WARDROBE CRISIS with Clare Press

We've all had tough days at work, right? But I'm going to bet your last one didn't involve multiple colleagues fainting from heat stress.My guest this week is researcher and academic Cara Schulte, author of an important new report, for Climate Rights International, that looks into the effects of the effects of extreme heat on garment workers in Bangladesh.These don't stop at the physical. Workers describe feeling mentally unwell, anxious, hopeless even desperate as both temperatures and humidity climb. And as climate change accelerates, we can only expect conditions to get gnarlier.So what can fashion do about all this?Listen to find out about the role of education; how pregnant women are impacted; how heat is linked to violence; why drinking fizzy pop won't help; how working hours, low wages, audits and PPE come into it; and practical action to improve things that would make a difference today.Cara's ultimate message: "When we think about sustainability in fashion, it's not just about materials and recycling

To mark NAIDOC week in Australia, which officially celebrates & recognises the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, we bring you this interview with activist, astronomer and knowledge holder Professor Ghillar Michael Anderson, who was central in the setting up of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972. Michael is a Senior Law Man, Elder, and leader of the Eualeyai Nation from Goodooga, New South Wales. He has published several academic papers on Aboriginal astronomy. He contributed to the book, The First Astronomers, and he has asteroid named after him by the International Astronomical Union in honour of his contributions to the science. In this deep, warm and at times confronting conversation, we discuss how Aboriginal people read the stars, Michael's own experience growing up on Country, bush tucker, connection, the radness of Indigenous Aunties, Black Power, the story behind the Tent Embassy, and Michael's ideas for the future of activism for his

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.Kantamanto is one of the world’s biggest for physical markets for second-hand clothing, receiving an estimated 15 million used garments from the global north, EVERY WEEK. On the night of January 2nd, 2025, a huge fire ripped through 10 of the 13 sections in the market, affecting the majority of the estimated 30,000 people working there. It's a miracle more people weren't killed. Six months later, the market structure has been rebuilt, but there's still work to do. Find out how fundraising has been deployed, improvements have given all stallholders access to electricity and a new associ

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 bacteria could help us co-design a new generation of sustainable fabric dyes? Could we build a machine for that?Where does all the grape waste go from France's vineyards, and hey, what if we turned it into a fancy new animal-free leather alternative?And, how might one creative woman figure that out, DIY style, starting with a coffee grinder in her home kitchen? We all know polyester is plastic, right? So how come we expect our exercise gear to be moisture-wicking, when we're all at the gym encased in what's essentially sweaty, non-breathable, plastic-baggings? Who's ready for the ugly truth abo

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 woven all sorts of fabrics, from tweeds to flannels, but it's their blankets that made them famous. This is a story of tradition (during WW2 they produced blankets for the army), innovation (think, collaborating with Nudie Jeans to make the world’s first recycled blanket out of old denim), and continuity. But above all, it's about community - who's worked here for decades and who is apprenticing to learn the trade today; who grows the wool, and who has seen the ups and downs of this place over the years, and has a long view on why it matters. It's a story about ethical manufacturing, the possi

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 for the world. But don’t think its all disappeared. John’s mill in Huddersfield is aptly called iinouiio - an acronym for It Is Never Over Until It Is Over. With centuries of accumulated of skill and knowledge, they’re doing what they always did, only better.Find all the links & further reading at thewardrobecrisis.comTell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressGot recommendations? Hit us up!And please share these podcasts.THANK YOU x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 gotten from making something with your hands that you’re proud.Discover Thread Republic here:threadrepublic.co.ukFind all the links & further reading at thewardrobecrisis.comTell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressGot recommendations? Hit us up!And please share these podcasts.THANK YOU x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 into this mess. So you might be surprised to learn that competitive sustainability is the latest thing... we were!This week on the pod, find out what else we gleaned from Australia’s first big sustainable fashion conference.Featuring: New Era Bio, Alt Leather, Wildlife Drones and more.Thank you to the Growth Activists for making this episode possible.Find all the links & further reading at thewardrobecrisis.comTell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressGot recommendations? Hit us up!And please share these podcasts.THANK YOU x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more i

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 affected. And the problem is growing, despite many countries introducing legislation to ensure large companies are taking steps to ensure their supply chains are slavery-free.All this is intrinsically linked to low wages and wage insecurity.As Outland Denim's James Bartle points out: "It isn't possible to make a pair pf jeans for $20, and pay people a living wage."So, where are we at with legislation and reporting on modern slavery today? What steps can brands be taking now to ensure exploitation is part of story of their products. Why do we still have so few brands paying living wages in 2025?

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 patterns, you'll know that you pin these onto the fabric and cut around them.Sometimes using tailor's chalk to add markings. It's often trickier than it should be!The scraps - or offcuts - are the wastage round the edges. And they can pile up.On an industrial level, technicians also use paper markers. Multiple layers of fabrics are laid on the table, and many garments are being cut at a time, often using computer-controlled machines.Of course brands try to make the most of fabric yields, even if only to save money, so if multiple styles use the same fabric, you might see these placed intricately

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 big dream and deep pockets, that horse has bolted - the system at scale today is about global trade.Certainly, some of it is a reuse stream, some of it does get re-worn and recycled. Also sorted, processed and re-exported. But the fact is, too many of of these clothes become unsustainable waste that, once they reach their final destination, escape into the environment and pollute Nature and communities.According to the UN, about 40% of the clothes imported through Chile's Iquique free trade zone in the northern Atacama, have no value in the local second-hand clothing market and cannot b

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, our shoes are made of frankenstein plastics, and even their creators don't necessarily know what's in them. This week on the podcast, Clare's guest is Chandni Batra, founder of A BLUNT STORY - a disruptive Indian sandals brand on a mission detoxify your footwear, and challenge the industry to stop trashing the planet.This is a gob-smacking conversation full of revelations about how huge numbers of shoes are made today, using oil-based plastics, potentially-toxic foams and petrochemical ingredients for all sorts of uses you’ve most likely never even heard of. Could these chemicals be leach

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 management. At first, it was all about biodiversity, water use in marginalised communities, and regen ag.So how does one move from observing flying lizards in the Western Ghats, or surveying toilet numbers in remote villages, to staging runway shows? And making wonderful trench coats dyed with marigolds diverted from temple waste-streams. Somewhat of a winding road, it has to be said! Was it hard? What drives them? When you haven't been to fashion school, how do you get the design right? Who do you work with? How do you figure it all out, while staying true to your purpose? A warm, inviti

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, founder of the edgy menswear offering and atelier RKive City. He's created a new system of working with post-consumer textile waste (lots of denim and camouflage gear) that he de-constructs, then recuts into brilliant new garments, often embellished with embroideries. The result blends cool modernity with high craft.What's up for discussion? His process, obviously, but this is also a conversation about dignified work, what people don't realise about the second-hand and waste textile supply chain in India, and ultimately - what makes a good life.Fancy your chances winning the Circular Des

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 can't think of anyone better to contextualise India's new gen talent explosion. So yes, expect to learn the new names-to-know and what makes them tick. But Daniel studied fashion history before breaking into magazines, and this is a far-ranging discussion that gallops through the myth of the Silk Route to the truth of the colonial hangover, via a tour of India's unparalleled craft heritage. Enjoy!More info at thewardrobecrisis.comTell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspressGot recommendations? Hit us up!And please share these podcasts.THANK YOU. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p

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, including sexual orientation, disability and class. So what does mean to be abandoning policies and initiatives designed to make our societies, organisations and businesses fairer and more equitable for everyone? To remove unjust barriers to entry that have, for too long, locked less-privileged groups out? It’s not like, our work is done here.Take, for example, the continued lack of representation of women in the C-suite. The numbers simply don’t represent broader society - or brands’ stakeholders and customer-bases. Or educational establishments that blatantly favour upper class students from

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 states failed to reach an agreement on what would have been the first-ever global legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution.But it's not just plastic that's littering the environment. You name it; it ends up there - from paper and cardboard to aluminium cans, glass, clothing and fly-tipped furniture. We're all complicit, so we've all got a part to play.The good news is that awareness and community action is growing, and that is the focus of today's interview with the inspiring Ripu Daman Bevli - a Delhi-based environmentalist and runner, on a mission to make picking up litter

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 Cordwainers, enjoyed a two-year residency at Alexander McQueen's Sarabande Foundation, and studied classical millinery techniques - their first job out of college was with the iconic London hatmaker Stephen Jones, and they used to make showpieces for Dilara Findikoglu, Richard Quinn and Charles Jeffrey Loverboy. But these new VR adventures step beyond the confines of the physical word with mind-bending results. From teaching themselves digital printing via Youtube to sculpting in virtual reality, the only limits are: there are no limits.Tell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress Got re

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'

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 xxFrom 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, doe