How one company is turning greenhouse gases into a plastic alternative that biodegrades.

As Scientific American points out, "carbon is the giver of life - your skin and hair, blood and bone, muscle and sinews all depend on carbon. Bark, leaf, root and flower; fruit and nut; pollen and nectar; bee and butterfly; Doberman and dinosaur—all incorporate essential carbon. Every cell in your body—indeed, every part of every cell—relies on a sturdy backbone of carbon." Carbon isn't a monster - although it's sometimes painted that way.

Carbon dioxide, however, is obviously causing us serious problems. We can't keep pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Reducing emissions and switching to renewables are the obvious first ports of call. But might we also be able to rethink unwanted greenhouse gases as a feedstock - something useful that we could turn into a product?

That's what this week's guest is proposing. Meet Mark Herrema, co-founder and CEO of Newlight Technologies, the company behind Air Carbon. He’s hoping this bio-based material will revolutionise the plastics industry. And Nike agrees...

Find all the links and further reading in the shownotes at thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast

Tell us what you think on Instagram @thewardrobecrisis @mrspress

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We love to talk about our 2030 goals, but climate change is not some future worry – it’s here today. It’s already bringing more frequent extreme weather events, as we’ve seen in Australia recently. In late February, early March, catastrophic floods hit northern NSW and southern Queensland, after intense rain fell over the eastern seaboard. Rivers burst their banks, sending houses, roads, farms, and public buildings underwater. People died. Communications were a struggle. It some cases, it took days for the emergency services to arrive, and people were left to fend for themselves, rescuing their neighbours in whatever floated, and organising their own-off road vehicles and even helicopters.

Three weeks later, it isn’t over for the thousands of affected. Beyond the mind-boggling extent of the clean-up lies a housing crisis. But this is not a gloomy interview. Our theme is radical hope. Meet Northern Rivers local Zoe Gameau, who shares how her local community, and women in particular, sprang into action to help and organise on the ground. And, yes, there’s a fashion angle – clothes take on a special meaning when you’ve lost everything.

Find links and more in the shownotes here.

Follow Wardrobe Crisis on Instagram. Clare is @mrspress

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Have you bought digital garments for your avatar yet? Would you like to? You need to listen to this! Moin Roberts-Islam is the Technology Development Manager at the Fashion Innovation Agency, at the London College of Fashion, and he’s here to answer all our questions.

In this riveting interview, you’re going to hear him explain pretty much every entry level thing you need to know about how digital fashion works, why it’s exploding, what brands are doing, how gaming is involved, who is buying digital garments and why, plus we discuss the Metaverse and NFTs, and how all this relates to sustainability.

Let us know what you think. Follow Clare on Instagram @mrspress @thewardrobecrisis

www.thewardrobecrisis.com

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On February 24th, Russia invaded Ukraine. The news headlines filled with terrifying stories of missile strikes on residential areas, hitting apartment buildings and killing civilians; of nuclear power plants being attacked and 1 million people fleeing country. What has fashion to do with all this?

The morning that Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war was also the first day of Milan Fashion Week. And as the violence continued, so too did the fashion shows, next in Paris. Fashion’s Instagram feeds were unsettling mix of commentary on Kim Kardashian’s outfits and blue-and-yellow street style looks inspired by the Ukrainian flag. Some brands used their platforms to take a stand for peace. But solidarity only goes so far.

How should fashion respond to war? What is our moral obligation? Saying you care about something is not the same as doing something about it, so beyond a social media post, how can an industry like fashion contribute meaningfully? Should brands the retailers impose their own sanctions on Russia and halt business there? What support do Ukrainian designers need? Is it okay not to speak out? And when does this become simply, as guest today puts it, common sense, or an expression of our common humanity.

In this week’s Episode, Clare sits down with Venya Brykalin, fashion director of Vogue Ukraine to ask these questions and more.

Want to help Ukraine? Please visit this website: https://how-to-help-ukraine-now.super.site/

Thank you for listening. As usual, find further links and details on the shownotes on thewardrobecrisis.com

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What does it mean to leave - voluntarily - your homeland, to make a new creative life in another country? How might the place you left behind and the new one you chose collide in your work? Thirty-five years after he left Koyoto and enrolled in East Sydney Technical College, with a big dream and small bag full of kimonos nicked off his mum, Akira Isogawa is an Australian national treasure. He's been the subject of major museum retrospectives, designed costumes for the ballet, and seen his work worn by supermodels, and championed by Vogue editors and influential buyers. But Akira is still as humble as they come.

Clare sits down with the iconic Japanese-Australian fashion designer to discuss home, roots and the future, and past, of fashion. It’s a delightful conversation touching on the artist's creative journey and his collaborators, his long fascination with Japanese textiles and his approach to sustainability - which considers minimalism, recycling, repurposing and mending.

Let us know what you think. Follow Clare on Instagram @mrspress @thewardrobecrisis

www.thewardrobecrisis.com

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Have you heard about New York’s proposed sustainable fashion law? It’s called the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, and if it is passes those behind it say: this groundbreaking piece of legislation that will make New York the global leader in accountability for the $2.5 trillion fashion industry. Supporters include the likes of Stella McCartney and Jane Fonda.

So, why do we need it?

If New York were a country, it would rank as the world’s 10th largest economy, bigger than Canada, Russia and Korea. You already know that the global fashion industry has major climate impacts. It is responsible for around 4% of carbon emissions (some say 10%). Meanwhile, supply chains remain stubbornly opaque, garment and textile workers continue to get a raw deal and fashion waste is a major polluter. And New York, as an iconic commercial rag trade hub, has the potential to play a powerful role in transforming things.

This week, Clare sits down with Maxine Bedat, founder of New Standard Institute, one of the driving forces behind the Act. They discuss how it came about, what it hopes to achieve and whether it's likely to fly. Maxine is sustainable fashion pioneer, formerly one half of Zady and last year she published her first book - Unravelled, The Life & Death of Garment.

Let us know what you think. Follow Clare on Instagram @mrspress @thewardrobecrisis

www.thewardrobecrisis.com

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This week we sit down with New Yorker Mara Hoffman to find out how she turned her namesake brand into a sustainable fashion leader, what makes her tick - from astrology and to the inspirational beauty of Mother Earth, and being a mamma thinking about the next generation.

The MH brand does a bunch of cool stuff, like working with natural dyes and regenerative agriculture projects. There’s even a peer-to-peer preloved Mara Hoffman marketplace called Full Circle. They also work with a local social enterprise called Custom Collaborative that provides jobs and training for from low-income and immigrant communities.

In this warm discussion, Mara and Clare discuss why we still need physical stores and spaces to connect is in ways that aren’t quite the same online. The burden of physical stuff,  the responsibility that comes being a designer today. And plants! And SATC legend Patricia Field. Enjoy! Mara is tops.

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Do we really believe that we can pursue infinite growth on a finite planet? Why would we even want to?

This week's guest is Tim Jackson, the ecological economist who wrote Post Growth, Life After Capitalism.

It's a very persuasive argument for a complete rethink of how we define success, and why we need a new type of economy, one that prioritises relationships and meaning, over profits and power. Tim sees this book as "both a manifesto for system change and an invitation to rekindle a deeper conversation about the nature of the human condition.” Sound good?

What that might look like practically? How could we get there? On this Episode, Tim and Clare discuss all this and more, from how advertising fuels overconsumption and why big companies are banking on green growth, to the future of work, what a single universal income could do for us, and even a bit of fashion – by way of an 18th century philosopher.

Head to our website for further reading and links.

We hope you enjoy this thought-provoking conversation! Please consider rating and reviewing in Apple podcasts, and sharing the show with your friends.

You can find us on Instagram here, and here, and Clare on Twitter, here.

Don't forget to hit subscribe! New Eps every Wednesday.

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After two years of fashion weeks globally being more or less on pandemic pause, they're back.

Last week the Paris couture shows drew crowds in the French capital. As we publish, Scandinavia is in the spotlight with Copenhagen's event. The big four are going ahead this month, albeit with a few big names missing and some format changes. London's will be a gender neutral digital-physical event, showing "menswear, womenswear and gender neutral collections" - after London Fashion Week Men's was cancelled in January. New York is planning with physical shows, despite Tom Ford having to cancel due to Omicron disruptions. And while the schedules for Milan and Paris womenswear have yet to be published, they are expected to include some heavy hitters, including Gucci in Milan.

So, we ask – is this the start of everything going back to the way it used to be? Why shouldn’t it be? And what is the alternative? Do need fashion weeks at all? How can we reinvent them? What role could they play in sustainability?

This week's guest is Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week. Discover how she introduced pioneering new sustainability requirements as a condition of brands showing on the Danish runway, and what it takes to get the carbon footprint of an event like this down.

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And you thought Zara was fast fashion! Buckle up because new trends are landing daily if not hourly, as a new breed of online disruptor throws out thousands of styles a week to see what sticks. Brands like Boohoo, Pretty Little Thing and Fashion Nova are part of a new ultra-fast fashion era, but Shein is by far the biggest player.

Worth a reported $47 billion, the Chinese company is now the biggest selling fast fashion brand in the US. But how does it work? What's the secret to its giant reach? And just how many items does it drop in a week?

In our first episode for Series 7, host Clare Press sits down with the American journalists Meaghan Tobin and Louise Matsakis who, along with Beijing-based Wency Chen, spent six months looking into this, from every possible angle. From speaking to garment workers and interviewing shoppers to tracking down one young TikTok user who saw her vintage vest morph into thousands of copies, taking her personal photo along for the ride - without her permission.

Let us know what you think. Follow Clare on Instagram @mrspress @thewardrobecrisis

www.thewardrobecrisis.com

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