The Quick Unpick

When young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds arrive in Australia, they face barriers that can seem insurmountable: unemployment, isolation and difficulties accessing education and training. But what if they could design their own future?

In this episode of The Quick Unpick Podcast, I chat to Aleksandra Nedeljkovic and Luka Rey from Ethical Clothing Australia-accredited social enterprise The Social Studio.

The Social Studio empowers young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds by providing fashion and industry-based solutions to the main obstacles they face upon arriving in our community. They do this by creating jobs, providing education opportunities, encouraging community engagement and fostering social inclusion.

Their unique model is made up of three fashion-based not-for-profit social enterprises: an RMIT-accredited school, an ethical production studio, and retail store. The common thread? Every one of these different initiatives exists to empower Australia’s migrant and refugee youth through education and employment.

Each part of their ecosystem either provides these practical opportunities or funds them. So when you shop or produce locally with The Social Studio, you help build futures in more ways than one.

Listen in to find out how the organisation came about, the incredible threads they make under their roof in Melbourne and how they’re using fashion for good to empower and connect migrants and refugees who are new to this country.

When you think of Australian-made fashion, a few brands might come to mind. But I bet that one of them is Ethical Clothing Australia-accredited brand Cue Clothing Co. Yep, It’s safe to say that you’ve not only heard of Cue and seen its stores, but you probably have one, if not a number, of the brand’s quality garments in your wardrobe.

Cue is synonymous with ethical fashion in Australia. It’s a champion for Australian made fashion and prides itself as being at the forefront of design trends and movements. Known for its quality workwear and wardrobe staples, Cue has been operating since 1968 and is still wholly owned by the founding family. From its first store opened in the Strand Arcade, Sydney, the brand now has stores in all major cities throughout Australia and New Zealand – crediting much of its 50-year success to its local production houses and their strong relationships with their makers.

The brand became ECA accredited in 2009, after founder Rodney Levis made a conscious decision to actively showcase and promote Cue’s values. 11 years on, the partnership is still going strong, and we’re going to learn a bit more about that today.

In this episode of The Quick Unpick Podcast, you’ll hear from two women from the Cue team – Executive Director Melanie Levis and Head of Design Kylie Parkes.

Until now, the custom-fit clothing industry has been dominated by suit and dress makers. But now there’s a wolf at the door, and they’re changing the industry for the better.

In this episode of The Quick Unpick, I talk to Eric Phu, from Ethical Clothing Australia-accredited business Citizen Wolf. Citizen Wolf is a Sydney-based brand making custom-fit casual wear with a focus on ethical and sustainable practices.

Before now, this would have been an incredibly difficult task. In fact, when the founders came up with the idea to create custom-fit casual wear, they were mostly told it wouldn’t work, that it would be too expensive and therefore impossible to scale. Needless to say, they stuck at it and got it over the line, and Citizen Wolf is now the official home of the #TailoredTee.

Committed to ethical and sustainable production, Citizen Wolf uses a mixture of merino , organic cotton, and cotton hemp blends that are grown in Australia and milled in Melbourne. The brand works with mills accredited by Ethical Clothing Australia, ensuring that there are safe working conditions and fair pay throughout its supply chain.

Listen in to find out how Citizen Wolf is creating quality t-shirts while leaving a minimal impact on the planet.

Sustainable fashion isn’t just about the fabrics and resources that go into the garments, but the style and timelessness of the garments themselves.

The element of designing for longevity is one that Melbourne-based designer Lois McGruer-Fraser had in mind when creating her Ethical Clothing Australia-accredited brand, Lois Hazel.

Lois Hazel is a womenswear label based in Melbourne that has a relaxed and casual aesthetic to its quality Australian made pieces – influenced by Lois’s personal style and desire to wear comfortable clothing.

In this episode of The Quick Unpick, I chat to Lois about her timeless style, why sustainability matters, and her advice for new designers who want to do things the right way.

Manufacturing any type of fashion is a feat – but if you know anything about the fashion manufacturing scene, you’ll know that denim is especially challenging.

Nevertheless, that’s what John Condilis – the co-founder of Ethical Clothing Australia-accredited brand Nobody Denim – decided to do some 20 years ago.

Nobody Denim is an iconic Australian fashion brand that has been celebrated in Australia and around the world for its premium women’s denim since 1999.

The brand says that by manufacturing their garments locally and using their own denim factory and laundry, they keep jobs onshore and help keep the Australian textile, clothing and footwear manufacturing industry alive, employing more than 80 people. This model also allows Nobody Denim to shorten the brand’s supply chain, increase transparency and reduce travel to minimise the carbon footprint of each garment.

Nobody’s team believes that sustainable business is good business, and say that ethical manufacturing is at the heart of what they do. Listen in as I chat to John to find out what that means, and what the brand’s onshore manufacturing set up looks like – from design to dispatch.

Fashion has long been a vehicle for activism – think Vivienne Westwood in her 70s statement tees, protesters in their Black Lives Matter shirts and suffragettes burning or simply going without their bras.

In this episode of The Quick Unpick, I talk to Sarah Sheridan – the Director of Operations at Clothing the Gap – a Victorian Aboriginal owned and led social enterprise fashion label managed by health professionals. The brand says it produces merch that celebrates Aboriginal people and culture – with the aim to encourage all people to wear their values on their tee.

It might sound familiar to you. Clothing The Gap is actually a play on the words "Closing the Gap", an Australian Government health initiative to help close the life expectancy gap between Aboriginal people and non-Indigenous Australians. Clothing The Gap unites non-Indigenous and Aboriginal people through fashion and causes, one of which is to help Close the Gap.

Recently, Clothing the Gap became the first known Aboriginal-owned business to have its Australian manufacturing accredited by Ethical Clothing Australia. At the time of recording this, about 20% of the brand’s streetwear is ethically made in Australia, with the business also working on a future workwear line to be made 100% in Australia and accredited by ECA.

Charada Hawley couldn’t find any underwear that she liked – so she decided to make her own. The result? Jackfruit the Label, an Ethical Clothing Australia-accredited underwear brand based in Byron Bay.

Charada looks after all processes from design to dispatch, including pattern making and dying the fabric all the way through to construction of the garments.

The label is built upon the slow and ethical fashion movement and a desire to show the utmost care for the planet and their workers through minimal waste production methods. As such, all Jackfruit the Label garments are designed, dyed and constructed in house at the Byron Bay, solar powered studio.

Find out more about Charada’s process and Jackfruit the Label in this episode of The Quick Unpick.

The life cycle of every item you wear starts long before you put it on for the first time, and continues long after you wear it for the last time. It’s probably not something you’ve thought much about – and unfortunately, it’s not something every maker thinks about, either.

A.BCH is an Ethical Clothing Australia-accredited label based in Melbourne that employs circular design principles – a regenerative system in which resource input and waste, emission, and energy leakage are minimised and the full life cycle of each garment is considered.

Since its launch in 2017, A.BCH has done all its manufacturing in Melbourne, citing much greater control over production quality, minimised wastage and ability to maintain adaptive timelines as its main motivations. In this episode of The Quick Unpick, I talk to A.BCH’s Courtney Holm about creativity, transparency and accountability, and about how an ECA accreditation has helped connect her label with customers looking for ethical, Australian-made garments.

The first episode of The Quick Unpick Podcast series is in conversation with Angela Bell, National Manager of Ethical Clothing Australia and TCF Union National Secretary Jenny Kruschel from the Manufacturing Division of the CFMEU. We recorded this episode live in line with the inaugural Ethical Clothing Australia Week and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of ECA's accreditation program.

Listen in to find out if Australian made is equal to ethically made, issues garment workers face in Australia, ECA and the Union's part in ensuring garment worker rights, and where to from here for the Australian fashion manufacturing industry. 

The Quick Unpick is a podcast series collaboration between Britt's List & Ethical Clothing Australia (ECA), released to celebrate ECA’s twenty-year anniversary and the launch of the inaugural Ethical Clothing Australia Week in 2020. Over a series of episodes, Britt's List editor Brittanie Dreghorn will be talking to a number of ECA-accredited Australian businesses who are manufacturing locally - helping to support the Australian Textile Clothing & Footwear (TCF) Industry through protecting garment worker rights, skills, and ensuring their garments are made with strong ethical values.