Future Heist

Bonnie Fechter is a fashion label by Sarah Buchanan and Rosie Ingleby produced entirely in the UK which challenges the seasonal structure of fashion collections. 

They say: "As designers, we've always been really passionate about clothing and design, however, quickly became disillusioned by the fast fashion industry and how it encourages a throw-away culture. We wanted to create a conceptual clothing label to make people more consumer conscious, to really appreciate the quality and design process involved and to fall back in love with clothes!"

Co-hosted with Chloe Vasseghi, in this episode, we discuss influences from their Scottish heritage, the growing crisis of waste in fashion and the need for a new understanding of clothes beyond the fashion prism that sees material in terms of what's hot and what's not.

Follow Bonnie Fechter on Instagram @bonnie_fechter or visit bonniefechter.com

Follow Future Heist on Instagram and Twitter @future_heist for episode updates, news and giveaways. 

Produced and recorded by Rena Niamh Smith with Chloe Vasseghi

When motion designer Hedvig Ahlberg was a student in Stockholm, she and some female classmates noticed that women tended to take a backseat in creative projects, allowing male classmates to be front and centre with their work. Once in industry, she saw the trend continuing, so she co-founded Punanimation (now Panimation) with Bee Grandinetti and Linn Fritz, a multi-platform community of equality-driven women, trans and non-binary friends within the animation industry.

Launched as a Facebook group, they now have over 3,000 members. They went on to launch a job directory that helps the industry hire these amazing animators, and Google and Adobe have now hired from their site. She has lead workshops training animators to rethink gender representation in their work.

We sat down to discuss the value of diversity, both in the workforce, and specifically in those kooky cartoons that the coolest companies love these days.

Are you an animator? Join Panimation here: www.facebook.com/groups/654345878021827/ 

Follow Future Heist on Instagram and Twitter @future_heist for episode updates, news and giveaways. 

Produced and recorded by Rena Niamh Smith with Chloe Vasseghi

Naima Omar is an activist across anti-racist and anti-austerity campaigns. She is also a Muslim who wears a hijab.

In this episode, we discuss the right for women to wear what they want, and the way in which the media often misrepresents Muslim women, as well as the real and frightening threat posed by growing Islamophobia.

Follow Naima Omar on Instagram @naima_omar1994.

Follow Future Heist on Instagram and Twitter @future_heist for episode updates, news and giveaways. 

Produced and recorded by Rena Niamh Smith

We sit down with mens fashion designer Bethany Williams.

Bethany Williams believes that social and environmental issues go hand in hand and through exploring the connection between these issues we may find innovative design solutions to sustainability.

She wants not just to comment on a community, but work in their social spaces to try to create a change through furthering economic gain for charity. By using social capital, intellectual and labour intensive skills we aim to create a profit, which will be given to connected charities, continuing the cycle of exchange.Through collaboration with communities and charities we hope to create a collection embedded with real people and hope to cause a real effect in the social space we engage with.

We discuss how Bethany has engaged with community projects, and pioneered new ways of working in fashion to reduce waste. She explains how she got into fashion design, and new projects for the future.

Follow Bethany Williams on Instagram @bethany_williams_london or visit bethany-williams.com.

Like this? Follow Future Heist on Instagram and Twitter @future_heist for episode updates, news and giveaways. 

Produced and recorded by Rena Niamh Smith