In this episode, fashion and beauty futurist Amanda Cosco speaks with record-breaking entrepreneur, founder, and CEO Kendra Bracken-Ferguson. Kendra is a thought leader, founder, venture capitalist and the CEO of BrainTrust Founders Studio. She is someone who has witnessed—and been a part of—the changing landscape of digital media over the past decade. Her recent book “The Beauty of Success: Start, Grow, and Accelerate Your Brand” is a tell-all about how she built her business from scratch as well as a workbook for those who want to make things happen for themselves in the beauty industry and beyond. Kendra also has a podcast called The Business of the Beat Podcast.

This episode is sponsored by U.S. Soy. To learn more about how soy is showing up in fashion, beauty, and beyond, visit ussoy.org.

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Kendra Bracken-Ferguson: https://kendrabracken-ferguson.com/

Kendra's Book, The Beauty of Success: https://kendrabracken-ferguson.com/beauty-of-success

Sponsor Links: 
Visit U.S. Soy: https://ussoy.org/

When we think of soy, we often think of candles or an alternative to milk, but what about the role the crop plays in the business of fashion and beauty? In the US, soy is second only to corn in crop size, and it's playing a significant role in transforming many industries.  

My guest today is Carla Schultz. She's a soy farmer from Michigan and a United Soybean Board Director, and she's here to tell us all about the links between soy, fashion, beauty, and beyond. 

This episode is sponsored by US Soy. To learn more about how the organization is growing solutions for every life, every day,  visit: https://ussoy.org/

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Guest Links:

U.S. Soy: https://ussoy.org/
Connect with Carla Schultz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-schultz-a92754243/

Biotechnology is an exciting frontier in fashion and beauty because it presents a new way forward. Most products on the market today rely on extraction for their ingredients, whether that's from plants, animals, or petrochemicals. Each of these options has a footprint. With biotechnology, there's the opportunity to create new sustainable supply chains with new levels of performance for consumers.

Today on the show I'm speaking with a scientist and creative who is inspired by biology and biotechnology to create advanced, sustainable innovations for wellness and beauty. Alison Cutlan is the VP of Innovation at The Rootist, a new biology-based haircare brand that's changing the game when it comes to haircare by treating the hair like the living organism it is. 

Full disclosure: The Rootist did send me a free sample of their haircare kit as a basis for this conversation. This episode is not sponsored, but as you'll hear, I ended up really loving the products as well as the ethos behind the biology-based brand. 

Our conversation covers the products under the Rootist haircare system, what makes them different, and how biotechnology is the new design tool of the future. 

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Guest Links:

The Rootist: https://therootist.com/
Alison Cutlan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-cutlan-1aba368/

From leather grown from mushrooms to sequins made from plants, biomaterials is an exciting area of innovation that is projected to reach almost $50 billion by 2025. Briefly put, biomaterials combine science and technology to engineer new ways of producing materials. Biomaterials are rapidly gaining popularity with brands and consumers alike due to their ability to address the fashion industry’s urgent environmental and ethical challenges. 

Our guest today is Laura Hayes. She’s the Senior Brand Partnerships Manager at Keep Labs, a company that describes itself as a platform for innovation. They believe the ocean has the potential to accelerate our planet’s development to a more sustainable future. The company’s flagship product, Kelsun fiber, has a significantly lower environmental footprint than conventional fibers.

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Guest Links:

Keel Labs website: https://www.keellabs.com/

Keel Labs LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramariahayes/?locale=fr_FR

Keel Labs Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/keel.labs/

In today's episode fashion and beauty futurist Amanda Cosco sits down with Heather Lipner, the Head of Product Design + Creative and Geenee AR. Geenee enables high-quality web AR virtual try-on for eCommerce and In-feed Ad experiences to increase sales conversions, reduce return rates and drive return on ad spend performance.

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Guest Links:

Geenee AR: https://geenee.ar/
Heather Lipner: https://www.heatherlipner.com/

Recently, black beauty influencers have taken to TikTok and other social media channels to call out brands that don't have inclusive shades.  Today's podcast features a conversation with Balanda Atis, a L'Oréal chemist, and their Chief Scientific Communications Officer. We spoke with her in May in Toronto at the launch of L'Oréal's True Match Foundation to understand how she has been advocating for shade inclusivity for years as a black woman in STEM.

This episode contains audio from Imran Chaudhri's TED talk: https://youtu.be/gMsQO5u7-NQ?si=15ZJcdV-M9LrdT0j

As well as from golloria on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@golloria?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

And @yoursisbillie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yoursisbillie/

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Snap has come a long way from puking rainbows. The company has been steadily developing its artificial intelligence and augmented reality technologies for years, and is now rolling out a B2B SaaS offering for retailers and merchants. ARES, or Augmented Reality Enterprise Services, enables clients to leverage Snap's 3D viewer, virtual try-on, and fit-finder solutions into their brand-owned apps and platforms. This suite of services is already reducing return rates, decreasing cart abandonment, and increasing purchases.

In this episode, Fashion Innovation Journalist Amanda Cosco takes audiences to Snap's Partner Summit in Santa Monica, California for intimate conversations with some of the key people at Snap working on apparel, retail, and digital identity. 

In this episode:
Carolina Arguelles Navas - Head of Global AR Product Strategy & Product Marketing at Snap
Rajni Jacques - Global Head of Fashion & Beauty at Snap
David Rosenberg - Director of Strategy for Bitmoji


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Guest Links:

Snap: https://www.snapchat.com/
ARES: https://ares.snap.com/

Advancements in science have opened up new possibilities for fashion manufacturing.  One promising application of biotechnology in the textile industry is the development of lab-grown or "cultured" materials such as leather and silk. These materials are created by growing cells in a lab, without the need for animal agriculture or the use of harmful chemicals. By doing so, they offer a more sustainable alternative to traditional textile production methods, which often have significant environmental impacts. And, if you can grow proteins for making alternative leather, turns out there's other use cases too, including producing collagen for beauty products and supplements.

Our guest today in this episode is Catherine Roggero-Lovisi, the CEO of Modern Meadow, a company that is revolutionizing the fashion industry by creating sustainable, biofabricated materials. With Modern Meadow’s drop-in green technology platforms, companies in the textiles, materials, and personal care industries no longer have to compromise between sustainability and performance. At a time when greenwashing is at its peak, Modern Meadow is making a difference, and they have the data to prove it.

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Guest Links:

Modern Meadow: https://www.modernmeadow.com

When we think of smart fabrics, we often think of fabrics with sensors inside them meant to monitor our body's activity or temperature, but not all innovations in fabrication are digital. In fact, most of the time they're chemical. Today's guest on the Electric Runway Podcast is Fi Paziana, a Milan-based ex-investment banker-turned fashion designer who is launching her debut collection featuring a patented, lab-verified smart fabric. This fabric acts as a filter, protecting the sun from harmful UV rays while still allowing UVB rays through in order for the body to produce Vitamin D. This fabric is a breakthrough when you consider that one billion people worldwide suffer from a deficiency of Vitamin D. Fi is on a mission via social media, with her 2.5 million views on TikTok, to help correct it, starting in the realm of modest fashion.

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Guest Links:

Fi Milano on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fi.milano

By now,  we're all a little weary of talking about digital fashion, and the trend has certainly seen its peak in the hype cycle of emerging technology. By digital fashion, we're talking about fashion that exists only digitally and not physically, and is meant to be worn on social media, on platforms like Zoom, and inside games. 

Our guest today is Amber Jae Slooten, the co-founder and creative director of the Fabricant. The Fabricant is a fashion studio that collaborates with brands and communities to design digital-only items that can be worn on avatars and in augmented reality. 

If The Fabricant sounds familiar that's because we had Kerry Murphy, the company's founder and CEO, on the show, on back in 2021 at the peak of the digital fashion and NFT hype cycle. Our conversation with Amber touches on where the market is today and how The Fabricant is engaging with brands and consumers to build a lasting business model for digital wearables. We connect on their new project, Wholeland,  how their business model differs from competitors like DressX, and how AI will play a role in scaling digital fashion.

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Guest Links:

The Fabricant: https://www.thefabricant.com/
Amber Jae Slooten on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-jae-slooten-103a8978/?originalSubdomain=nl
Amber Jae Slooten on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amberjaeslooten/?hl=en