WARDROBE CRISIS with Clare Press

This week's episode is an update from Accra, Ghana, and the situation at Kantamanto markets.

It was recorded during the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen, where I met up with Liz Ricketts from The Or Foundation. Liz was with several community members from Kantamanto, including market trader Mary and upcycler Latifa - both featured on the podcast. Ultimately this is a story of resilience, entrepreneurship, creativity and skill...

Over the past few weeks, we've been diving into the world of weaving with natural fibres, exploring local textile traditions and capabilities, and don't get us wrong - we will always love that. But there's also a whole world of sciency possibilities shaking up the future of fabrics and fabulous ways.

Pack your (metaphorical) bags for a European innovation tour!

And get ready to answer some wild questions, like...

What if bact...

Welcome to another episode about why it matters that we can make stuff locally.

After last week's ep on Yorkshire's centuries-old wool recycling expertise, this time, as promised, Clare's taking you back to Australia, to see another inspiring mill in action.

We're in Launceston, Tasmania to visit Australia's oldest continuously operating weaving mill.

Waverley Mills has always worked with local wool, and over the years has...

Ever wondered how mechanical textile recycling actually works? What shoddy and mungo is, and why we called it that? What the rag n' bone man collected back in the day and how the trade grew up, then scaled back? And what it will take to bring it back and keep what's already here, going?

Wonder no more! John Parkinson has a masterclass for you, complete with magic and secrets.

For 200 years, Yorkshire made recycled wool cloth...

What if the best place was the one you're already in? Meet Julia Roebuck, the powerhouse organiser behind Thread Republic Textile Reuse Hub and social enterprise in Huddersfield, UK.

We're talking about textile skills, mending, repair, sewing, the wellbeing economy and what that might look like - at home. What fashion can be when we remove the transactional, when it's not just about shopping. And the immense satisfaction to be g...

How do you feel about competition? Do you think it’s healthy? Natural? Are you that person who has to win at Scrabble or tennis or the pub quiz?

Or maybe you've read your Gaia theory and are hooked on the idea of a harmonious, post-patriarchal ecosystem that's all about balance and working together.

Many of us have come around to thinking that, at least when it comes to sustainability, it's being hyper-competitive that got in...

Want a side of modern slavery with that?

Didn't think so.

Modern slavery is organised crime, and no one wants that lurking in their supply chain. Yet fashion and textiles are key industries implicated in this travesty that traps an estimated 50 million people worldwide in forced labour, debt bondage and human trafficking. Twelve per cent of those in forced labour are children, while women and girls are disproportionately affe...

Continuing our theme of fashion's crazily wasteful ways, and our focus on Latin America, this week, more Brazilian goodness, as Clare sits down with São Paolo-based industrial upcycler Agustina Comas.

We're talking fast fashion, big business, athleisure's reliance on synthetics and rethinking pattern-cutting.

BTW: how much do you know about pattern-cutting?

If you've ever done this yourself at home with paper dressmaking patte...

Hello! What are we actually doing? Our unwanted clothes don't belong dumped in Chile's beautiful Atacama Desert...

Everyone knows reasons why the global north exports used clothing to the global south - it's because fashion is too fast, quality is too low, volumes are too high, and for rich countries it's often cheaper to export your problem than it is to deal with it onshore. But even if that wasn't the case, even if you had a ...

Twenty-two billion! What are we playing at?!

Things get worse when we look at the materials most commonly in use. The sports shoe category in particular is a giant, influential sector, yet its waste footprint and chemical inputs tend to fall under the radar. And don't get us started on the Crocsification of everything! Injection-moulded EVA is coming to a clog near you, but don't let's pretend that's sustainable.

Increasingly...

In the third of our four-part mini series on sustainable fashion in India, Clare sits down with Drishti Modi and Rashmick Bose, the duo behind slow fashion brand Lafaani. It's focused handcraft, handloom weaves, and natural dyes, and their clothes are gorgeous - we want them all!

But the founders didn't always dream of fashion careers - they're sustainability professionals who met at university studying environmental resource ma...

More from our visit to India! If you listened to the last episode with stylist Daniel Franklin, you'll have heard Clare promise more to come from India's burgeoning sustainable fashion scene. This week's chat is with one of Delhi's most promising young designers, who's just shown his collection at Lakmé Fashion Week in Mumbai, and who won last year's Circular Design Challenge (run by R/Elan and UN India). He is Ritwik Khanna, found...

Mumbai and New Delhi take turns to host Lakmé Fashion Week, and this season it's the former that will be exploding with creative runways and high-craft fever, starting next week.

To get you in the mood, we're bringing you an Indian mini-series of the Wardrobe Crisis podcast, starting with this delightful conversation with stylist Daniel Franklin.

Daniel styled five shows last season, and has seven on the go this time, and we ...

A disturbing shift away from diversity, equity and inclusion is spreading through the corporate world. Following US President Donald Trump's lead, some of the world's most powerful companies have rushed to dismantle years of positive work that's been done in this area.

Race and gender are central to this discussion, but diversity and inclusion programs concern the whole gamut of non-majority groups in any given setting, includin...

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 ...

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 Cordwa...

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 print...

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 topic...

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 vib...