Fashion Week is starting — and before the coffee fully kicks in, here are a few early thoughts ☕

In this short industry mini-take, we unpack two moments from Paris Fashion Week that say a lot about how fashion handles memory, power, and evolution.

👁️ Galliano at Dior — Fashion’s Selective Memory
John Galliano’s appearance at the Dior show reopened a conversation the industry never quite finished having. Fashion loves a redemption arc — especially when it’s beautifully tailored — but who actually gets forgiveness, and who is written out of the story entirely? We look at how talent, accountability, and institutional amnesia intersect on the runway.

🍄 Chanel in Paris — A Soft Reset
Chanel’s couture show felt less like a reinvention and more like a recalibration. Mushrooms overhead, sheer layers, feather-light textures — and a noticeable shift in mood. Less nostalgia cosplay, more quiet confidence. In a season obsessed with disruption, Chanel made a case for patience, craft, and stability as strategy.

👉 Takeaway:
As fashion barrels into another season, these moments reveal how the industry negotiates past and future — what it remembers, what it reframes, and what it chooses to soften rather than confront.

As always — stay curious, stay critical, and please hydrate. 💧

🎧 Available on Spotify & Apple Podcasts
⭐️ If you enjoyed this mini-take, please take a moment to rate + review the podcast

Don't forget to follow us on Instagram: @theunethicalconsumer

🎤 Host: Zoë Goetzmann — @byzoesera 

Happy December! ❄️ In this month’s Industry Roundup, we’re unpacking two moments that reveal how fashion is currently negotiating power, ethics, and sustainability — one through spectacle, the other through policy.

💫The Met Gala — Spectacle, Sponsorship, and Greenwashing
We begin with fashion’s most watched red carpet: the Met Gala. For 2026, the event will be co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, and Venus Williams alongside Anna Wintour — figures who embody creativity, cultural authority, and aspiration.
But behind the glamour sits a different form of influence.

The lead sponsors of the 2026 Met Gala are Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, whose financial backing underwrites both the Gala and the Costume Institute exhibition it funds. This distinction matters. Co-chairs provide cultural legitimacy; sponsors provide structural control. When a hyper-consumerist platform like Amazon underwrites fashion’s most influential cultural night, an ethical contradiction emerges. We explore how philanthropy, climate commitments, and sustainability language can coexist with — and obscure — business models built on acceleration, excess, and extraction. The Met Gala doesn’t just celebrate fashion; it exposes its contradictions.

💫 CFDA Ends Fur at New York Fashion Week — Substance Over Symbolism
Next, we turn to a quieter but arguably more consequential shift. The Council of Fashion Designers of America has announced that animal fur will be phased out of the official New York Fashion Week schedule starting September 2026. This isn’t a gesture — it’s policy.

By embedding ethics into access, visibility, and legitimacy, the CFDA is turning sustainability from individual brand choice into institutional expectation. We unpack what this means for designers, consumers, and material innovation — including the ongoing tensions between animal welfare, fossil-based faux fur, and emerging bio-based alternatives.

👉 Takeaways: Across spectacle, culture, and institutional change, fashion continues to negotiate its sustainability story. Innovation may be rising — but scale, access, education, and mindset shifts remain the real battlegrounds.

★★★★★ Remember to take 5 minutes to rate + review the podcast on Spotify and other streaming platforms 💚

🎧 Available on Spotify & Apple Podcasts

Host: Zoë Goetzmann — @byzoesera 🎙️

🧡 ​​In this episode, we’re back with a new Industry Roundup, where we break down the biggest cultural moments shaping fashion — and what they reveal about sustainability, ethics and the industry’s ongoing contradictions.

📰 This week’s roundup covers:

✨ H&M at London Fashion Week — a blockbuster show at 180 The Strand featuring runway performances, panel talks and a full-scale after-party. But behind ⁠the spectacle⁠ lies a tension: can a fast-fashion giant tout innovation — biomaterials, circularity pledges, educational initiatives — while operating at a scale fundamentally at odds with sustainability?

🎬 Vogue World: Hollywood — hosted at Paramount Studios, blending runway, cinema and costume history. Archival pieces took ⁠centre stage⁠ (including a Givenchy-designed 1960 reproduction of Audrey Hepburn’s Breakfast at Tiffany’sdress), with standout looks from Julia Garner, Kaia Gerber and Ariana DeBose. A philanthropic angle supported costume-industry workers affected by wildfires — but can high-gloss glamour truly shift consumer behaviour?

🩶 Barbican’s “Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion” — curated by Karen Van Godtsenhoven and Jon Astbury, this exhibition embraces imperfection, wear, erosion and material life through works by Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, IAMISIGO, Yuima Nakazato and others. It reframes decay not as damage, but as a sustainable aesthetic — one that challenges the fashion system’s obsession with “newness". 

👀 Read Zoe's full review of exhibition via her Substack: ⁠https://shorturl.at/CBamX⁠

👉 Takeaways: Across spectacle, culture and conceptual critique, fashion continues to negotiate its sustainability story. Innovation may be rising, but scale, access, education and mindset shifts remain the real battlegrounds.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Remember to take 5 min to rate + review the podcast on Spotify and other streaming platforms 💚

🎧 Available on Spotify & Apple Podcasts Follow: ⁠@theunethicalconsumerpodcast⁠ Host: Zoë Goetzmann — ⁠@byzoesera⁠ 🎤

💥 In this episode, we’re launching our new segment, “Industry Roundup,” where we unpack the latest actions shaping the fashion world.

This week’s roundup covers:

✨ Paris Fashion Week: Stella McCartney’s “FEVVERS” — plant-based, vegan feather alternatives redefining what luxury means. Can exclusivity come from innovation rather than animal exploitation?

🌿 France’s Environmental Labelling Law: Effective this October, France rolled out its Environmental Labelling for Textiles (Loi AGEC) — requiring brands to disclose the environmental impact of their garments. Think of it as a nutrition label for clothes — pushing transparency and challenging the greenwashing status quo.

⚡ London Fashion Week: With new sustainability mandates and the British Fashion Council’s rallying cry — “The world is watching this week. Let us show them what only London can do” — are we seeing the rise of an eco-rebellion? London’s signature punk spirit might just be fueling a planet-conscious creative renaissance.

👉 If you enjoyed this new solo episode, please rate us ★★★★★ and leave a kind review wherever you listen.

🎧 Available on Spotify & Apple Podcasts

Follow: ⁠@theunethicalconsumerpodcast

TUC ⁠Host: Zoë Goetzmann — ⁠@byzoesera⁠ 🎤

This week’s episode features Rachel Glicksberg (@rachelglicksberg), Women’s Fashion and New Initiatives Lead at The RealReal.  We explore Rachel’s fashion journey, the impact of resale on sustainable fashion, and how circular models are redefining the industry 🌍♻️

We talk all about: 

• Her path into fashion and sustainable initiatives at The RealReal 

• The evolving resale economy and its role in making fashion more accessible & eco-friendly (primary vs. secondary markets) 

• The power of storytelling and personal values in shaping the industry ✍️🗣

• Her future forecasts for the fashion industry 

BONUS Question: I also ask her what her favourite Met Gala looks have been 🌟 💚 This conversation has been one of my favourites, as Rachel and I share an alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College. It feels full circle to celebrate her journey while continuing to showcase women leaders making an impact across creative industries.

🌸  If you enjoy this episode, please rate us 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, leave us a kind review and subscribe for more interviews with designers and change-makers in sustainable fashion.

👉 Follow Rachel’s work at The RealReal and keep up with us on Instagram:

• Rachel Glicksberg: @rachelglicksberg 

• TUC Podcast: @theunethicalconsumerpodcast

• TUC Podcast Host, Zoë Goetzmann: @byzoesera

💡Some designers mentioned in this episode: 

💫 Past TRR-Upcycling Collaborators: Collina Strada (⁠@collinastrada⁠), Jonathan Cohen (⁠@jonathancohenstudio), Gypsy Sport (now rebranded to The Rio World, ⁠@rioworld⁠), Dauphinette (⁠@dauphinette.nyc⁠), Carolina Zimbalist (⁠@carolinezimbalist⁠), Ian Allen Greer (⁠@ianallengreer)⁠, Presley Oldham (⁠@presleyoldham⁠), Don’t Let Disco (⁠@dontletdisco⁠) 

💫 Emerging designers Rachel is currently loving: Diotima (⁠@diotima.world⁠), ZANKOV (⁠@zankov⁠), Colleen Allen (@colleenallenstudio⁠

Hello #TUCPodcast🌱🎙️ Listeners! Welcome back to another episode with our next guest, Textile Designer Alexandria Masse (@alexandria.masse). Alexandria holds a BFA in Textiles/Fashion with a Minor in Art History from NSCAD University. At present, she continues to work as a visual artist, collaborating with high-profile brands including Coach, Xbox Canada, North Face and many more. In this episode, we explore the intersection of art and fashion by discussing Alexandria's viral project, "Birth Control Tapestry." In this ambitious work, Alexandria crochets the full text of her birth control information sheet, creatively confronting themes of "bodily autonomy," women’s rights ♀️🫶, and "informed consent." We also cover a variety of other topics including Alexandria’s artist background, her artistic inspirations from her childhood and East Asian heritage to intersectional feminism, the underrepresentation of women textile artists, tackling art and social media 🤳, the need for transparency in the art and fashion industries, sustainable fashion vs. no fast fashion 🚫 as well as the power of art and how art can change our world 🌍 🎨🧵🙌

🌸 If you liked this episode , please make to rate us 5 stars 🌟 and subscribe for more interviews + episodes about sustainable fashion & designers!

👉 Make sure to follow Alexandria's links (to see how ‘Birth Control Tapestry’ unfolds/the BTS process 🎬)

Alexandria Masse Instagram: @alexandria.masse

Alexandria Masse TikTok: @alexandriamasse

Alexandria Masse Instagram (see her other artwork): https://www.alexandriamasse.com/

🎤 Follow  Host, Zoë Goetzmann: @byzoesera 

TUC Podcast Instagram: @theunethicalconsumerpodcast

👉 🗣️More resources (things we also discussed in our interview/discussion) :) 

Read more about Alexandria's "Birth Control Tapestry" Here

Barbara Kruger (Conceptual Artist): http://www.barbarakruger.com/

Kendall Ross (“I’d Knit That”): https://idknitthatco.com/

Louise Bourgeois “Maman” (in Ontario and - currently at Tate Modern in London): https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/louise-bourgeois-2351/art-louise-bourgeois

☀️ 🏖️ Happy Summer, ⁠⁠#TUCPodcast🌱🎙️⁠⁠listeners! I’m super excited & pleased to bring you all a brand new episode with our next guest, ⁠⁠Amanda Butten⁠⁠ - the founder of the slow fashion label, “⁠⁠Bonkers Bon Coeur⁠⁠” based in London. Launched in 2025, Amanda creates truly sustainable, ethical and made-to-order clothing inspired by her love of "timeless" vintage fashion and fashion silhouettes, 1960’s vintage clothing and films 👗. As the name of her brand suggests, “Bonkers Bon Coeur” seeks to combine the “effortlessly chic” Parisian style with “London’s playful and bold eccentricity” - using gingham as her primary material - she mixes her love for these two cities (+ their styles and street styles) 🥖💂🇬🇧

💫 On this episode, we speak all about: How Amanda launched her fashion line, up-cycling 🌳, what slow fashion truly means, clothing and fashion history, the inspiration behind using gingham as her primary material [i.e. from "Dorothy's"/Judy Garland’s blue gingham dress in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), ⁠⁠Brigitte Bardot’s pink gingham wedding dress ⁠⁠to "Barbie's"/Margot Robbie’s recreation of this prior iconic ensemble in the “Barbie," (2023) 🎬]. We also talk Parisian style, notable London fashion brands like “⁠⁠Biba⁠⁠” [i.e. the original “fast fashion” store/label], famous 1960’s womenswear designer ⁠⁠Mary Quant⁠⁠ as well as how Amanda strives to make sustainable fashion and slow fashion “the norm” 🌿🫶

👉 [LISTEN TO/AT 27:38 for a tutorial on how to wear her iconic, chequered scarves] 🧣🕶️

⁠⁠🎧⁠⁠Now streaming on all platforms: Spotify, Apple Music (and Anchor) 

👉 Make sure to follow Amanda & check out "Bonkers Bon Coeur" (and definitely shop her line if you're thinking of sprucing up your spring and summer wardrobes): 

Bonkers Bon Coeur (Website): ⁠⁠https://www.bonkersboncoeur.com/⁠⁠

Bonkers Bon Coeur (Instagram): ⁠⁠@bonkers.boncoeur⁠⁠

Amanda Butten (Instagram):⁠⁠ @amanda.butten⁠⁠

⁠⁠🎤⁠⁠ Follow ⁠⁠#TUCPodcast🌱🎙️⁠⁠Host, Zoë Goetzmann: ⁠⁠@byzoesera ⁠⁠

TUC Podcast Instagram: ⁠⁠@theunethicalconsumerpodcast⁠⁠

✅  Please remember to rate our podcast 5 stars 🌟, review/leave a nice & lovely comment and subscribe ‼️ 🙌 to the podcast (so we can keep making more episodes, share more interviews with amazing sustainable designers + keep on sharing more information and spreading awareness on sustainability and sustainable fashion) ♻️📢

Hello #TUCPodcast🌱 Listeners, welcome back to another episode where I’m joined with two fashion and creative industry experts: Vera Lúcia Mendes (@veralumendes) - a “fashion designer who writes about fashion” and the Founder of “The Fashion Standup” (@thefashionstandup) - an independent fashion publication 📝💻  as well as Brand Strategist Claudiu Ciumbotaru (@worldofclaudiu), Co-Founder of Créatif (a Paris & London-based Creative Agency). 

💫 On this episode: Both fashion/creative experts lend us their professional insights and opinions on the recent AW25 Fashion Week in Lisbon/Lisboa, Paris and London 🌎

💫 With Vera: We talk about Fashion Journalism, Lisboa Fashion Week, Accessibility in the  Fashion World, Independent designers, Gen Z attitudes (in the creative industries & their approaches to building brands/fashion brands), ‘fashion/social media virality'📱, Feminism, Fashion & Politics 🙌 Jane Fonda’s amazing #SAGAwards speech (“Empathy is not weak or woke. By the way, woke just means you give a - about other people" 💭🗣️

💫 With Claudiu [TIME STAMP Pt. 2: 45:26], we speak all about his insights into the Paris vs. London fashion landscapes (esp. during Fashion Week), what it means “to be creative” / “what creativity” actually means (from an industry perspective), the importance of “responsibility” + “corporate responsibility” 🧳🎨 He also speaks on brand, No 44 - a sustainable denim brand with the mission “Denim without compromise” 👖- upending a renewable/upcycling programme with their denim designs: No 44 Renew ✨

👉 Make sure to follow:

Vera Lúcia Mendes Instagram: @veralumendes  

Read & Subscribe to “The Fashion Standup” (@thefashionstandup) 👓💄

https://www.thefashionstandup.com

Substack: https://thefashionstandup.substack.com

👉 Make sure to follow:

Claudiu Ciumbotaru Instagram: @worldofclaudiu

Créatif: https://wecreatif.com/

Créatif (Instagram): @creatifandco

🎤 Follow  Host, Zoë Goetzmann: @byzoesera 

TUC Podcast Instagram: @theunethicalconsumerpodcast

➡ More resources: 

Moda Lisboa (Lisbon/Lisboa Fashion Week)

@lisboafashionweek

No 44 (Sustainable Denim Brand): https://no44store.com/

No 44 (Instagram): @no44store

To kick-off London Fashion Week (#LFW) & Season 2 of the #TUCPodcast 2️⃣📸⁠⁠💅, I’m super excited (+ pleased) to introduce our next guest: Celebrity Stylist Ebony Brown (@ebonybrownstyle). 

➡️ In this episode, we talk about it all: Her “Stylist Story,” BTS of a celebrity stylist, Wardrobe + Costume Design, Fashion Industry insight on working with celebrities, “It Ends With Us”💐🎥 Film Fashion (see her fabulous TikTok fashion breakdown + why “Lily  Bloom” is a #Swiftie)🔗👏, her platform “Celebrity Style Academy” (providing tips on working with celebrities/”how to become a stylist”), capsule wardrobes, saying “no to Fast Fashion” and what she would change about the industry in 2025 ♻️🪡 💪

💫 Ebony Brown’s worked with high-profile clientele such as Jordan E. Cooper, Halsey and Camila Cabello as well as with companies and brands from the likes of Nike, Adidas, McDonalds (and many more). Ebony’s worked on fashion editorial with publications such as Paper Magazine and V Magazine (to name a few). 

She’s worked with fashion industry creatives from Ellen Von UnWerth, David LaChapelle and Hype Williams Finally, Ebony’s also the creator of her own “Celebrity Style Academy” which offers online styling courses, resources, a fashion/stylist guide and insider insights into the fashion business (as well as “how to become a working fashion stylist”). 

👉 Make sure to follow:

Ebony Brown Instagram: @ebonybrownstyle  

Ebony Brown TikTok (for her amazing stylist breakdowns and stylist/wardrobe designer industry behind-the-scenes): @ebonybrownstyle 

🎤 Follow  Host, Zoë Goetzmann: @byzoesera 

TUC Podcast Instagram: @theunethicalconsumerpodcast

TUC Podcast Website: www.theunethicalconsumerpodcast.com

👉 Make sure to check out Ebony’s “Celebrity Style Academy” for Stylist resources + tips on “how to become a stylist” - https://www.celebritystyleacademy.com

Happy Holidays TUC Podcast Listeners! 🌲🎉 As we wind down the year/2025, I’m so happy to bring you our final episode with Andreea Vaitis (@andreea.vaitis), a sustainable fashion consultant, stylist, advocate/fashion influencer based in London. Andreea operates a sustainable beauty, health and wellness business with the B-Certified company Arbonne and works as a Communications Officer for an environmental charity. Currently, she is also CEO of Sustainability at Créatif, a Paris-London based Creative Agency - further supporting brands in their sustainable efforts 💫💅💪

Working as a stylist at H&M for many years (based on her “passion for fashion”), she left this fast fashion retailer space and began to “live life with purpose”💡

In this episode, we talk all about top tips for truly dressing/styling/shopping sustainability, B-Corp certified businesses (“4%” of businesses are categorized with this ethical ranking, according to Andreea’s episode), “greenwashing,” how to stay sustainable this holiday season 🎊, motherhood (how this changed Andreea’s style and sustainable mindset), “disposable culture” and steps to take to protect future generations 🫶🌳👏

👉 Make sure to follow: 

Andreea Vaitis (+ her fabulous sustainable/second-hand styling outfits & ventures) via her Instagram (@andreea.vaitis) 

Follow #TUCPodcast🌱 Host, Zoë Goetzmann (@byzoesera) 

TUC Podcast Instagram: @theunethicalconsumerpodcast.com

TUC Podcast Website: 💻 www.theunethicalconsumerpodcast.com 

👉A few sustainable collaborations/resources to check out: 

Arbonne UK

Créatif (Find out about the agency's sustainable mission)

Finitsterre x Reskinned: Donation/clothing recycling scheme [trade in Finisterre gears and products at any physical store for discounts on new purchases/gear/clothes]