Who Made Your Clothes? A Fashion Revolution Week Special

Welcome to Make Good Things Happen, a podcast for makers in business presented to you by Angela
D’Alton and Renee Baker.
Welcome to Make Good Things Happen, the podcast for makers in business. My name’s Renee Baker and
joining me for this episode, as always, is Angela D’a’Alton. and today we have a bit of a special
episode or something a little bit different we did hint at this last episode we wanted to do a
fashion revolution week special and what does that mean what is fashion revolution week Angela
perhaps you can enlighten us well hi renee and thanks for doing the introduction to this very
special episode fashion revolution week is a global campaign which is led by an organisation called
fashion revolution it was founded after the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse that happened in
Bangladesh where over 1100 garment workers were killed in a terrible tragedy and the week is about
highlighting to consumers and brands in general to consider transparency and ethics they very much
started the Who Made My Clothes, I Made Your Clothes campaign. So if you’ve seen those around,
that’s definitely where this started. It very much focuses on the transparency of supply chains for
businesses, fair wages, safe working conditions, and also environmental responsibility.
So overall, Fashion Revolution Week is to give everyone an opportunity to pause and reflect on how
we’re going as human beings when it comes to fast fashion and what we can do about it which is you
know especially relevant for makers in business who are making fashion and accessories because it
gives you an opportunity to click into a campaign which is what it is and it also allows you space
to tell your story and I think one of the things that we’ve probably said on this podcast before is
that makers have a really strong opportunity to tell a story behind their brand because it’s often
the strongest point of difference when comparing to some of the larger brands and in particular
with fashion we refer to those as fast fashion brands those that have a more of a disposable
mindset a nameless owner behind them we don’t know the conditions of who’s making the clothes and
really We don’t like to think about it because if we’re buying something for $25, that’s 100%
merino wool. And if we really do start to think about who’s making those clothes, we realize,
oh, actually that person’s not making a living wage to be able to do so regardless of what country
they’re from. Yeah. Yeah. As a maker, it’s a really strong point of difference to emphasize that
you’re the one that’s making the clothes and you can. not only say that much about it,
but you can really share every explicit detail because you’re the one there that knows everything
that’s gone into that product. It’s about providing that point of difference to fast fashion.
The issues that are… raised around fast fashion when it comes to fashion revolution week are
things like labor exploitation so as you’ve pointed out Renee highlighting the fact that you are
either making everything yourself or perhaps you’re hiring local garment workers or perhaps you
have staff that assist you with your production it’s a really nice way to highlight and reinforce
your commitment to fair working conditions fair wages all of those sorts of things can be told very
easily when it is a very small business and a small maker business at that for those larger
faceless fast fashion businesses that you mentioned earlier they have as you pointed out more
likely global supply chains and that can therefore mean that if you’re paying as you mentioned 25
or whatever it was for a merino wool jumper at in a store then tracing it back to where it’s come
from and all of the different layers of businesses and pairs of hands that it has had to go through
and the pairs of hands that actually made it in the first place not to mention the footprint it
possibly has in terms of where it’s come from and the way it’s been shipped around the world that
makes accountability and transparency not a desirable thing for those larger businesses they don’t
really want you to know how things are produced for that retail price in particular.
It’s an important thing to consider how you can highlight the difference in your business.
As I mentioned, the transparency that you can have can be a point of difference against those
larger fast fashion retailers. That’s also why we’re grateful for non-for-profits like fashion
revolution who are doing this work because i think it’s really easy to forget and if we don’t have
this message being spread constantly then it’s very easy for all of us you know getting swept up in
the marketing of the fast fashion brands because sometimes it just feels like the easy way out
absolutely and caveat because i think we have been another one a few of those caveat season
sometimes that is the only choice that you have one of the things that in defining fast fashion
which is kind of what we want to do a little bit here as well is yes of course there’s the element
of the production and how it’s being made and the idea of it being seasonal and trend-based but
there is also the way that the consumer chooses to interact with that piece of clothing for example
and you might buy something from a fast fashion label but still keep it for 20 years I guess you
know there is that side of it where the quality might not be there it might not last but I have to
say I do have things that I’ve had for many many years that have come from what would be known as
fast fashion retailers and that is because I try to take good care of my things and I you know I
choose to wash on cold cycles and only wash when absolutely necessary and there is that side of
this coin as well and you raise a good point and I guess that brings me to one of the other reasons
that we have a concern with fast fashion in general and that is the environmental damage that
happens as a result of the fast fashion industry yeah it is estimated to contribute around eight to
ten percent of global carbon emissions to start with, in addition to the fact that textile
production uses a massive amount of water and chemicals. There is a foundation called the Ellen
MacArthur Foundation, which is all about circular economies and particularly in the area of
fashion. They report that the equivalent of one truckload of textiles is landfilled or burned every
second globally. Once you’ve got your head around that, I think when you,
yeah, it’s well explained in that it’s a very visual way of seeing the damage that fast fashion is
doing to the planet. overall when you can imagine a full truckload of clothing and textiles that is
just being dumped somewhere every second in the world or burned there’s another opportunity for you
as a maker to highlight the different systems that you use within your business to support more
environmentally friendly and sustainable management of your textiles and your turnaround your
seasons how much you produce how your business model works maybe you do pre-orders only so that
you’re never making too many things there’s a lot of ways that you can consider that alternative in
your business to appeal to people who are avoiding fast fashion i mean the fact that there is one
truckload enough to make up one truckload every second to be burned or landfilled i guess speaks to
that overproduction of fast fashion because there is the idea that we’re buying new things all the
time and every week and i mean we’ve talked about how even now people still live by that rule of
you must only wear something once and I need a new outfit every Friday night if I’m going to go out
this means that people are needing to throw things out to make way for new things and things are
cheaper therefore people feel like they’re more disposable and that’s what this kind of whole model
is relying on this volume rather than longevity you know it’s no surprise that this is actually a
form of activism the fashion revolution because when you think about it it’s quite enraging
actually that this is where we’re up to it is it’s something obviously that you and i have been
interested in for quite a long time going back to when we first started working together not only
in lilu but when we had twinset our vintage online store that was definitely a mission on our
behalf to work with talented photographers and makeup artists to style secondhand pre-loved and
vintage clothing into ways that encouraged people to purchase secondhand so it was about
highlighting classic shapes and style outside of trend cycles i think the trend cycles is probably
one of the most dangerous things that has happened to the planet and as you’ve pointed out it is
activism participating in slow fashion because you are rallying against these big businesses that
are marketing a lie to you which is that you can’t wear the same thing twice and that you must have
this item this season and all sorts of other marketing ploys to encourage you to continuously buy
If you bought once and took care of things, these large businesses would never be able to maintain
a profit. And ultimately it’s in their interests for you to buy often and to throw away.
what you don’t want anymore so that’s why the marketing works in that way because that as you
pointed out renee is their business model they need you to buy regularly the acceleration price
point yes exactly and because there’s tiny margins across the board the volume becomes the priority
important to their business model yeah and they’ve only accelerated those trend cycles we will all
be familiar with the fact that there used to be spring summer and autumn winter ranges from
businesses. And what we’ve seen probably with the invention of the internet is that there’s always
new things being released. It’s pre-autumn. Yeah. There’s no real seasonal cycle based on need.
It is more of an ongoing cycle based on making profit. And that therefore also means we’re not
wearing things. As often, as I pointed out, they’re encouraging us to never wear the same thing
twice because, oh, the shame of it all. The fact that we are wearing things less than we used to,
we’re not valuing clothes, we’re not valuing the fact that someone made this item and thinking
about the conditions that they made this item in, I think is a really important thing to consider.
We’ve been sold a lie and so you’re right, it is activism. So what is slow fashion in that case?
What is slow fashion? How does that fit into this conversation? Slow fashion is the opposite where
it prioritizes quality. It prioritizes longevity in garment production and in the process of making
items. It isn’t about speed. It isn’t about turnover. It isn’t about making high volume sales.
It’s about buying once and buying well because it values. the craftsmanship.
It values the trade that has actually gone into the production of that specific garment and it
means that you’re potentially paying more. Yes, it means that the supply chain all the way back to
the person who’s making the textiles or making the actual item of clothing have fair conditions,
being paid a living wage. But also considering the materials, cheaper materials create damage at a
higher cost to the environment then. more expensive materials because they tend to be natural
obviously that’s not always the case because the things that last longest are probably the
polyesters and the plastics but that doesn’t mean that when we put them in the ground for landfill
that it’s necessarily okay either those things aren’t going to break down in any great hurry or if
they do they’re leaching plastics into our soil and into our earth just to keep things nice and
bleak for you Yeah.
We wanted to, as we’ve already touched on, use this conversation as an opportunity for you to learn
as a maker. We’ll talk to shoppers a little bit also shortly. But if you’re a maker, how you can
get involved in ethical shopping and environmental sustainability. This is where…
think back to what inspired me to first get involved in making and creating art,
which I’ll admit I haven’t done direct fashion. I have made accessories before, not clothing.
But even still, what inspired me to even start doing that was because I wanted to be a change.
that I wanted to see in this world, I guess. As a maker, we’ve already shared a few things that you
can do, but one of the key things for you to think about is increasing your transparency. And as
web designers, Angela and myself, this is something that we love building into website design
because yes, of course, you can do this through social media, but your website is a really fabulous
place to share where your materials came from, who you work with and how your products are made.
Even just small steps like explaining your sourcing decisions or production process is a really
strong story to tell. Not only aesthetically and visually, there’s a lot you can do with the design
of how you communicate that story. The result is that it builds trust with your audience and it
connects you with the right people. And sometimes that might be the thing that converts that
customer. It might be that they are interested in buying something from you. say for example you’ve
handmade a blouse but then they see the price and they’re a little bit confused and they think that
it doesn’t seem like the right thing for them but the journey of education that you provide them
through this storytelling is enough to actually inspire them to make a change because it’s these
small changes that people make in their lives that are going to have the bigger longer impacts over
time because they’ll influence people they’ll have families and children that they raise with this
ethos it needs to start somewhere almost going back isn’t it it’s taking a step back in order to
take a better step moving forwards when i consider my grandparents and yours and the way that they
purchased items and the way that they valued things was very different to what’s happening now
there was a prioritizing of quality and there was no shame in wearing something more than once you
had good outfits you made sure you repaired those things you made sure you took care of them and if
it meant that you needed to get the sewing machine out and fix things up or dye something or cut it
up hem it or whatever it might be then that’s what you did to extend the life of the piece or the
product that you’ve actually purchased, valuing the time that you spend to earn the money to pay
for the thing that you bought with that money, honouring the process, also the craftspeople and the
makers behind the actual garment itself. Well, that actually reminds me because I know of some slow
fashion brands that offer free repairs and repair services as part of their branding.
Laura, Laura Knitwear, I’m sorry if I’m not pronouncing that correctly, who is a Melbourne based
knitwear label offers repairs because the very nature of their garments, while they’re beautiful
quality and extremely well made, of course, knitwear can over time get holes or snags.
And so that’s just an offering that they have as part of the brand to be able to repair that. And I
think Uncle Funkle offers things like repairs as well. And I know there’s other larger,
but still would be considered within the space of. slow fashion brands like Nudie Jeans who offer
repairs. You can actually fold that philosophy into your business model as a way to not only lock
into this slow fashion movement, but also as a really… awesome marketing tool and marketing story
and customer service customer service absolutely yeah if i know that that’s something that’s part
of what i’m paying for then i’m going to feel more comfortable spending that initial investment up
front because i know that it’s going to last me for years makers ask us particularly about this
point quite a lot which is how they can reduce the waste within their own business and the systems
that they have within their small business operations what you do with offcuts or leftover pieces
how you manage your packaging can you reuse materials can you upcycle and turn those offcuts into
something else is there a secondary product that you can use your creativity to come up with in
order to prevent the creation of additional waste. Can you simplify the packaging or find something
compostable? The production process is just as important as the consumption process.
This is a two-tiered process for all of us to get involved in, not just the buying,
but also the making. Speaking of buying, it’s something that, as you mentioned, Renee, you and I
have been doing. We’ve been shopping for a very long time. Online in particular,
as we’ve said earlier this century, you and I both came to the conclusion that our habits needed to
change when we were educated and informed about slow fashion. And as I mentioned, we started
Twinset. But it’s something that’s always been underneath the ethos and the philosophy of…
that we do which is to support slow fashion and the adjacent organizations because it is an
important thing to consider in the creativity of items one of the ways as a shopper that i find
helpful which for me as someone who did do a lot of shopping was the pause the all-important pause
the pause that they don’t want you to take when you’re in the fast fashion loop which is taking the
moment before you buy the thing and have a really good think about whether or not you actually need
this piece. This is hard because all of the marketing, the online user experience,
the way things are designed is to prevent you from taking this pause. It is to hurry you through
the process before you think about it, before you change your mind. Even just the pause alone is a
radical act. So think about it, Renee. know that you’ve mentioned to me that every now and then you
do like a wardrobe audit just to remind yourself what’s in there before you buy anything new but it
also allows you to look at the genuine gaps that you have in your wardrobe so that you have a way
to say is this something I need you know that’s in black and white as part of that process it
really helps to have a system for me it’s just a note in my phone because I find that the easiest
to manage to highlight what those gaps are for example oh I don’t have a long sleeve tops at the
moment or I could use a new jumper or a new winter coat then that way if you just have those things
literally listed in your phone in a note as you’re shopping or as you’re browsing or more
importantly as you’re being advertised to because let’s face it we have a whole segment called from
scroll to cart on this podcast because that’s how we shop now we get something in our feed and
we’re then buying it it’s really easy for you to go to that point of purchase when you are not even
intending to be shopping we used to have to be really intentional about going shopping because we
had to go to the shops or we had to go to a market. But now we can be caught off guard.
We could be cooking dinner, watching TV. Watching TV. And the next minute we’re spending $150 on
something we don’t need. I use this system so that if I’m in that position where I’m ready to buy
something or I feel the need to buy something, I can actually just check that note and add the link
into the note and come back to it with fresh eyes or when I’m in the right mindset. And what you
start to realise is you are being drawn to things that you might not actually need or that you have
lots of, for example. So it’s just a good way to help being more mindful with how you’re shopping.
Another thing I strongly believe in is anti-trend purchases, making sure that what you buy has a
classic cut colour fabric and is designed for long-term use.
The good thing about classic pieces and classic silhouettes is that they are almost always
available. somewhere and that’s the reason they’re classic because they never do go out of style
they’re an evergreen piece if you can identify that something’s trendy or that’s in right now if
you hear yourself saying any of those things about a piece that’s also a little flag for you to
take notice of which is am i buying this because it’s cool right now or am i buying this because
it’s going to last me five to ten years of good use in several circumstances and considering what
you already have in your wardrobe whether or not this piece will go with other things i think
that’s one of the traps that we often get tricked into is you’ve got to buy this thing but then to
go with it you’ll need a new pair of shoes or you’ll need another handbag or maybe some different
jewelry or and there’s nothing wrong with buying an outfit from top to bottom i’m not suggesting
that that’s not okay what I am saying is when we do want to spend money on clothing think long term
and one of the ways to think long term is to consider what it’s going to work with in your existing
wardrobe that is often a really good moment for you to take a second and have a think about it is
if this is trending or is this something that will last but also i think there’s something to be
said for not being trendy you know there is something to be said for having your own personal style
that is made up of whatever it is that you feel works for you in both comfort and style and color
and all of those things yeah there’s something to be said for not following along with the crowd
that is probably for me the key difference is knowing what your personal style is it might be
different to what might be considered a classic look yeah like you were speaking of those classic
silhouettes and I do agree with that as well but I do think that a personal style can still be
whatever you want it to be but I think the key is to be able to define what that is and know what
that looks like so that when you are shopping you can ask yourself those questions is this my
personal style will I feel like this is something is me when I wear it will I feel good about
myself when I wear it does it work with like you say what I already have from a color palette does
it match and does it all of those yeah shapes yeah and that’s up to you to decide but it really
helps to have that information up front whether it is just some work that you’ve done in your own
notebook or again a note in your phone We have talked a little bit as well about brands that offer
repair and tailoring and those sorts of things. But also as a shopper, it’s another thing that you
can do. I mean, I think I’ve talked about on the podcast before, though, my bag of things that need
repairing that might have been sitting in that bag for quite some time. So it can be a tricky thing
to get on top of if you have a personality like mine that tends to have good intentions but forgets
to follow through sometimes. I am seeing that. move or that push speaking of trends back to analog
behaviors and getting off your phone and I know that repairing clothes kind of falls into that
category so side note for those playing at home I’ve deleted Instagram as of today so maybe that
will be the push that I need to get out the sewing bag and start repairing some clothes. since i
won’t have the scrolling anymore and speaking of instagram one of the ways that you can avoid
falling into these traps do things like unfollow fast fashion influences that perhaps might pop up
into your feed or fast fashion brands that you might have subscribed to their newsletter or maybe
you have their app on your phone if you do have the intention of pulling yourself out of that cycle
for the environment for yourself for your wallet i strongly suggest doing those sorts of things
they don’t feel big but they have a long-term impact for your efforts in that area I think you
will realize that you don’t miss them I think there’s things that you can also specifically look
for when you are buying products from slow fashion labels or any label indeed is what the textiles
are or what the fiber content is of the actual garment. As I touched on earlier,
it’s a good idea to favor natural or responsibly sourced fibers. There’s a lot of certifications
out there for different types of fabric. that you can refer to. I’m putting some of them in the
show notes on our website for this particular episode and just consider the life of that particular
piece of fabric. Is it compostable in the long term if it does end up in landfill?
Something that Renee and I are really passionate about, the quality of the item. Fast fashion
brands want things to fall apart. so that you do keep buying more and that is an unfortunate part
of their business model. So if you’ve got a garment that’s been carefully produced with reinforced
seams or lining or high quality buttons and zippers, those things make a difference to the
longevity of the product. The construction quality of those pieces obviously has a huge impact in
how long you can keep it and how much easier it will be to take care of. And again, you may need to
pay more. You can then think about things like price per wear. You might wear this item 100 or 200
times and so therefore the cost per wear comes down substantially. Love cost per wear.
If it is a high quality product. Love cost per wear. I actually saw amongst all of the Fashion
Revolution Week campaigns that were happening across various platforms this last week,
one million women are rallying to have clothing labels. note down cost per wear on the labels that
they have of their garments so that you can get an idea of if you wear this a hundred times,
what is the cost per wear? Just like you would, for example, at the grocery store where they have
this costs, you know, $5 per hundred grams, and then you can easily quantifiably compare product to
product within the supermarket shelf. Another thing to look for when you are buying things,
especially online, and as Renee talked about having a website that outlines where and how your
items are made as a buyer that information is pivotal in determining whether or not you will buy
something if you are moving into the slow fashion realm and slow fashion doesn’t necessarily mean
made by the maker who’s the owner of the business you know in our case based in Australia that is
obviously something that we do see and I think is a very commendable pursuit for makers who are
making things from start to finish and also running the logistics of their entire business,
building their websites, managing their online orders, their social media, their marketing, all of
that. But there is also very much the option to have ethical production overseas as well.
What it comes down to with all of this is that brand transparency and disclosing that process.
And I’ve seen brands do fabulous jobs at taking you on tours of factories and introducing workers
bringing that production process into the brand as something to be celebrated and I think That’s
the absolute key, that crucial difference, because if somebody feels good and pride in the work
that they do, they are going to want to show that and be put forward. If someone feels like they’re
being treated and subjected to slave labour conditions, they’re not really going to be happy about
smiling for a photo for a website, or at least that’s where I’ve drawn the conclusion. One example
that I can think of while you were talking is Made 590, the business owned by Christina.
Marrickville, but also obviously online. She has been working with the same local knitwear
manufacturer for many, many years. And she has highlighted the team several times over,
I think often during Fashion Revolution Week to highlight how much of a family that she’s developed
within her manufacturing processes. Look for that. Look for those businesses.
Look for the businesses that not only treat their staff well. but that are actually prizing them
that are valuing them that are comfortable explaining transparently that they are part of their
business and their production process that’s something you can definitely look out for overall the
idea is to determine whether or not the company itself is comfortable disclosing things it’s i
think the place to start is yeah you can’t see anything on their website and you still want to buy
something ask them Ask them. I was going to say that, like how they respond to those questions is
also very telling. We talk about trusting your gut and listening to instinct. I’m thinking last
week’s episode, I believe, when we were talking about scams, it’s the same here. You know, you can
pick that marketing speak a mile away when somebody’s just talking around the question and not
really giving you a straight answer. I absolutely agree. We encourage you to ask. And who are you
asking? Where do you shop if you want to start work? on your ethical purchasing journey and this is
the place I guess that Renee and I exist in is the commercial small businesses and medium-sized
businesses that do in fact support this philosophy and who are interested in not only being kind to
the environment but having a sustainable long-term business for that same reason many makers who
participate in markets or have online stores that’s a great place to start you could look at places
like the australian makers directory made it dot com dot au etsy dot com and look for shops in
australia or just simply search instagram as well start with looking at markets design markets
craft markets art markets slow fashion slow fashion markets and makers markets in general the other
place is of course vintage or second hand stores where there’s almost always something that will
work for the look whatever it is that you’re going for nearly always something already exists
that’s like that and even if it’s not exact use your creativity to make it what you want it to be.
Alter it, add something onto it, embellish it, do whatever you need to do with that item. And
Rachel Burke, iMextagram, she’s a perfect example of how you can transform secondhand pieces and
vintage pieces into something completely new that you’ve never seen before that is spectacular.
Even on Facebook, there’s through Marketplace and various groups, there’s so many groups of people
that sell items of clothing. that they no longer want. I mean, I know As someone who’s bought from
those groups, and I know you have too, Renee, you can very often get yourself an absolute bargain,
but also it means you’re participating in a circular economy where things just move to another
person rather than into the ground. The groups are great. I think sometimes they’re a forgotten
gem. So that is searching for, say, for example, there’s a brand of clothing that you really like
and you can search for the group that’s the buy, swap, sell group on Facebook. that sells those
within that. private group in many cases so it’s usually a really friendly community driven place
as well you know people make friends doing that because they might meet up or yeah sometimes people
say wanting to buy and that’s another really good one too that you can do in groups i’ve seen
people say i have a wedding coming up and the theme is cocktail but it has to be orange with
flowers does anyone have a dress that might fit a size 14 you know that’s the sort of stuff i see
in those groups all the time and i think that’s a really fun way to shop It is fun. And I think
often you will find that many of those groups are centered around the brands that are slow fashion
brands. It is made by people that are interested. So for example, you’ll find there’s one for Obis,
there’s one for Elk, and they then encourage the longevity of the slow fashion piece.
Like you’ve said, they’re very friendly groups. So if you’re ever keen to get involved, we’ll list
a few of the groups that we’ve seen on Facebook Marketplace in the show notes as well. And if you
are interested, in vintage and secondhand items depop is of course another great place to look at
used to be owned by etsy now owned by ebay so of course ebay used to be a great place to buy
clothing and probably still is i was very involved in early ebay vintage shopping and i still have
a lot of pieces from that era they’re all places that you can get started and you know get a feel
for what’s available on those platforms before you get caught in the scroll to carbs cycle of fast
fashion but the other thing is there’s one organization that we would strongly recommend you have a
look at both from guidance for shopping but also advice if you are a maker and you’re looking for
accreditation for manufacturing locally that is Ethical Clothing Australia they work with brands so
that they meet a criteria to get accredited and that provides consumers with a level of confidence
when they’re purchasing from those particular brands. You might find, for example, Cue Clothing is
accredited with Ethical Clothing Australia and I’m a subscriber of their newsletter. They often
tell you the new brands that they’ve recently accredited through that process and there is new
businesses being added to their directory that they approve through that process. They also do a
lot of education and provide resources to the community. are interested in participating in the
slow fashion industry. There’s also a couple of other places, and this is not an exhaustive list by
any means, but just a couple of others to help you get started or to continue your exploration into
ethical fashion. Wardrobe Crisis by Claire Press for just basically a foundational understanding of
ethical fashion. So that is a sub stack and a podcast if you want to check that out.
And of course, it goes without saying peppermint magazine for discovering australian ethical brands
and thoughtful consumer guidance peppermint magazine has a fabulous new website so a great place to
start and of course also print magazine as well if you’re someone who’s like us and likes magazines
still the peppermint magazines are still ones that i go to from years ago to look up brands and to
get ideas even just investing in those magazines actually gives you a little bit of a compendium
into the future for helping you with this sort of thing as well because sometimes after you’ve done
that wardrobe audit and you realise that you’re missing a particular item of clothing that you go
looking and so having things like magazines are a great place to start for that please do check
that out and of course that’ll all be linked as well and as Renee said that is not an exhaustive
list actually we’d love to hear from you if you have other suggestions other ways because we know
there’s more we just don’t want to necessarily cram them every single piece of advice into this one
podcast but we would love to hear what you do in a practical sense how you shop or how you make to
ensure that you are considering ethics sustainability and the environment in your processes and
your shopping it’s something that is only increasing in importance. It may be Gen Z that break this
cycle. That particular generation are buying more secondhand, I think, than the previous two
generations did, even though both you and I have been op shoppers for a very long time. We’re not
in the majority. It just made me think of something that my two-year-old said to me tonight. They
wanted to do some painting. And I said, oh, we’ll just have to get those clothes off because I
don’t want to get paint onto the clothes. And they said, oh, whose are these? Whose are these?
And I didn’t understand what they were saying at first. But then I realised all of the clothes that
I’ve put my two-year-old in since birth pretty much have been hand-me-downs or secondhand
clothes. And so whenever they wear them, I’m like, oh, that was, you know, so-and-so. Every piece
of clothing now already has this story in it for them. And I just thought that was really
interesting. Just made me think of it then like when you talked about the next generation of
entrepreneurs with slow fashion. On that note, I would like to end this particular episode with a
phrase from Vivian Westwood, which is one of the sharpest summaries of how to shop sustainably in
the world of fashion. And that is buy less, choose well. and make it last that’s the summary of
what we’ve been trying to communicate thank you so much for joining us on this special episode of
make good things happen our fashion revolution week special next week will likely be a Ballarat
craft and design week review at the very least we’ll have a segment where i’m going to give a quick
review that is huge it’s going to be a massive undertaking for everyone involved and i want to tell
everyone good luck because they might be listening to this while they’re for the exhibition next
weekend yeah i’m so thrilled to see how it turns out i’m incredibly proud of all of the
practitioners that have been involved they’ve worked so hard and i’m really looking forward to the
preview next friday how exciting congratulations in advance and i’m really looking forward to
hearing more about all of that and that process next week of course if you do want any other
updates from us check us out on instagram at mgth.com.au and that’s also a great place to leave
us comments about what your slow fashion philosophy is and of course if you’re listening and you’re
not already subscribed please do subscribe to our podcast wherever you listen because we know there
are some of you that are listening who aren’t subscribed so please do it because then that means
that i don’t know what it means but i know it’s a good thing for us it helps us continue making
podcasts Thanks so much for joining us. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to Make Good Things Happen.
If you enjoyed this episode, why not write a review or share it with a friend? For show notes and
more, head to mgth.com.au. This has been a D’Alton Baker production.

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