Hot Buttons
Hot Buttons is a show about the future of fashion and culture on a changing planet. Each week, Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker unwind the breaking news, industry moves, cultural trends, and tech breakthroughs that are shaping sustainable fashion. The fashion industry is one of the world’s biggest polluters. Can we change it?
Episodes
January 30, 2023 • 53 mins
This week we look at the role of biotech in the beauty industry. It promises the ability to program and design molecules that can be less toxic, more sustainable, and customizable in everything from moisturizer to perfume. Our guest this episode is Dr. Sunil Chandran, chief science officer and head of R&D at Amyris, a company using the tools of synthetic biology to build molecules for beauty products.
We ask Sunil about that pivo...
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January 23, 2023 • 44 mins
We wanted a minute of Gisele Fetterman’s time to hear about her advocacy work, how she champions thrifting and vintage, and what she learned from last year’s bruising campaign on behalf of her husband, Senator John Fetterman. But we got so much more!
Gisele gave us the inside scoop on the culture of Capitol Hill, her work on behalf of those in need in Pennsylvania, and the racism she’s experienced as a Brazilian-born activist who...
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January 13, 2023 • 62 mins
This week, we’ve decided the best way to understand claims of sustainable textiles and leather is to step outside the fashion universe and go straight to someone who lives at the source: in food, agriculture and climate. Tamar Haspel is the host of our sister podcast here at Post Script Media, Climavores, and is one of the more delightful people you’ll ever hear on the subjects of how our food system and our personal choices within...
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January 6, 2023 • 54 mins
Happy New Year! We’re back with our review of 2022, and predictions for 2023. But first, we have to say goodbye to Dame Vivienne Westwood, and take a few more shots at Balenciaga for what can only be described as a rather cowardly approach to repairing their brand.
There was a lot to like about climate and sustainability progress in 2022, and we’re coming into this year hopeful we’ll see more of it in action, not just words. We ta...
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It’s the end of the year, and our listeners have been asking questions: What does it mean that menswear is often made with better materials than womenswear? How do we kick the overconsumption habit when it’s so baked into our culture? And is underwear compostable? Lizzo blows up Twitter wanting to know.
Have a question for Christina, Rachel and Shilla? Give us a call at (508) 622-5361. We might feature your voicemail in an upcom...
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December 16, 2022 • 47 mins
This week, Charles Conn, Chair of the Board of Directors at Patagonia joins us to share his story of how the company made the landmark decision to “make Earth its only shareholder.” This was news not just in the apparel industry, but everywhere. Patagonia had been private its entire existence, and as its founder Yvon Chouinard looked to step away, he opted for something entirely unique: give all the company to a 501(c)(4) and a per...
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December 9, 2022 • 54 mins
We want your feedback! Fill out our listener survey for a chance to win a $100 Patagonia gift card.
This week, we’re setting our news feeds aside and spending our time with Natalia Modenova of DressX, a multi-brand retailer and innovator for Web3. If you’ve followed digital fashion at all lately, you’ve definitely heard of DressX. Since 2019 they’ve been in every conversation about what fashion in the metaverse could be. They’ve cr...
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December 2, 2022 • 58 mins
We want your feedback! Fill out our listener survey for a chance to win a $100 Patagonia gift card.
First, we have to talk about Balenciaga. If you type “Balenciaga child porn” into Google right now, you get 2.6 million hits. That is not good and they have only themselves to blame for an ad campaign that posed toddlers with bondage-themed plushie bear handbags and booze glasses, like they’d walked in on the tail end of of a sex-fue...
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November 17, 2022 • 38 mins
We want your feedback! Fill out our listener survey for a chance to win a $100 Patagonia gift card.
Join us on November 30 for a live, virtual episode of Climavores. Come ask a question about food, nutrition, and eating for the climate.
We’re checking back in on the metaverse this week with Vogue Business’ senior innovation editor Maghan McDowell. For many, the hype surrounding NFTs, Web3, and the metaverse is beginning to feel ove...
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November 10, 2022 • 45 mins
It’s COP27 week, so we look at how well the fashion industry is doing keeping its promise to dramatically reduce emissions. A recent report from Stand.earth gives most major brands a failing grade and shows how much work they still have to do to clean up their supply chains. We also look at how some luxury brands are embracing the digital ID as a way to show where their materials are sourced and improve resale value.
Then, we take...
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November 4, 2022 • 51 mins
This week, we’re talking about microplastics and what they’re doing to the environment and our bodies. We’ve heard plenty about the giant plastic trash island out in the Pacific and beaches across the globe littered with plastic bottles and bags. But we’re talking about plastic microfibers, the ones that make up the majority of apparel produced today. These nearly invisible fibers have been found at nearly every depth of the ocean,...
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October 28, 2022 • 66 mins
This week, we’re talking with Bayard Winthrop, CEO of American Giant. Bayard’s journey as the founder of an apparel company obsessively committed to sourcing domestically has resonated with the industry and with us. We talk with him about his journey over the past 11 years, what he’s learned about sustainability in this market, and where he sees opportunities for further impact.
And, as always, we look at the week’s news. Everyone...
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October 21, 2022 • 46 mins
It was a busy news week in sustainable fashion, and Shein once again sucked all the oxygen out of the room. From being fined for a data breach to suffering a damaging investigation into its treatment of workers to announcing a peer-to-peer resale platform powered by Treet, the fast fashion powerhouse popped up everywhere.
We talk with Jake Disraeli, the co-founder and CEO of Treet, about its work powering the Shein resale marketp...
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October 14, 2022 • 63 mins
We don’t always talk about haute couture; this week we’re taking a look at the new deal between Classic Fashion and Walmart, which will exclusively supply Walmart with cut-and-sewn apparel from a new production facility outside of Los Angeles. It’s a positive sign in a market that has spent too much energy offshoring garment work. We also take yet another look at Shein; not at its fast-fashion practices, but its value. Where not lo...
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October 6, 2022 • 51 mins
Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in climate journalism.
This week we’re responding to listener questions, and the first ones are from men: how is sustainable fashion different in men’s and women’s apparel? How has men’s fashion evolved over the years, and is it more or less sustainable today than decades ago? And what abou...
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September 30, 2022 • 64 mins
This week, Secondhand September takes us all the way to the top of the fashion resale market: ultra-luxury. And we have questions. Is it a sustainability play? Is it an investment market akin to fine art? How do you police fraud?
We talk with Sarah Davis, founder and president of Fashionphile, a re-commerce platform for high-end accessories to get her take. With more than 20 years in the luxury resale business, Sarah helps us unde...
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September 22, 2022 • 53 mins
Secondhand September is going strong here on Hot Buttons. And this week, we’re talking with social media activist and slow-fashion advocate, Venetia La Manna. She’s a prominent voice of the slow fashion movement, and has lots to say about how we interact with fashion, whether celebrity partnerships with fast fashion brands can ever have a sustainable impact, and where she likes to shop for resale.
First, we’ll kick the show off by...
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September 16, 2022 • 47 mins
Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in climate journalism.
It’s Secondhand September, and we’re here to dive in. All this month we’re talking with experts and offering up some of our own insights into how the resale market is evolving. This week, we talk with Andy Ruben, founder of Trove, a re-commerce platform for brands to...
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September 2, 2022 • 36 mins
In this episode, we’re loving on fashion weeks. And not just the Fab Four of New York, London, Paris and Milan. Before these even kick off, Copenhagen fashion week had everyone talking earlier this summer. The combination of Scandinavian designers, a focus on sustainability, and a mix of digital and live events made it a contender to join the big European weeks forever.
We’ll preview the upcoming fashion weeks – where sustainabili...
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August 26, 2022 • 32 mins
Gen Z is driving the fast fashion machine. Seventy-two percent of college students say they have shopped fast fashion in the past year, and 40% say they scroll fast fashion sites and apps at least once a day. For many, it’s an addiction. But this generation of 20-somethings is also more concerned about sustainability, climate change, and workers’ rights than any other. So how do they reconcile the two?
In this episode, Christina, ...
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