In this episode of the Crossover Moments mini-series, Kim and her co-host, Dr. Divya Jyoti, are in conversation with Saqib Sohail, a mill leader in Responsible Business Projects from Pakistan. Saqib, who has an academic background, discusses his journey from perceiving sustainability as a global positive to raising questions about its actual beneficiaries. An encounter […]

In this episode, Kim reads an article she wrote and published in July 2020 titled, ‘How Racism Shapes Fashion’s Approach to Sustainability’ where she talks about her personal relationship with the title ‘Garment Factory Manager.’ From feeling the need to qualify her role to a straightforward self-introduction, Kim’s transformation emerges from the shadows of racism […]

In this episode, Kim and her co-founder, Jessie Li, talk to researcher Dr. Divya Jyoti about her crossover moments. Divya is currently a lecturer at Lancaster University, but once envisioned a path in factory management. As a close collaborator of Manufactured for several years, Divya once saw supply chain challenges as mere technical puzzles—codes of […]

In this episode, Kim and her guest co-host, Dr.Divya Jyoti, talk to Manufactured co-founder Jessie Li about her crossover moment. She reflects on her time working for a buying office in China, and on realising that so much of the work she and her team were doing was invisible – their stresses and challenges overlooked and ignored. She shares how this realisation made her rethink everything - including how she understands the term “sustainable fashion.”

This episode is part of the "Crossover Moments” miniseries, where we explore key moments of personal transformation that led people to question and ultimately reject conventional approaches to sustainable fashion.

After quietly challenging the status quo and peeling away the invisible assumptions that cloak mainstream sustainable fashion, we are now delving into personal stories. In this series, our host and former garment factory manager Kim van der Weerd shares her personal journey and, along with her co-hosts Divya Jyoti and Jessie Li, talks to industry experts about the key pivotal moments that led to them questioning and ultimately rejecting conventional approaches to sustainable fashion. This mini-series, called Crossover Moments, explores an awakening that goes behind the story, reveals more choices beyond the defaults, and explores how we can break habits to embrace alternatives.

This is a journey into the heart of change.

Join us in reimagining the very fabric of sustainable fashion.

This episode is an audio version of a keynote that host of this podcast, Kim van der Weerd delivered at Planet Textiles, which was hosted by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition as part of ITMA - a machinery expo for the apparel sector in Milan in June 2023. She reflects on her work in various decabonization projects – from a forthcoming research report from Transformers Foundation to discussions from the Asia Garment Hub, and beyond – and shares her own views and opinions on where the industry seems to agree, where it doesn’t, and how we might understand each other better. She tells us how important it is to recognize that not all companies can decarbonize at the same speed and to the same extent. She also unpacks the challenges of financing decarbonization, the evolving leadership models in sustainability and emphasises the importance of empathy in the collective pursuit of a sustainable fashion industry.

Read more: Inside the little-known group setting the corporate climate agenda by Ian Morse for the MIT Review.

Stay tuned for the upcoming mini-series, "Crossover Moments," where we explore moments of personal transformation that led people to question and ultimately reject conventional approaches to sustainable fashion.

CREDITS:

Host: Kim van der Weerd

This is a Maed in India production.

Creative Director: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Producer: Nikkethana Kamal

Recording Engineer: Lakshman Parsuram

Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Sarthak Ray

On this episode we’re taking a look at cotton value chains in the Indian context with Rajeev Baruah, who has worked in cotton for decades. Though his background is originally in agriculture and tea, his cotton journey started with a spinning facility back in the 90s on a mission to work with organic cotton farmers - something that, at the time, was unheard of. In the years since, he’s gone on to work in a number of different roles with different stakeholders across the value chain. Rajeev gives Kim an in-depth look at the steps that go into growing, harvesting, ginning, and spinning cotton, who the commercial actors are, and what their incentives might be within the Indian context.

On this episode we’re exploring one of the final stages of production in apparel manufacturing with Rita Castro & Dionísia Portela from Confetil, a Portuguese garment manufacturer that has been supplying brands all over the world since 1960. Dionísia is Sustainability Manager and Rita is Sales and Commercial Manager for four of Confetil’s customers. They tell us more about the processes that give our clothes the final look and feel that brands aim for, from solid T-shirts to those with graphic patterns or vintage looks, different types of dyes and dyeing processes, and the sustainability of these finishing processes.

To understand the process, benefits and barriers within regenerative sericulture, we go back to Kim’s conversation from November 2021 with Hilmond Hui, Vice President of international clothing enterprise PFG and its subset Bombyx. Hilmond tells us more about Bombyx, which was formed in 2018 with a focus on regenerative silk production and transforming the way silk is produced, traded and consumed. Their Nanchong Ka Fung (NCKF) facility is located in the northeast of China’s Sichuan province, and they’re on a mission to do everything from dirt to fabric and beyond.

This week, Dr. Krishna Manda takes us through the basics of how man-made cellulosic fibre, also known as viscose and rayon, is made. Krishna is a sustainability professional with over 15 years of experience. He’s currently Vice President and Global Head of Sustainability at specialty cellulose fibre producer Lenzing, headquartered in Austria. He takes us through the kinds of plants cellulosic fibre can be made from, why Lenzing has chosen to focus on wood, how those inputs are sourced, and how a hard fibrous plant proceeds to ultimately become a soft material ready to be spun into yarn.