WARDROBE CRISIS with Clare Press

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 Su...

"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...

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 radi...

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,...

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...

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 L...

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....

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?...

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...

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 whil...

#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 en...

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...

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. Perhap...

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...

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...

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...

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 Su...

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 t...

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. H...

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”? Be...

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 o...

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 considere...

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 account...

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 s...

How much is enough? How can creatives incorporate the idea of sufficiency in their output? If you make physical objects, what does it really mean to be sustainable in your practice? And, how can you, as my guest this week, Richard Malone , puts it, "do your own thing and stick to it" in the context of fashion's relentless push for newness? Also, where does class and privilege play into all this? D...