One way to curb overproduction of clothing is to keep the clothes we have longer. It’s an old-fashioned solution but a simple one: instead of tossing worn and torn clothes in the trash, repair them. Major outdoor apparel brands have embraced repairs as a way to stay close to their customers, and luxury brands have long offered repairs as a service to their clients. But with fast fashion jumping in on the trend, is this just sustainable theater or can it move the culture toward caring for clothes?

Then, Rachel, Shilla and Christina dig into a new technology from Swedish company Renewcell. Circulose is made from 100% textile waste and is used as a raw material to make things like viscose and lyocell. Zara announced they’re using it in a capsule line of clothing, including dresses and sweaters in natural colors. H&M is an investor in the company, as well. Does this signal an important step forward in recycling technology? And is it scalable enough to have an impact? 

Resources:  

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

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This week, we’re talking about returns. The more we shop, the more we return. And the more we shop online, the worse it gets.

Retailers have embraced easy, free returns as a way to grab market share, but it’s coming at a cost to the companies and the planet. We’ll look at just how bad the data is, talk about what can be done to manage returns, and hopefully find some companies who are getting it right. This won’t be the only time we talk about returns, but we’re starting out today with a look at just how bad the problem has gotten.

Then, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is getting serious about holding fashion brands accountable for their sustainability claims. They announced an investigation into Asos, Boohoo, and Asda after a preliminary look at the brands’ claims in January. Will other countries follow suit? And how are brands responding? 

Resources:  

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter. 

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This week, we take our first look at the beauty industry – skin care, cosmetics, hair care, and wellness supplements – and find it wanting. 

Kim Kardashian’s line of skincare, SKKN, got off to a bumpy start with lots of social media backlash around its packaging. And many others make claims around sustainable ingredients that don’t hold up to scrutiny. 

Then, Gucci has an environmental impact report out, and has partnered with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to embrace circularity in its business. A classic luxury brand sending a powerful message to the industry around sustainable practices. Will it stick?

Finally, we turn to biotech, where innovators are building nylon out of plants. This gets us excited, as it goes beyond the challenges of recycling plastic to avoiding fossil fuels altogether. Science!

Resources:  

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

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H&M has an uphill battle to be taken seriously as a sustainable fashion brand, and last week it got even worse. Quartz published an investigation into H&M’s use of an environmental impact scorecard to misrepresent the sustainability of its clothing lines, finding the company used faulty data to make claims that were patently false. Not a good look for a brand trying to remake its image.

We’re delighted to have the author of that article, Amanda Shendruk, as a guest this week. She’ll talk us through the details of H&M’s missteps.

Then we take another look at the industry’s challenges around transparency, and talk through the Fashion Transparency Index for 2021, which ranks fashion brands by “what information they disclose about their social and environmental policies, practices and impacts, in their operations and supply chain.” The results aren’t encouraging. Brands have a long way to go in wages and worker conditions, supply chain carbon emissions, purchasing practices, their COVID response, and supply chain traceability.

Resources:

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

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The metaverse became a household term after Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta, and Fortnite gamers started attending virtual concerts wearing Balenciaga hoodies. And now the utopian web3 vision has come for fashion. 

Brands are framing their digital clothes, shoes, and accessories as a sustainability play. This week, Christina, Rachel, and Shilla look past the marketing hype and think through the long-term impact.

Then, has fast fashion ruined thrifting? Second-hand retailers are being flooded with donated clothes from the likes of Shein, H&M, and Zara, and seasoned thrifters are despondent. It’s driving up prices and making those desirable vintage and unique items harder to find. What is the future of thrifting?

We’ll finish with a dose of optimism by sharing some of the trends and companies that are keeping us feeling positive about the fashion industry.

Resources:

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter. 

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This week, we’re talking about plastic fashion. Your Instagram and TikTok feed are probably littered with feel-good ads for clothes and shoes made from recycled bottles. But they aren’t the solution you think. 

Then, it’s a new world for brands doing business with China. America’s crackdown on forced labor is twisting supply chains putting brands in an uncomfortable position. How will fashion reorient itself? 

And we’ll finish with a reality-TV breakup with fast fashion. Can ‘Love Island’ push pre-loved clothing into the zeitgeist? 

Resources:

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

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Last fall, the Apparel Impact Institute and Fashion for Good mapped out what it would take to cut fashion’s carbon emissions by half by 2030, and hit net-zero by 2050. Those are goals identified by the UN fashion charter in 2018.

Their conclusion: we’ll need $1 trillion to get there. This week, we’ll ask: where will that money come from? 

Then, as shoppers are heading back to stores, high-end brands are adding circular services to try to draw them in. Is this an indication of a bigger movement for in-person retail? 

Finally, we end with European raids of top design brands’ headquarters. Did a movement to rewire fashion more sustainably somehow turn anticompetitive? 

Stories discussed in this episode:

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter. 

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For the first topic of our first episode, we are asking a simple question: what is fashion’s actual impact on the environment?

We know the environmental impact of fashion is vast. But has it been properly quantified? It turns out, no. And that’s a problem for figuring out how to fix it.

Then, we turn to the most visible problem in the fashion industry: textile waste. 

Rachel and Shilla are both involved in an effort to bring more transparency and regulatory scrutiny to the textiles industry. We’ll dig into some possible solutions for textile waste.

We’ll finish with one of the hottest stories in fashion: Shein.

In April, the Wall Street Journal revealed the Chinese mega-retailer had raised over $1 billion at a $100 billion valuation. Shein is now one of the most valuable private companies in the world — built off an ultra-fast fashion model that pumps out thousands of new styles per week.

What does Shein’s rise tell us about the tension between consumer desires for sustainable products and actual buying habits? And can Shein clean up its operations in a meaningful way?

Additional reading:

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s no turning away from today’s reality: the demand for sustainability has come for the fashion industry.

Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker are here to talk about it.

Hot Buttons features weekly observations and lively debate about the future of the fashion industry as it reckons with its impact on the climate, natural resources, and worker rights. The show is not just about reducing emissions in the supply chain – it’s about the culture of fashion, the high-stakes decisions inside the industry, and how we rethink the very idea of growth. 

Subscribe to Hot Buttons everywhere you get podcasts. Episodes drop every Thursday starting June 16.

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