WARDROBE CRISIS with Clare Press

On any given night in Australia 1 in 200 people don't have a roof over their heads. Nasir Sobhani A.K.A The Streets Barber skateboards around Melbourne giving free haircuts and shaves to homeless people as a part of his ‘Clean Cut Clean Start' movement. Today, fashion and hairdressing live in the same world, along with makeup artistry, art direction, photography. The hair stylist on a shoot, for example, is just as important as the stylist, model or photographer. But the art of cutting hair is more fundamental, and more universally experienced, than those other disciplines.Grooming is an animal urge and an ancient art. Razors have been found in Bronze Age and ancient Egyptian ruins. In the middle ages, barbers served as surgeons and dentists; they were literally engaged in wellness and healing.These days it's more about counselling, though isn't it? You know the score. The intimacy of sitting in the hairdresser's or barber's chair, the human contact. Who hasn't told their hairdresser secr

Join ethical fashionista Clare Press as she asks, Do you suffer from affluenza? This week's guest, Australian economist Richard Denniss has the cure!Richard is the author of a fascinating new book called Curing Affluenza, in which he argues that there's nothing inevitable about our current mode of consuming.“The vast majority of humans who have ever lived (and the majority of humans alive today) would find the idea of using our scarce resources to produce things that are designed to be thrown away absolutely mad,” he writes.We've lost sight of true value and true cost of many of the things we buy. In this Episode we explore what led us here, and how the future could be about experiences rather than stuff. We ask, what's the difference between materialism and consumerism? Do we need to reshape the economy? And, of course, what role does fashion have to play?Check THE SHOWNOTES for links and resources from today's story.https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2017/11/10/curing-affluenzaLike what you h

Join ethical fashionista Clare Press as she asks, What's it like to be a garment worker in Asia making clothes for high street brands in Australia and the global north?This Episode explores one of the biggest issues around fast fashion and cheap clothing supply chains - low pay. Do we care? Do brands? And what's being done to campaign for a living wage and fair fashion?Based on CEO pay levels of some of the big brands in Australia, it would take a Bangladeshi garment worker earning the minimum wage more than 4,000 years to earn the what CEOs get paid in just one year...Check THE SHOWNOTES for links and resources from this ep, as well as how you can join the movement to make a difference.Our incredible music is by Montaigne  - it's an acoustic version of Because I Love You from ther album Glorious Heights.Like what you hear? Please consider reviewing the show sharing on social media.FOLLOW CLARE ON INSTAGRAM FOR ALL THE WARDROBE CRISIS NEWS!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Se

Vincent Stanley is Patagonia's Director of Philosophy. (Yes, that's a thing). He has been with the outdoor gear company since 1973, when his uncle, Yvon Chouinard, gave him a job as a kid out of college. Vincent is a deep thinker and passionate environmentalist, and a visiting fellow at the Yale School of Management. He's also a poet, whose work has appeared in Best American Poetry.With Yvon, he co-wrote the book THE RESPONSIBLE COMPANY, which is like a handbook for building a more sustainable business. Oh and hello! This is the guy who wrote the first copy for The Footprint Chronicles -  Patagonia's game-changing supply chain mapper -  and along with Rick Ridgeway, worked on the much-talked-about "Don't Buy This Jacket" campaign that Patagonia ran in the New York Times in 2011. This Episode is about the big, important issues facing our planet, and business, today: We discuss what's happening to our soils, loss of biodiversity, climate change, ocean acidificat

Have you got big ideas? Do you dream of starting a company that makes a difference in the world? Or working for one? Are you interested in how brands can create positive impacts in communities, beyond the boring, some would say broken, mainstream consumerism model? This Episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in social enterprises. Blake Mycoskie is one of the most successful players in this space, and in this interview he shares the story of his company TOMS, how he built it, and what it takes to succeed. Via its 'One for One' model, TOMS has given more than 75 million pairs of shoes to kids who need them, helped restore sight to more than 500,000 people, and supported safe birth services for more than 175,000 mothers.This Episode is full of vital insights for changemakers who want to use their powers for social good. We discuss the essential ingredients for getting a venture like this off the ground and making it grow, what it takes to suck it up when things go wron

New Zealand designer Karen Walker is one of The Business of Fashion's 500. Her brand sells in 42 countries, in prestigious stores like Barneys New York, and Liberty of London. She is a New York fashion week veteran, with some very famous fans. Everyone from Beyoncé and Rihanna to Scarlet Johansson, Alexa Chung, Lorde, Lena Dunham, Toast the dog, oh look everyone, wears her sunglasses.She also designs ready-to-wear, handbag, shoe and jewellery collections as well as homewares. Okay, Karen Walker is a hot brand...But what does it take to be an ethical one too? How can successful designers incorporate sustainability and social responsibility into their business models? Karen says "ethical values of responsibility, uniqueness, quality and connection, are at the heart of what we do." What does that look like on a practical level? Karen is engaging with all these issues. She is working with Baptist World Aid Australia on their Ethical Fash

Yves Saint Laurent, Loulou de la Falaise, Pierre Cardin, Chanel, Givenchy, couture, prêt-à-porter and vintage shopping in the Paris flea markets, this week's Episode trés chic.Meet Paris-based Australian-raised stylist and César-winning costume designer, Catherine Baba.Vogue calls her a “fashion eminence”. Vanity Fair? An “original”. Indeed that magazine just included her on its 2017 Best Dressed List.She is also an accessories designer with her own line of sunglasses, a massive vintage fan and a walking fashion encyclopaedia with a particular fascination with the history of Paris fashion in the 1970s. But best of all, she's a mad keen cycler. Could there be there a more glamorous eco-aware-transport influencer? Pas possible! Please do check the shownotes to see some delightful photos of her pedalling around Paris. Riding a bike to the fashion week shows wearing a vintage kimono, high heels or even couture? No problem, darling. &ldquo

Australia's GREAT BARRIER REEF is the largest living thing on earth. Visible from outer space, it's the size of 70 million football fields and is home to 400 different types of coral and more than 1500 species of toprical fish. It's a magical underwater garden. No wonder fashion is obsessed with its beauty.But climate change is killing the reef, and fashion, being a major manufacturing industry, has its part to play. About 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the fashion sector.This week we meet Tim Flannery, internationally acclaimed scientist, writer, explorer and conservationist. Actual proper legend.Our interview was recorded at the Heron Island Research Centre 80 kilometres off the Queensland coast on an pristine part of the reef, undamaged by recent bleaching events.It's a very special opportunity to hear from an expert on the front line of climate change science about how the whole thing works, and what can be done about it. We hope you will share the Episode with your friends and

This week's Episode is little different from normal. It was recorded in September at a live Q&A event at the Wheeler Centre for Books & Ideas in Melbourne, and moderated by Madeleine Morris, a reporter for ABC television's 7.30. We touch on a whole lot of issues front and centre in an industry currently in overdrive, from slow fashion, overconsumption and waste, to what brands are doing about supply chain transparency, as well as Australia's move towards a Modern Slavery Act, the role of magazines in the fashion transparency conversation, and even how body mapping technology might reduce dead-stock.For more on these issues, don't miss the shownotes here.WHO'S TALKING?Clare Press, yours truly, presenter of the Wardrobe Crisis podcast.Clara Vuletich, a sustainable fashion consultant with a PhD in sustainable textiles, who has worked with clients such as H&M and Kering. Rebecca Hard, CEO of Sussan. The Sussan Gr

We live in a our throwaway society. "Landfill fashion" has become a phrase - we literally buy clothes to throw them away. With fast fashion brands dropping new stock into store sometimes as often as every week, we're consuming new clothes like never before. The average woman wears just 40 % of what's in her wardrobe, meanwhile it's cool to declutter. Or is it? Have you considered where all that "clutter" ends up when you remove it from your house?In this Episode, fashion model and Heart People frontwoman Rachel Rutt makes the case for making mending great again! Rachel is a mad-keen mender, weaver, knitter and sewing person. She is especially excited about patching up old denim, and wants to make that a craze - why buy pre-ripped jeans? "If you wear them enough, they will get there." Authentically aged denim is much more satisfying. By mending your clothes, you deepen your connection to them, argues Rachel.Listen to Rachel's story of being home-schooled, shaving her head as a kid, finding herself in modelling

Linda Jackson is an iconic designer who, with Jenny Kee, created a new visual language for contemporary Australian fashion in the 1970s, inspired by Australia's flora, fauna and landscapes.Until then, the Australian fashion industry had mostly looked outward, copying what Europe did. But Linda and Jenny shook that whole thing up, and the world took notice. In Sydney they engergised the fashion scene, collaborating with creative friends like Peter Tully and David McDairmid, who went on to become leading lights of the Mardis Gras movement. In Milan and Paris, they were photographed by Italian Vogue and made a big splash. In the US, they were key to Neiman Marcus's Australian Fortnight in 1986 and in London, three years later, to the V&A show Australian Fashion: The Contemporary Art.Linda opened her Bush Couture studio in 1982 and began collaborating with Indigenous women batik artists at Utopia Station.This Episode is about culture and respect, and valuing originality. It's also, broadly, about craft and te

Stephen Jones is the most extraordinary, the most famous, and the most marvellous milliner working in fashion today.This interview took place at the National Gallery of Victoria on the eve of the opening of the exhibition, THE HOUSE OF DIOR: SEVENTY YEARS OF HAUTE COUTURE.During John Galliano's tenure at Dior in particular, from 1996 to 2011, Stephen made some of the house's most jaw-droppingly fabulous hats.Stephen also designed hats and headpieces for the designers who came after Galliano at Dior: for Raf Simons and now for Maria Grazia Chiuri. He's collaborated with pretty much every other iconic fashion you can think of too, from Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo to Jean Paul Gaultier and Louis Vuitton. He's made hats for Lady Gaga and Rihanna, curated exhibitions of hats and written books on them.In terms of the sustainable and ethical fashion conversation, this story is all about fashion as high art and the celebration of the hand-made. No mass production here.But it's not just his own hats that fascin

Designers know they've made it when their collections are stocked by Saks, Bergdorf's or Barneys. The iconic New York department stores hold a special allure, even when you live elsewhere. But retail, globally, is in a state of flux.Will there even be physical stores in 10 or 20 years' time? As customers continue to head online, it seems like every week there's news of another “bricks and mortar” closure. In the US, analysts predict 25 % of malls could shutter within the next five years. Will we ditch consumerism on mass, as the anti-shopping / buy nothing movements expand? Will renting fashion and clothing libraries become major trends? Or is it still all about experiences?The latter is where Simon Doonan comes in. He calls himself a carnival type, likens his celebrated window displays for Barneys New York to something out of Coney Island – and indeed he has put some very unusual objects in shop windows in his time.Creative director, writer, fashion commentator and OTT window dresser extrao

The ethical fashion movement is gathering momentum! Not so long ago sustainable, ethical, eco-fashion (whatever you want to call it) was a too easily dismissed as some way-out, niche concern. Something kooky, and very possibly hairy and hemp-y, that belonged on the lunatic fringe. Well, NO LONGER. Obvs.Today sustainability is a buzz word. Everyone wants a piece of the activism action. We're in the middle of a Fashion Revolution, where the coolest, smartest most creative fashion fans are starting to ask more questions about who made their clothes, where how and from what.Podcaster Kestrel Jenkins is a pioneer in this space. She's been asking these questions since she was in college, became fascinated by fair trade, then went to intern at People Tree in London. Back in the her native USA she spent time in New York working for Ecouterre. In 2016, she launched Conscious Chatter, "a podcast where what we wear matters". “I always have wanted to learn the stories behind things,” says Kestrel. Her favouri

Beauty is one of the major motivators for people who work in creative industries – they want to make beautiful things, whether it's a garment, textile, show or picture. They want, as Megan Morton puts it in this Episode, to chase down true beauty wherever they see it. Not to push the beautiful lie but to try to capture and understand it.Megan is a stylist, author and “house whisperer” with a life-long love for vintage and the stories behind old things. She grew up on a banana farm in Queensland, where her mum subscribed to 1970s back-to-the-land magazine, Grass Roots. Megan grew up seeing the beauty in nature, while figuring out how to make stuff.Today her styling work is focused on houses and interiors, but she turns her eye for beauty on everything from her wardrobe, to teaching to travel to Instagram. She's worked for magazines like Vogue Living and Elle Decoration, and is the author of four books. The latest? It's Beautiful Here (Thames & Hudson).In this Episode we go off on a lot of

What do you think is possible? How about impossible? Kim Pearce and Katherine Davis are living proof of the old adage: where there's a will there's a way. The Possibility Project, which they cofounded after meeting on the school run, “delivers social justice programs through the mindset of social entrepreneurship”.What does that look like on the ground? Try their womenswear label Slumwear 108, and made in the slums of Jaipur in partnership with the NGO i-India. The number 108, in case you're wondering, is considered sacred in may eastern religions and traditions. Ask Kim what it means to her and she says, “It's all about spiritual completion.” But these clothes and accessories aren't some mystical idea – they are real. Whether it's a jacket made from upcycled old saris or a string of silk covered beads, they offer measureable benefits to the people who make them, and to their communities.How do you begin to set up a social enterprise? How do you keep it going? What qualities

Hands up who's over the narrow view of beauty peddled by mainstream fashion brands and media! Elisa Goodkind wants us to take back our power from magazines, advertising and the money-driven global fashion business, so that getting dressed each day becomes an act of self-love. With their platform StyleLikeU New Yorkers Elisa and her daughter Lily Mandelbaum are breaking down the fake stereotypes about what's beautiful, and what's supposedly not. They've published a new booked called True Style is What's Underneath: The Self-Acceptance Revolution. They take their message on the road, holding open castings and talks around the world. And they make intimate documentary-style video portraits that “explore how style is not about trends, money or presenting a façade of photoshopped perfection”.No wonder these videos have gone viral – with over 35 million views. What comes across more than anything when you watch them is how we are all the same in our difference.The WARDROBE CRISIS

In our final Episode for Plastic Free July, Clare interviews American visual artist Marina DeBris. Marina calls herself a “trashion” designer, as well as an environmental activist, and anti-plastics campaigner. She makes her "Beach Couture" collections from rubbish she finds washed up on beaches.There's a history of fashion designers referencing refuse. John Galliano's controversial Couture 2000 collection for Christian Dior featured newspaper prints inspired by homeless people's makeshift blankets. Vivienne Westwood has also dabbled in derelicte chic (like Mugatu in Zoolander). Jean Paul Gaultier once made a frock out of a bin liner – he named it his “rubbish bag dress” (in French). Jeremy Scott's Autumn '17 Moschino collection was inspired by cardboard packaging. But these designers used luxurious fabrics to render the garbage theme gorgeous.Marina comes from a very different place. She doesn't want her work

Kalpona Akter is Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity. An inspirational and influential figure in the country's union movement, she is a former child labourer who began working in a garment factory at age 12.  By 17, she'd been fired for standing up for her own rights, and those of her colleagues. ‘The day they fired this noisy woman, was the day they made a big mistake,' she says. Eighty per cent of garment workers are women, most aged between 18 and 25. Most have children and aren't paid nearly enough for their toils. The minimum wage in Bangladesh is about AUD $67 per month... In this powerful Episode, Kalpona tells her story, explains what it's really like for the 4 million garment workers in Bangladesh, and shares her thinking on Made in Bangladesh. The WARDROBE CRISIS show notes unpack the issues addressed in each Episode. Head over to www.clarep

TOME is a New York-based fashion label. Designers Ramon Martin & Ryan Lobo are known for collaborating with, and taking inspiration from, female artists. This season they looked to the Guerrilla Girls for a show inspired by the Women's Marches and the Trump administration's attacks on Planned Parenthood. How can high fashion combine the pursuit of gorgeousness with serious messages about diversity and equality? What role does the runway have to play? ‘We underestimate the power of beauty and humour to help us connect,' says Ramon.In this Episode, we discuss fashion activism, sustainability, TOME's White Shirt Project and winning fans like Amal Clooney and Sarah Jessica Parker. Getting dressed every morning is a political act. What you wear makes a statement about who you want to be and how you wish to communicate with the world around you. What's your wardrobe saying? The WARDROBE CRISIS show notes unpack the issues addressed in each Episode. Way more than just links, it's like a mini magazine!