It's time for some more trashtalk, my friends. Remember plastic pollution ? Of course you do - because it's still with us. According to the UNEP, the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic enter the world's oceans, rivers and lakes EVERY SINGLE DAY. And while there was a great deal of excitement around the prospect of a Global Plastics Treaty last year, talks were suspended at the end of 2024 when UN member states failed to reach an agreement on what would have been the first-ev...
Mar 05, 2025•41 min•Ep 235•Transcript available on Metacast London fashion week spotlight: In a markedly hatless era, forward-marching British New Gen accessories designer Leo Carlton is turning their talents to digitally-printed crowns, elf ears, breast plates and mysterious sculptural masks. Some of these genre-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 Alexander McQueen's Sarabande Founda...
Feb 21, 2025•47 min•Ep 234•Transcript available on Metacast 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 confide...
Feb 05, 2025•40 min•Ep 233•Transcript available on Metacast 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 l...
Jan 30, 2025•38 min•Ep 232•Transcript available on Metacast 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, bu...
Jan 22, 2025•53 min•Ep 231•Transcript available on Metacast 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 c...
Jan 15, 2025•46 min•Ep 230•Transcript available on Metacast 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 priorit...
Dec 28, 2024•1 hr•Ep 229•Transcript available on Metacast "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...
Dec 17, 2024•56 min•Ep 228•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Dec 06, 2024•44 min•Ep 227•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Nov 20, 2024•31 min•Ep 226•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Nov 07, 2024•40 min•Ep 225•Transcript available on Metacast If you listened to last week's interview w. Jem Bendell and wondered, "What on Earth do I do now?" And you weren't up for moving to Bali and getting collapse ready by starting a self-sufficient permaculture farm...we've got you! This week's episode is about practical action being taken right now to protect the rights of Nature. Clare is sitting down with two can-do women, fashion designer Lucy Tammam and Stop Ecocide International's Jojo Mehta to decode one of the topics of the moment, ec...
Oct 23, 2024•40 min•Ep 224•Transcript available on Metacast Okay, brace yourselves... Brands love to set sustainability goals. But what if it's all nonsense? What if net zero, the obsession with carbon, and the idea that renewables are taking over from fossil fuels, are all part of a fake green fairy tale that we tell ourselves because the alternative is too difficult to imagine. Or that corporations tell us so that they can keep on with business as usual. WTAF? We know. It's... a lot. Is it true? You decide, after listening to this week's guest. Jem Ben...
Oct 09, 2024•55 min•Ep 223•Transcript available on Metacast What is the role of a fashion designer today? Thinking purely about gorgeous clothes is so last season. Gone are the days when designers could consider only a collection, how it will sell and what the customer might be looking for. Forward-thinkers are already beginning to take more holistic view and adopt a living systems approach. They’re asking questions such as, Can we make like Nature makes? How might fashion create nutrients instead of waste? How can we use biomimicry in sustainable ways? ...
Sep 27, 2024•42 min•Ep 222•Transcript available on Metacast Happy Secondhand September! Six years ago Oxfam UK came up with the idea of using September to encourage people to: "Shop second hand to take a stance against fast fashion and dress for a fairer world." They say it's a moment to come together “to choose a more planet-friendly way to shop, and dress for the world you want to see." How does preloved help with that? We all know that fashion waste is a problem, that new clothing and textile production is a serious contributor to the climate crisis. ...
Sep 12, 2024•26 min•Ep 221•Transcript available on Metacast Fashion month is about to kick off again, with all eyes on New York, London, Milan and Paris . But the obsession with the so-called fashion capitals has long seemed out of touch. Yes, that's where the money is (well, Paris is anyway), but in our globalised world, there are many more fashion capitals that should not be overlooked. There are fashion weeks all over the place, all year round. But while Lagos, Melbourne, Berlin and Copenhagen deserve their place in the fashion spotlight, what happens...
Sep 04, 2024•41 min•Ep 220•Transcript available on Metacast #underconsumptioncore is a thing! For this episode, we’re in London visiting British journalist Tiffanie Darke to talk about her viral wardrobe challenge, The Rule of Five . She’s also got a new book coming out in the US. What to Wear and Why, Your Guilt-Free Guide to Sustainable Fashion promises to get you "rethinking what clothes we buy, wear, and toss out, knowing that we can have a positive environmental impact while still looking good and dressing well”. It was during the pandemic, when Tif...
Aug 28, 2024•52 min•Ep 219•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the last of our Copenhagen Fashion Week interviews (if you missed the previous Eps, do go back & take a listen). This one is refreshingly honest conversation with Danish knitwear designer Amalie Røge Hove about her much-loved label, A. Roege Hove , and the ups and downs of being an independent fashion business. Widely celebrated as the next big thing, for the past few years A. Roege Hove was a CPHFW highlight. But last season, Amalie was not on the schedule, although her brilliant...
Aug 21, 2024•33 min•Ep 218•Transcript available on Metacast Our Copenhagen Fashion Week special continues! Clare sits down with Finnish menswear designer Rolf Ektroth. Last season, his hand-knits , made with Finnish yarn manufacturer Novita, were made available as pattern and yarn kits, so that home knitters could recreate his runway pieces. He loves macramé and hand embroidery, yet his collections have a modern street vibe that feels very polished. Perhaps it's because he's not actually a new name - Rolf Ekroth has been celebrated before, with glowing r...
Aug 14, 2024•28 min•Ep 217•Transcript available on Metacast If you're not in Copenhagen for fashion week, here's your (virtual) ticket :) Last week, we talked to Ane from Alpha about studying fashion in the Nordics and how to make it as an artistic designer. Over the next three episodes, we’ve got interviews with some of the most exciting names to watch from the region. First up is Alectra Rothschild , whose show for her Masculina label was one of the most anticipated, thanks to last season's electric on-schedule debut. Vogue noted it was "probably histo...
Aug 08, 2024•31 min•Ep 216•Transcript available on Metacast We hear it all the time: fashion students are overwhelmed by overproduction and the ruthless churn of creative directors at the big luxury houses. How can they forge a creative path without contributing to the problem? If they decide to operate outside the system - crafting extravagant one offs, for example, or only making to order - how will they survive financially? What is the point of fashion if you can’t wear it? Ane Lynge-Jorlén is the Danish fashion academic behind Alpha, a fashion incuba...
Aug 01, 2024•50 min•Ep 215•Transcript available on Metacast Empathy, kindness, wellbeing, caring, sharing, repairing - not traditionally the first words that spring to mind when I say "FASHION!" But things are changing. Are we moving towards a new paradigm where who cares, wins? If we accept that the old ways (overproduction, exploitation, rampant shareholder capitalism, waste) don't serve us, why not redesign the whole thing along radical new lines? What might that look like? If you're intro underground fabulousness pushing disruptive fashion forwards, ...
Jul 24, 2024•59 min•Ep 214•Transcript available on Metacast Complete this sentence: The future of fashion will be… Welcome to Series 10 of Wardrobe Crisis ! We're kicking off with a conversation about the future of fashion, recorded live earlier this year when Wear Next came out in the UK. Clare is in conversation Tamara Cincik, Professor of Fashion & Sustainability at Bath Spa University , at the first ever event of the UK's new National Centre for Sustainable Fashion , which is based there. A robust discussion beginning with regenerative fashion , ...
Jul 10, 2024•47 min•Ep 213•Transcript available on Metacast What does it take to make it as an independent, small, local ethical business in a global world that favours big brands? How can we work together to ensure that our local businesses and creatives are literally sustainable - in that they thrive and stick around, and continue to give us the awesomeness that, at times, we maybe take for granted? It's not just fashion this applies to, but all the beautiful, unique, heartfelt local businesses that make our neighbourhoods sing - the cafes and f...
May 15, 2024•57 min•Ep 212•Transcript available on Metacast Forget brands for a minute, the real circular fashion economy is the repair shop on your high street… Do you have a fab local cobbler or clothing alterations service? This episode is a reminder to thank them for being here and fixing our stuff. They are cornerstones of the circular fashion economy, and not some distant future dream - they’re already here, and in many cases have been for decades. Honing skills that simply can’t be learned overnight. They’re the best! Here’s to them! Keep giving t...
May 01, 2024•28 min•Ep 211•Transcript available on Metacast Bobby Kolade is the designer behind Ugandan fashion label Buzigahill - which puts the politics of upcycling and waste colonialism at its core with the brilliant, provocative concept: Return to Sender. Buzigahill's collections are made from items of secondhand clothing donated in the global north, and increasingly being dumped on the global south in unsustainable numbers. Why “return to sender”? Because much of Buzigahill’s clientele is in Europe and North America. Like Kantamanto in Accra, Ghana...
Apr 18, 2024•44 min•Ep 210•Transcript available on Metacast What do your clothes say about you? Dear listener, I bet you've thought about this before. Fashion is a language in itself. But, what about the language we use to describe - and by extension to include, or to exclude - the people who wear it? Or don't get to wear it? The people we're marketing it to, or employing. Fashion communication isn't just about the clothes. It's about how we talk to each other. Meet Lou Croff Blake , a Berlin-based non-binary fashion practitioner, scholar, artist and com...
Apr 12, 2024•46 min•Ep 209•Transcript available on Metacast Can fashion lift its inclusivity game? When 28-year-old British model Junior Bishop - who just so happens to be a wheelchair user - spoke at the Houses of Parliament recently, she called on the fashion industry to do more to tackle its disability access issues. Levelling the playing field is integral to the wellbeing economy - what’s the point of only some of us get to have our wellbeing considered? “When looking at fashion and media today,” said Junior, diversity and representation are graduall...
Mar 27, 2024•52 min•Ep 208•Transcript available on Metacast Rich, white and privileged - the creative arts sector has a class problem. Particularly in class-obsessed Britain, where middle-class people are twice as likely to work in creative jobs than their working class contemporaries. According to the Evening Standard , "the worlds of TV, film, music and the arts are dominated by straight, able-bodied white men living in London , despite them only accounting for 3.5% of the [UK] population." Not that this is purely a UK problem. In New York, 85% of arti...
Mar 13, 2024•55 min•Ep 207•Transcript available on Metacast We all know clothes have meaning, beyond just looking nice. We’ve often talked on this podcast about the importance of how they are made. This week, we’re considering how fashion’s meaning stretches beyond supply chains and our wardrobes, to shape our culture and the way we see ourselves collectively. How does fashion see itself when it comes to race and privilege? How about the male gaze? Clare sits down with Caryn Franklin , journalist, style icon, fashion citizen (not consumer, please!), one-...
Mar 06, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep 206•Transcript available on Metacast 
