In a markedly hatless era, forward-marching British accessories designer Leo Carlton is turning their talents to digitally-printed crowns, elf ears, breast plates and mysterious sculptural masks. Some of these gentre-defying fashion artefacts feel a bit witchy, with pagan undertones. Others, firmly futuristic.

But how do they make them? Wouldn’t you like to know!

Leo trained at Cordwainers, enjoyed a two-year residency at Sarabande and studied classical millinery techniques - their first job out of college was with the iconic London hatmaker Stephen Jones, and they used to make showpieces for Dilara Findikoglu, Richard Quinn and Charles Jeffrey Loverboy. But these new VR adventures step beyond the confines of the physical word with mind-bending results. From teaching themselves digital printing via Youtube to sculpting in virtual reality, the only limits are: there are no limits.

Tell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

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Experience matters. Everyone always tells new design graduates that it's best to work for someone else while you find your feet. But at what point do you know that you are ready to strike out on your own?

While on the surface this conversation with emerging German fashion designer Essie Kramer seems to be about the joys of sourcing old ecclesiastical textiles and turning them into provocative new ensembles, or how digital printing is democratising object-making, I think it's really about confidence and finding your flow. When you know, you know! Essie is one to watch.

I'm always excited to meet next gen fashion talent. Featuring young designers has been a pillar of Wardrobe Crisis from the start.

I've been lucky enough to be a judge on many new gen competitions over the years, including Redress in Hong Kong, the Circular Design Challenge in India and Australia's National Designer Award. I got to write a bit for Sara Maino's Vogue Italia Talents project, and covered the BFC's New Gen for years.

Every series, we've run at least one (sometimes more) Episodes focused on new designers around the world.

Got recommendations? Hit us up!

And please share these podcasts.

Then re-listen to these treasures from our archives:

Ep 61 Vogue Talents, featuring HUEMN and Sindiso Khumalo

Ep 65 with Ruchika from Bodice Studio

Ep 70 featuring Bethany Williams, Matthew Needham and Patrick McDowell

Ep 110 with upcyclers Helen Kirkum and Duran Lantink

Ep 139 with Icelandic knitter Ýr Jóhannsdóttir

Ep 146 with Joao Maraschin

Ep 204 Michaela Stark

Happy listening!

Clare x

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A note from Clare:

This week, I'm experimenting with bringing you something a bit different. I'm calling it CLARE'S TAKE and it's a sort of op-ed slash invitation to start a conversation about a issue in the news. It's just me, no interview this time. Don't worry, I'm not abandoning the interview format! Normal programming will resume next week, but do let us know if you like the idea of adding these editorial takes on topical fashion criticism into the mix, as a bonus.

Thank you, as ever, for listening!

Clare xx

From that hat as a strategic kiss-dodger to mob wife at a funeral, dark MAGA to the spectre of an American state jewellery collection, let's just say there was a lot going on with Melania's fashion optics at the inauguration. But what's the bigger picture of luxury's right wing power play?

In a few short years, we've gone from leading fashion designers openly stating that, for ethical reasons, they'd never dress the Trumps - to the LVMH bosses attending the inauguration. When there's money to be made, does anyone remember that Trump is a convicted felon? And with key American corporations lining up to abandon their DEI and climate goals, how will the rest of fashion respond? And what they heck should the rest of us do about all this?

Tell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

*Boycotting X since August.

_________________

To discover our Sustainable Fashion 101 online course, click here.

We're giving listeners who enrol in January 50% off.

Apply the discount code - newyear - at checkout to redeem your gift.

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Ears here! Do yourself a favour and take a break from doomscrolling Trump...

Berlin fashion week is about to roll around again, and we're inspired. Not least because last year Fashion Council Germany became the first to officially adopted Copenhagen Fashion Week's sustainability framework, complete with 20 minimum standards for participating designers.

If you don’t live there, what’s your impression of the city's vibe? Dark, grey and dystopian?! In winter, there’s a bit of that for sure, but it also crackles with electric creativity. Largely devoid of corporate nonsense, Berlin's fashion culture fosters indie talent, DIY and sustainability innovation, all mixed up with the underground arts scene.

Think fashion as dialogue, self-expression and provocation. Community over ego. And embedding political movements - including sustainability and DIEB - into the shows.

Plus, of course, the legendary club scene is never far away.

“It is alternative,” says this week’s guest, much-loved fashion photographer, cult magazine maker and adopted Berliner Axl Jansen. “They don’t nip on their champagne and talk about art; they live it. Life is dangerous, you know? As an artist you have to define always new ideas, you have to find new paths of thinking, so it’s always in a kind danger, art itself.”

While this conversation isn't really about politics - it's about creativity, fashion, music - Clare's question to you is: Can we disassociate these things? We don't think so.

Art reflects the times we live in - and these, once again, are turbulent ones.

To discover our Sustainable Fashion 101 online course, click here.

We're giving listeners who enrol in January 50% off.

Apply the discount code - newyear - at checkout to redeem your gift.

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Happy New Year!

When was the last time you admired someone's style from afar, say from across the street? Or when you found yourself sitting next to them in a public place, a cafe perhaps, at a fashion show or on the bus? Did you strike up a conversation? Because we mostly don't. Mostly we just think how fab they look and that's that.

I like to think of our first Episode for series 11 as an encouragement to talk to stylish strangers, in the very best of ways, because you never know what might come out of it.

At London Fashion Week last season, I spotted Beau McCall in the crowd, and thought: Oh my, what a FABULOUS OUTFIT. He was covered, you see, in buttons galore, like a Harlem version of a Pearly King. He'd topped off this look with a Vivienne Westwood Buffalo hat. Next thing I knew, he was making his way over, and sat down next to me. The rest is, if not exactly history, encapsulated in this warm and sparkling conversation. Actually, there is quite a bit of history in it - from the evolution of the button as a fastener/decoration strictly for the well-to-do, to everyman's (and woman's) closure of choice, to the fashion history of NYC in the late '80s.

Also up for discussion: why every family should have a button box, the joy of hand-sewing, how fashion can help if you're shy at parties, and what happens when you try and sew hundreds of a buttons onto a bathtub...

For pics and links, hop over, as usual, to: thewardrobecrisis.com

Beau's website is beaumccall.com

For info on The Or Foundation's Kantamanto fund, see here.

To discover our Sustainable Fashion 101 online course, click here.

We're giving listeners who enrol in January 50% off.

Apply the discount code - newyear - at checkout to redeem your gift.

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Breathe in deeply through your nose... What can you smell right now? Can you identify it? How does it make you feel? Is it fresh, bright, pleasant? Nostalgic? Disgusting? How often do think about smell? If you only tend to notice when it's something particularly lovely - your favourite dish being cooked, a preferred flower - or horrid (let's not go there); you're not alone.

As this week's guest Susan Irvine explains, a couple of thousand years' of western philosophy has conditioned us to prioritise sight and sound, relegating smell to the senses' lower division. Why? Well, short of holding your nose (spoiler alert, there's some of that in this podcast!) smell isn't something we can generally choose to take in or shut out; it doesn't invite us to apply our discernment. But while the art and design worlds have long overlooked scent, that's changing. Agenda-setting creatives are using it in their storytelling - and we're not talking about perfume campaigns.

Welcome to the mind-blowing world of smell as material. We'll leave it to Susan to explain.

Susan Irvine is a writer of excellent books including novels, short stories and non fiction. A former Vogue beauty editor, she's a current Visiting Lecturer at London's Royal College of Art, where she teaches a course on using 'smell as material' based in the Fashion Programme. 

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If you value it, please help by sharing your favourite Episodes, and rating / reviewing us in Apple or

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"Bangladesh has come out of a lot of difficulty in the past. Bangladesh is a place of hope, is a place of resilience ... We could again come together as a nation, with the ertailers and the brands supporting us, and make the transformation. It's a huge, huge opportunity."

Rousing words from this week's compelling interview with manufacturer Shafiq Hassan, of the Echotex manufacturing facility in Gazipur, Bangladesh.

Last year Bangladesh was ranked the third-largest exporter of clothing globally (after China and the European Union) exporting USD $38.4 billion worth of garments. The nation is home to over 40K garment factories of various sizes, and over 4 million garment workers.

A decade after Rana Plaza, much progress has been made, including around environmental sustainability. Bangladesh now has 186 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified factories, and, according to Reuters, lays claim to 9 of world's top 10 'green' garment factories (considering carbon, water and energy footprint, waste, logistics, and using more sustainable materials).

Clare interviewed Shafiq in London, in September 2024, a little over month after peaceful students protests in Bangladesh toppled ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, then presiding over an increasingly corrupt and authoritarian regime. Her government's response to the protests - appalling violence - is well documented. This week, a new report by the current interim government, titled Unfolding the Truth, implicates Hasina in as many as 3,500 cases of forced disappearances during her time in office.

Warned the Solidarity Centre in August: "The economy of Bangladesh, depends on garment factories, but producers say customers are concerned about violence and disruption." What's more, the previous government's "repression against workers seeking to form and join unions has prevented garment workers from achieving the living wages and safe working conditions they have sought to achieve."

So what's next?

The Nobel peace laureate and economist Muhammad Yunus (founder of the Grameen bank) is leading the interim/ caretaker government. The factories are back working. Leading facilities like Echotex continue to innovate. What's unfolding is very relevant to the fashion sector, and to all of us who care about ethical production and want to understand the role brands have to play when it comes to what we hope are long term partnerships with suppliers.

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From Victor & Rolf's "Get Mean" frock through Jordan Gogos's radical upcycling projects to Paul McCann's "Sovereignty Never Ceded" gown, certain items of clothing speak loudly - with intention - about the times we find ourselves in. Let's not forget the long traditions of tapestry-making, quilting, embroidery, and the newer but related concepts of stitch-n-bitch craftivism. Cloth can be a radical medium. You might call it soft power, for its undeniable tactility - but don't mistake soft for weak.

"Textiles galvanise communities. Through wars, pandemics and disasters, textiles have offered a way to mobilise social and cultural groups and build connections. In the late nineteenth century, British artist and designer William Morris sought to counter the mechanisation and mass-production of the Industrial Revolution by weaving tapestries on a manual loom with hand-dyed thread. Today, many artists are experimenting with the materials and techniques of textile design as a ‘slow making’ antidote to the high-speed digital age."

With an introduction like that, how could we not respond?

This week, Clare sits down with Rebecca Evans and Leigh Robb, curators of RADICAL TEXTILES - a major new exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Up for discussion: do textiles belong in museums? Is fashion so often dismissed as some sort of lesser art because it's considered unserious women's business? How did political movements of the last century use textiles to get their messages across? What's with Don Dunstan's pink shorts? And so much more!

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New York, London, Milan, Paris? So last season! It's time to spotlight less discussed design centres. This time, Dundee, which is home the two emerging menswear designers you're about to meet - both recent graduates from the Jimmy Choo Academy.

First we'll hear from Sasha Clegg, whom with a wink, called her label The English Man. Despite being neither. She chose the name to call out the pale, male-dominated fashion industry. Sasha, who is of Zambian and Scottish descent, wants to "celebrate multiculturalism, heritage, diversity, and inclusivity." Her graduate collection, titled Mother’s Tongue, blends inspiration from her Scottish upbringing with nods to English football culture, and features kilts, tartan, and '80s-to-2000s influences.

Our second interview is with Robyn Green, whose work explores subcultures and challenges Scottish stereotypes, with a political twist.

Too often fashion mines working class communities for their idea and creativity without giving credit - that, says Robyn, is a form cultural appropriation. Her brand, Gadgie, is inspired by "the resilience and creativity of Scotland’s working-class communities" and she's on a mission to create opportunities for underrepresented voices in fashion. How to begin? Head home. After studying in London, she's back in Dundee, setting up her new studio, working with local hand-knitters and crochet artists and championing Made in Scotland.

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If you value it, please help by sharing your favourite Episodes, and rating / reviewing us in Apple or

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It's not every day you get to sit down with a proper fashion world icon and pick his brains for free!

Dear listeners, you're in for a treat this week, as Clare meets the one and only Jimmy Choo.

This magic name in shoe design is now professor - he runs his own fashion school, the Jimmy Choo Academy in London's Mayfair.

This is a warm-hearted generous chat full over pearls of wisdom, like...

"First, you must learn patience."

"It all experience! Whatever happens, don't blame yourself - learn from it."

"Somebody will always be better than you."

"If you act like a know it all, no one will want to talk to you. If you are humble, people will want to pass on their skills and knowledge."

"Trust your instincts to seize opportunities."

Want more? Headphones at the ready. And don't forget to tell us what you think.

Ultimately, Jimmy's message is, there's no point merely chasing fame, publicity and money. You have to stay true to your values.

For him, that means craftsmanship, skill, and passing on your knowledge.

Can you help us spread the word ?

Wardrobe Crisis is an independent production.

We don't believe in barriers to entry and are determined to keep this content free.

If you value it, please help by sharing your favourite Episodes, and rating / reviewing us in Apple or

Spotify. Share on socials! Recommend to a friend.

Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

THANK YOU

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