Ep. #26
Breaking the Rules with Amie B. + Ania Z.
In today's episode we discuss breaking the rules for fashion, and what this could look like. In order to bring forth sustainable fashion futures we have to break the current rules that keep us constricted into how things are. Join us as we riff on these ideas.
This week's new episode is another chat between us on a topic that is effecting us all - truth telling and call-out culture.
In order to be able to bring in our desired futures and do expansive visioning we need to be able to hold space for multiple truths and creates safe spaces to share our truths.
In this episode we explore:
+ our own experiences surrounding the current paradigm of calling people out and online shaming
+ why there is no ultimate truth and truth as being contextual
+ how dogma in various environmental and social justice movements keeps us from missing the point
+ how we need to focus on what we actually want for the world
and loads more...
We hope you enjoy this conversation, and we'd love to hear your thoughts on this pertinent topic.
Ania & Amie xx
Today's episode is an exploration the importance of connection to place for sustainable fashion futures.
Ideas we explore in this episode:
Asking where does connection to place fit within fashion?
How do you connect with a place when you are displaced from your traditional roots?
Reponsibility to place.
Being in a reciprocal relationship with place
Rethinking fashion education- what if we began with place?
Truth is never absolute but emerges from place and therefore multiple truths can exist.
and so much more...
Mentions and Resources:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sustainability5.0/
Website https://sustainability5.world
Date: 19th August, 2020.
In today’s episode we chat to Holly McQuillan. Holly McQuillan’s work in the field of zero waste fashion design, articulates sustainable fashion systems and practice. She focuses on issues such as transition design, the impact of technology and how these can challenge established design, production and use practices. Holly co-authored Zero Waste Fashion Design with Timo Rissanen and together they are currently writing the second edition. She also co-curated Yield: Making fashion without making waste, the first contemporary exhibition focussing on zero waste fashion, and developed the award winning open-source zero waste resource Make/Use. Her work always seeks to broaden the impact of zero waste and sustainable fashion design through research, publication, workshops and lectures. Currently she is a PhD candidate in Artistic Research at the Swedish School of Textiles exploring zero waste systems thinking through the innovative design and production of textile-forms.
We chat about zero-waste design thinking, aesthetics, using technology for fashion futures, evolving designer roles, fashion post-covid and so much more. This was one expansive conversation that we hope you’ll enjoy!
Resources + Mentions:
- Website - https://hollymcquillan.com/
- Instagram - @holly_mcquillan Make/ Use - https://makeuse.nz/
- Zero Waste Design Collective - https://www.zerowastedesignonline.com/
- Timo Rissanen - https://timorissanen.com/about/
- Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth - https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/
- Clo3D digital fashion software - https://www.clo3d.com/
- Kathryn Walters Textiles - https://www.kmwalters.com/
- Earth Logic Fashion Action Research Plan - https://earthlogic.info/
- Fully Automated Luxury Communism - https://luxurycommunism.com/about/
Expansive Visioning for Fashion - Podcast Ep. 19
This episode was our favourite joint episode we’ve recorded together so far. We’ve been feeling the need to really explore visions for a new fashion future and in this episode we share some of our ideas, some of the visionaries whose work has inspired us, and we try to push the boundaries of imagination for what is possible in the future of fashion.
We chat about things like:
- Encompassing a balance of the feminine and masculine energies
- The role of technology in our futures
- A balance between the spiritual and physical worlds.
- Returning Earth to the commons
- Gifting economies
- De-gendering fashion
- New money systems and questioning and rethinking the social agreements we have made
- Dismantling the hierarchy of fashion with percentage based salaries.
- Partnerships vs. “representation and inclusion”
Guiding questions:
- 10x thinking: Think of what you want and expand it by 10, 100 (question borrowed from Hayley Carr).
- What would this ideal future look like 10 times? 100 times? (question borrowed from Hayley Carr).
- If we were already there, in our ideal fashion future, what would we be doing differently? (Hayley Carr)
- What does fashion/ design look like when it goes beyond creating more things? When it is based upon cultivating relationships, community, care towards ourselves, one another and the Earth?
Resources:
- Hayley Carr - Dissolve Problems by Thinking Bigger (a guide) podcast episode: https://blubrry.com/superfreak/65164640/dissolve-problems-by-thinking-bigger-a-guide/
- De-gendering fashion by Alok Vaid-Mennon, on the Conversations with Jason Campbell and Henrietta Gallina: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversation-alok-vaid-menon-is-degendering-fashion/id1328893989?i=1000459631480
-Sacred Economics by Charles Eistenstien - https://charleseisenstein.org/books/sacred-economics/
- Robin Wall Kimmerer - Braiding Sweetgrass
Ep. #18 - Reflections on Race and Privilege with Ania & Amie
Date: 16th June, 2020.
In today’s episode we come together and reflections amongst us about the current racial issues happening within our world. These are musings from our own current experiences, where we chat about race, privilege, the importance of self-reflection at this time, shame and guilt, and we finish off by posing some questions that may help us imagine more inclusive and diverse futures.
As always, this comes from our own personal experiences, where we believe that there exist multiple truths. Take what you want and leave the rest.
Lots of love,
Amie & Ania.
Resources + Mentions:
This week our guest is Bandana Tewari. She is a lifestyle editor, bad-ass sustainable activist and formerly held the prestigious position of editor-at-large, as well as the fashion features director of Vogue India. She now writes for Business of Fashion, and speaks internationally on India’s fashion craft traditions, the lessons of Ghandi and the place of consciousness in fashion.
In this episode we talk about everything from spirituality and fashion, to the Western world's long history of appropriation and extractive relationships with Indian and other cultures, the impacts of colonization and capitalism, and importance of culture and diversity moving forward.
Its a rich and deep conversation and I hope you get as much out of it as I did.
We chat about:
-The lessons of Ghandi and the khadi movement
-Cultural appropriation and extractive relationships with ‘developing’ nations
-The importance of cultural diversity
-Spirituality and sustainability
-Ancient wisdom of Vedanta
Resources + mentions:
Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative: https://www.culturalintellectualproperty.com/
Craftsmanship for Green Future https://2ed60751-dfd5-4fb8-a9d3-737773398787.filesusr.com/ugd/d5b008_75e700c55bd84fe4a702cafc2df27b7a.pdf
Follow Bandana on:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/behavebandana/
Twitter https://twitter.com/behavebandana?lang=en
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bandanatewari/
Business Of Fashion https://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/bandana-tewari
Todays episode is actually the audio from the very first guest interview we ever did, back before Spirit of Design podcast existed when we were doing our weekly Instagram live chats.
This conversation still stands as one of the most potent and powerful we’ve had so far.
Todays episode is with our beautiful friend Makenzie Marzluff.
Makenzie is a social entrepreneur who believes in the powerful impact that products, brands and conscious business practices have on both humanity and the planet.
Makenzie has had 4 startups, graduated from the highly acclaimed incubator SEEDSPOT, has featured on Shark Tank and has a genuine passion and expertise for food concepts. Has grown a multi-million dollar a year Dessert Hummus company which began out the back of her van. She is also the founder of Kakao Drinking Chocolate and was hugely instrumental in bringing ceremonial kakao to the modern world.
Makenzie is one of the most courageous women we know, she leads from a heart centered paradigm that is profoundly different from the traditional way of doing business and in doing so has experienced miracle after miracle. Makenzie is a wise woman when it comes to heart centered business and we don’t use the word wise lightly.
This episode is super expansive and explores the possibilities for business when we look beyond the current accepted paradigm.
We hope that this episode really challenges you and invites you to look at business differently than what is considered normal.
Resources + links:
Delighted By Hummus: The Original Dessert Hummus™
www.delightedbyhummus.com
KAKAO Ceremonial Drinking Chocolate
Date: 28th Jan 2020.
Today’s episode is with Will Bull and Amy Foster-Taylor, the founders of London based sustainability consultancy ‘and beyond’.
Created last year, and beyond run workshops with schools, brands, and more, to empower people to create a better world. Their work focuses on creating spaces for you to tap into your intrinsic values and harness your imagination in order to come up with meaningful solutions for a connected and sustainable future.
In this episode we explore;
This was such a juicy episode that shed a lot of light on the direction that we need to be going in for our world. and beyond’s work is so inspiring and so needed at this time and we hope you enjoy our convo with them.
Resources + mentions:
Date: 14th Jan 2020.
Today’s episode is with Beto Bina, and is centered around his work in regenerative textile systems and agroforestry. Beto has been working at the intersection of Strategy, Innovation and Sustainability for over 14 years, helping clients such as Nike, Samsung, Verizon and J&J to grow through products, services and communications. His career in the creative industry has given him awards such as Cannes Young Lions, Effies Awards and he has been recognized on Medium as a top writer in Sustainability and as a mentor at SxSW.
His latest venture is called FARFARM, a start-up that is developing a Textile Agroforestry in the Brazilian Amazon. Most recently, he has joined the team of VEJA, coordinating sourcing and looking for responsible materials throughout Latin America.
In this episode we explore;
- Beto’s journey from leaving a high profile New York job to working on a purpose-driven start-up in the Amazon.
- Agroforestry farming methods and how its processes can assist us in addressing the challenges of climate imbalances, help regenerate the planet, and provide sustainable development to communities.
- How Farfarm has started creating textiles grown in these regenerative ways and what they are hoping to achieve through this.
- How the term ‘sustainability’ has become vulgarised, and new stories that we can tell in our work toward a more equitable future.
- Nature as a foundation and as an ultimate KPI (key performance indicator), the new marker for success.
- Beto’s role at Veja, and the innovative and responsible work that they are doing on a massive scale.
- Future visions for both Farfarm and Veja, + loads more.
This was such an eye-opening episode to record, where we learnt a whole lot. We hope you do too!
Resources + mentions:
Date: 31st Dec 2019.
In this episode, we talk you through a series of prompts that reflect on the past year and decade, celebrating, releasing, and calling in new dreams, desires and goals for the year to come.
Grab your favourite pen and journal, and put some time aside to reflect on what was and what you would like to call in.
This process is also available for pdf download - follow the link below.
Have a beautiful new year everyone!
xx Ania & Amie
Resources:
Date: 17th Dec 2019.
Today’s conversation is with creative Dörte de Jesus.
Dorte worked as an art director for boutique design studios and magazines such as ELLE Germany, before she launched the independent, mindful fashion publication Lissome Magazine in spring 2016. Since then, Lissome has organically grown into a core team in Berlin, and a wider international community of writers, photographers and stylists. Its first annual print edition was launched in December this year (2019), and presents a new holistic vision on what sustainable fashion could be.
We chat about:
We are so excited to bring this conversation to you today. Enjoy!
Resources + links:
Purchase your copy of the new Lissome print edition here.
Kate Fletcher’s Sustainable Fashion & Textiles Book - Design Journey’s
On Being Podcast with Krista Tippett in conversation with John O’Donohue, ‘The Inner Landscape of Beauty’.
Berlin zero waste restaurant - Frea