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" class="jsx-3162370740">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 confidence and finding your flow. When you know, you know! Essie is one to watch.
I'm always excited to meet next gen fashion talent. Featuring young designers has been a pillar of Wardrobe Crisis from the start.
I've been lucky enough to be a judge on many new gen competitions over the years, including Redress in Hong Kong, the Circular Design Challenge in India and Australia's National Designer Award. I got to write a bit for Sara Maino's Vogue Italia Talents project, and covered the BFC's New Gen for years.
Every series, we've run at least one (sometimes more) Episodes focused on new designers around the world.
Got recommendations? Hit us up!
And please share these podcasts.
Then re-listen to these treasures from our archives:
Ep 61 Vogue Talents, featuring HUEMN and Sindiso Khumalo
Ep 65 with Ruchika from Bodice Studio
Ep 70 featuring Bethany Williams, Matthew Needham and Patrick McDowell
Ep 110 with upcyclers Helen Kirkum and Duran Lantink
Ep 139 with Icelandic knitter Ýr Jóhannsdóttir
Happy listening!
Clare x
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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 listening!
Clare xx
From that hat as a strategic kiss-dodger to mob wife at a funeral, dark MAGA to the spectre of an American state jewellery collection, let's just say there was a lot going on with Melania's fashion optics at the inauguration. But what's the bigger picture of luxury's right wing power play?
In a few short years, we've gone from leading fashion designers openly stating that, for ethical reasons, they'd never dress the Trumps - to the LVMH bosses attending the inauguration. When there's money to be made, does anyone remember that Trump is a convicted felon? And with key American corporations lining up to abandon their DEI and climate goals, how will the rest of fashion respond? And what they heck should the rest of us do about all this?
Tell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress
*Boycotting X since August.
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To discover our Sustainable Fashion 101 online course, click here.
We're giving listeners who enrol in January 50% off.
Apply the discount code - newyear - at checkout to redeem your gift.
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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, but it also crackles with electric creativity. Largely devoid of corporate nonsense, Berlin's fashion culture fosters indie talent, DIY and sustainability innovation, all mixed up with the underground arts scene.
Think fashion as dialogue, self-expression and provocation. Community over ego. And embedding political movements - including sustainability and DIEB - into the shows.
Plus, of course, the legendary club scene is never far away.
“It is alternative,” says this week’s guest, much-loved fashion photographer, cult magazine maker and adopted Berliner Axl Jansen. “They don’t nip on their champagne and talk about art; they live it. Life is dangerous, you know? As an artist you have to define always new ideas, you have to find new paths of thinking, so it’s always in a kind danger, art itself.”
While this conversation isn't really about politics - it's about creativity, fashion, music - Clare's question to you is: Can we disassociate these things? We don't think so.
Art reflects the times we live in - and these, once again, are turbulent ones.
To discover our Sustainable Fashion 101 online course, click here.
We're giving listeners who enrol in January 50% off.
Apply the discount code - newyear - at checkout to redeem your gift.
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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 come out of it.
At London Fashion Week last season, I spotted Beau McCall in the crowd, and thought: Oh my, what a FABULOUS OUTFIT. He was covered, you see, in buttons galore, like a Harlem version of a Pearly King. He'd topped off this look with a Vivienne Westwood Buffalo hat. Next thing I knew, he was making his way over, and sat down next to me. The rest is, if not exactly history, encapsulated in this warm and sparkling conversation. Actually, there is quite a bit of history in it - from the evolution of the button as a fastener/decoration strictly for the well-to-do, to everyman's (and woman's) closure of choice, to the fashion history of NYC in the late '80s.
Also up for discussion: why every family should have a button box, the joy of hand-sewing, how fashion can help if you're shy at parties, and what happens when you try and sew hundreds of a buttons onto a bathtub...
For pics and links, hop over, as usual, to: thewardrobecrisis.com
Beau's website is beaumccall.com
For info on The Or Foundation's Kantamanto fund, see here.
To discover our Sustainable Fashion 101 online course, click here.
We're giving listeners who enrol in January 50% off.
Apply the discount code - newyear - at checkout to redeem your gift.
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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 prioritise sight and sound, relegating smell to the senses' lower division. Why? Well, short of holding your nose (spoiler alert, there's some of that in this podcast!) smell isn't something we can generally choose to take in or shut out; it doesn't invite us to apply our discernment. But while the art and design worlds have long overlooked scent, that's changing. Agenda-setting creatives are using it in their storytelling - and we're not talking about perfume campaigns.
Welcome to the mind-blowing world of smell as material. We'll leave it to Susan to explain.
Susan Irvine is a writer of excellent books including novels, short stories and non fiction. A former Vogue beauty editor, she's a current Visiting Lecturer at London's Royal College of Art, where she teaches a course on using 'smell as material' based in the Fashion Programme.
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