH OSHADI:

• Website
• Instagram

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

• Conscious Life & Style Website
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Conscious Edit Newsletter
• YouTube

When you think about the best end of life for clothing, we may think of recycling or upcycling those clothes. But what if we could compost them? 

What if our clothes could return to the soil from where the fibers to make that clothing was grown? It might sound like a far off dream — especially when we consider that most clothing today is made from synthetic fabrics (i.e. plastic fibers like polyester) — but there are actually a few brands working to make fully compostable clothing a reality.

One of the brands making significant headway in this realm is California Cloth Foundry. This small slow fashion brand believes in creating a healthy wardrobe the natural way using botanical ingredients that we could consume and avoiding all petroleum-based fibers, treatments, and dyes. 

Not an easy feat in today's fossil fuel-addicted fashion industry. So, to dive into how California Cloth Foundry is doing all of this, I sat down with founder and designer Lydia Wendt.

In this conversation, Lydia is sharing:

• What fully compostable clothing is and what elements might make natural fiber clothing no longer compostable
• What the challenges are as a brand to create compostable clothing and
• What natural dyes are and how they're different from low impact dyes 

Lydia is also going to talk about how California Cloth Foundry is going beyond doing less bad and investing in creating a positive fashion system. And Lydia is going to share some interesting reflections on her previous experiences working in big fashion and why she decided to create a local and traceable supply chain for her label — and how sourcing locally and producing slowly allows California Cloth Foundry to produce is a sustainable way.

**If you're enjoying this podcast so far, a rating on Apple Podcasts can go a long way in helping this content reach new audiences and also helping me get more amazing guests on this podcast. So thank you in advance for taking a moment to do that!!

FULL SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/compostable-clothing-natural-dyes/

CONNECT WITH CALIFORNIA CLOTH FOUNDRY

• Website
• Shop
• Instagram

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

• Conscious Life & Style Website
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Conscious Edit Newsletter
• YouTube

There are quite a few barriers to secondhand shopping, from perceptions about limited styles to the issue of smells. And this episode will cover all of these obstacles and more. But sizing is one of the most common obstacles that comes up, especially for those shopping for plus sizes.

So, in this episode, I'm chatting with Mya Price, the founder of the plus size vintage boutique, More Than Your Average.

More Than Your Average has colorful one-of-a-kind vintage pieces, and if you've spotted their Instagram, you know that Mya has some seriously impressive vintage styling skills!

In this interview, Mya is sharing:

• Her tips for styling vintage pieces in a modern way
• Advice for others looking for plus size secondhand or vintage fashion
• What her secondhand garment sourcing process is like
• Her perspective on what we can all do to make slow and secondhand fashion more size inclusive
• How we can find amazing secondhand garments that will fit us well and that we'll truly love for many years to come

FULL SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/plus-size-vintage-more-than-your-average/

WATCH THIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE (coming soon):

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIKaxSd78Hqa8XA6cQf8tvg

LINKS 

• Conscious Fashion Brands with Plus Sizes
• Conscious Fashion Brands with Tall Sizes
• Conscious Fashion Brands with Petite Sizes

CONNECT WITH MYA & MORE THAN YOUR AVERAGE

• Website
• Styling Services
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Facebook

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

• Conscious Life & Style Website
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Conscious Edit Newsletter
• YouTube

For this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Cynthia Power, an expert in brand resale programs. Cynthia currently helps brands build and optimize their resale programs at Recurate, a full-service recommerce partner for brands, whose clients include Mara Hoffman and RE/DONE. Before that, Cynthia worked as the Director of Eileen Fisher's take-back and resale program. And as you may know, Eileen Fisher has been a major trailblazer in the brand resale space.

Cynthia is also an avid thrifter and self-proclaimed vintage fanatic herself, so she has a lot of great insight into the secondhand fashion space.

In this episode Cynthia is addressing topics like:

• What are the differences between brand-led resale programs vs. third-party platforms like a ThredUP or Depop?
• What do the logistics look like for a brand's resale program? And what are the challenges to getting a resale program off the ground? 
• And how can brands design for resale from the very beginning? 

Cynthia is also addressing some of those big difficult-to-answer and hotly debated topics, like:

• How can we start to get fashion to *finally* talk about reducing new production?
• And does resale give brands an "excuse" to continue to overproduce since they have a home for that unsold stock?

Let's dive into this conversation with Cynthia to get the answers to all of these questions, and more.

Quick reminder: If you enjoy this conversation, make sure to hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app! so that you don't miss future conversations like this one.

FULL SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/fashion-resale-recurate/

WATCH THIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE (coming soon):

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIKaxSd78Hqa8XA6cQf8tvg

LINKS MENTIONED:

• ThredUP 2021 Resale Report
• Recurate's Brand Partners
• CS Podcast Episode about Clothing Rental
• The Sustainability EDIT 2021 Report
• CS Podcast Episode with Natasha Halesworth of The Consistency Project
• Brass Clothing Case Study

CONNECT WITH RECURATE:

• Website
• Instagram

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

• Conscious Life & Style Website
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Conscious Edit Newsletter
• YouTube

To celebrate 10,000 downloads and thank you all for subscribing and tuning in to the show, I have a very special bonus episode for you today.

As you may know by now, this season of the podcast is all about circular fashion. But home goods actually have a LOT in common with fashion.

First off: a lot of home goods are made with textiles: meaning they too can be made from linen and cotton, recycled materials, or virgin synthetic oil-based fabrics like polyester.

And interior design has always evolved over the years. But also just like the fashion industry, it has been following faster and faster trend cycles. And this is due in part to furniture and home goods getting cheaper, both in price — and quality.

But, another similarity that home furnishings and decor has to fashion, is that we can follow a lot of the same principles for conscious home as we can for conscious fashion.

And in today's bonus episode, I'm chatting with a secondhand and sustainable home expert to teach us all about how we can decorate and design our homes more mindfully: Nina Verduin of Homebody, which is a slow living interior design studio.

Nina started Homebody to show how to intentionally style beautiful, cozy homes that encourage us to slow down, let go of stuff, and make conscious decisions. 

In today's episode, Nina is sharing:

• Why sustainable furniture & home decor matters
• How we can get started with sustainable interior design
• How to make the most of the furnishings and decor pieces we have
• The benefits of choosing secondhand home goods
• Plus, her tips for secondhand home shopping 
• And, advice for making all those existing pieces and secondhand pieces feel cohesive in your space

FULL SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT

https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/secondhand-home-nina-verduin-homebody/

WATCH THIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIKaxSd78Hqa8XA6cQf8tvg

RELEVANT LINKS:

• 5 Easy Ways to Update a Space
• Tips for Using Color in a Room
• 27 Brands with Sustainably Sourced Furniture
• Ethical Home Decor Brands

CONNECT WITH NINA & HOMEBODY:

• Website
• Instagram

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

• Conscious Life & Style Website
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Conscious Edit Newsletter
• YouTube