Episode 320 features Wafa Ghnaim, a Senior Research Fellow at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Curator for the Museum of the Palestinian People and Founder of The Tatreez Institute, alongside Dr. Tanveer Ahmed, a Senior Lecturer in Fashion and Race at Central Saint Martins and also Course Development Lead for MA Fashion and Anthropology at London College of Fashion.

“Inherently, just by being Palestinian and by teaching about Palestinian life and history, and including oral history in my work as a foundational aspect of my research, I am threatening these kinds of structures, in and of itself. And so, simply my existence is resisting that colonialism and the normalization of destruction and death of Palestinian bodies.” -Wafa

“Translating lots of decolonial thought around the canon and Eurocentrism and what shapes our ideas of art and design is really crucial to understand how we then deconstruct the canon. It’s not just a question about changing reading lists or to me, about representation and bringing in more Black and Brown academics into our institutions, although that is part of the equation. I think what we need to do and what I think is the most important role for me is to undue the harms that coloniality has done to our disciplines and within our institutions.” -Tanveer

APRIL THEME — COMING TOGETHER TO BUILD A BETTER FASHION FUTURE

Decolonizing fashion, intersectionality, identifying the knowledge holders, cultural inheritance and systems change were some of the key themes we explored in this week’s episode. We take a look at some of the areas that fashion educators are dismantling when it comes to heteronormative and Eurocentric views on fashion education and design. And how this knowledge can translate from the classroom or across cultural communities into practical ways. Building off of our last episode, we question – what are the biggest challenges we still face and how can we work toward more transformation?

We learn from one of our guests that this focus and lens on decolonising fashion where marginalization and othering is built into the foundation, is very different to the offerings of cultural preservation, which holistically exists to share lived experience, pass over craft practice, history, culture and honor the hands and bodies of the people at the center of this. As our guest shares, what else is there if we cannot honor the people preserving culture. Fashion as it exists, still has a ways to go in embracing this at its roots, but our guests give us hope as they move through the world, sharing their wisdom and truth, and teaching us the meaning of how to be good custodians and stewards, so we can uphold this legacy with care and intention and continue to center Indigenous craft, culture and practice.

Links from the conversation:

• Tatreez & Tea Website

• Tanveer’s Work Profile

• Follow Wafa (@tatreezandtea) on Instagram

Episode 319 features guests Stella Hertantyo, the co-host of the Conscious Style Podcast, alongside Emily Stochl, the host and creator of Pre-Loved Podcast.

Stella also works as writer and communications coordinator, while Emily also works as the Vice President of Advocacy & Community Engagement at Remake.

“There are so many painful roots when you look back at the way that certain dyes came about and you know, cotton farming — there are so many different legacies of colonialism that existed and still exist. But I also want to take the word painful out of that sentence and say that we have also learned to acknowledge the roots of sustainability because not all of them have pain at the center. And I think what I've learned with so much interest and joy is the different textile heritages that exist across the continent — from natural dyes to hand looming to the ways that people grow certain crops, and yeah, just different ways of expressing and using textiles as ways to archive and also to preserve culture. And there are so many people that do this incredible work and I think that that is a really, really important acknowledgment that I had to come to realize in my own journey.” -Stella

“Labor rights are the foundation of what we know to be fashion activism in general, if we think back to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, which I know that something here in the United States, folks maybe learn about in school. This was another fashion industry-related disaster that led to a swath of movement-building around how we advocate for safer workplaces for people working inside the fashion industry. You know, roots to International Women’s Day, roots to some of the labor protections that we know and understand today, like the 40-hour work week. These are all things that if you look at the fashion industry from a history perspective, labor and the fashion industry, it is totally intertwined.” -Emily

APRIL THEME —
COMING TOGETHER TO BUILD A BETTER FASHION FUTURE

Whether it’s legislation, science research & innovation, transformation in language, the storytelling tools & platforms in which we use to communicate, the evolution of definitions, the popularization of the second hand economy or labor rights advocacy – so much has changed within the sustainable fashion movement over the last decade.

This week, we really put our new round table format to work. We dissect the sustainable fashion industry through a timeline of events, paying homage to Fashion Revolution Day – a movement that, in conjunction with many others, has brought more mobilization and change to the space. Join the four of us – all podcasters & storytellers – for this expansive breakdown.

Links from the conversation:

• “What Is Extended Producer Responsibility in Textiles — and What’s Missing From Current Policies?”, article on Conscious Life & Style by Stella

• Become a Good Ancestor Podcast by Layla Saad (mentioned by Stella)

• Conscious Style Podcast Website

• Pre-Loved Podcast Website

• Follow Stella on Instagram

• Follow Conscious Style Podcast on Instagram

• Follow Emily on Instagram

• Follow Remake on Instagram

*DISCLAIMER — this episode features stories connected to eating disorders and sexual abuse.

Episode 318 features guests Francisco Alcazar, a zero waste designer based in Los Angeles, California, alongside Ella Wiznia, the founder and designer of Series NY.

Using his 25 years experience as a structural engineer, Francisco is leading the movement that promotes circularity in fashion, and expanding these principles to other disciplines, whilst celebrating the material stories of each textile and the individuality they represent. A New York based brand of ethically made genderless clothing and accessories, Series NY makes every piece in NY in partnership with skilled artisans who set their own rates using only pre-existing and sustainable materials.

“What I like about upcycling is the freedom that it gives you. When you’re upcycling, you actually remix, rework, reuse. And in the process of doing that, the power is back to you. What I mean by that is when we go to a secondhand shop, all the clothes there are mixed up. You have the power to choose — there is no trend, there is no fashion. And the good thing is it’s hard because you have to deal with your inner ‘what you actually like’. And some people follow trends because the process of learning about you is hard. It’s easy to just conform and follow trends, you know, you go to magazines and copy a trend. You don’t have to actually learn about yourself anymore.” -Francisco

“Fashion kind of seems to be one of the only forms of art that is quote unquote gendered in most peoples’ minds. I mean, you don’t go into an art gallery and say ‘oh no, this is for men; no, that piece is for a girl’ — you know, it’s just not how it’s done. Or architecture — ‘no, this building was for this these types of people’. We’re all able to experience them how we want.” -Ella

MARCH THEME —
Acknowledging The Confines of Gender & The Folks Disrupting Stereotypes

The fashion industry can often be described as frivolous with labels, stereotypes and binaries boxing us in – telling us how we need to dress and what identities are deemed quote unquote ‘acceptable’, which can create spaces that are harmful, toxic and void of any sort of individuality and uniqueness – it can often be a place where difference in not celebrated but rather hidden.

This week, our incredible guests share the power that upcycling has in being a paintbrush to the art you wish to create and see in the world - a world where the gender binary is challenged, where we go against ultra fashion trends, and have the permission to dress freely without societal bias and prejudice. We hear how pain can be the source of our purpose, and how textiles and materials are the vehicle in this journey of pride, play and personal empowerment.

We explore the origins of gender-based crafts, the passing over of traditional skills and techniques, and how our guests are challenging the confines of gender stereotypes through reimagining materiality.

Links from the conversation:

• Lynden B. Miller (artist that Ella mentions)

• Fran’s Website

• Series NY Website

• Follow Francisco on Instagram

• Follow Series NY on Instagram

Episode 316 features guests Lina Barkawi, a Tatreez practitioner, preservationist, and educator based in Brooklyn, alongside Eman Toom, a Palestinian Tatreez artist, teacher, sewer and crafter.

“Part of just doing tatreez, in my personal opinion, is a form of resistance because we’re basically just existing and we’re showing our Palestinian identity, but there have also been very explicit uses of tatreez as a form of resistance. And so you have thobes that came out of the intifadas in the ‘90s where the flag was banned and so these are very explicit uses of tatreez where they would stitch literally the Palestinian flag. Or different motifs, like new motifs that came out of representing national identity and things like that. So, I just wanted to mention that because there have been very explicit forms of resistance, but I think the more subtle ways is kind of where Eman and I are playing a very big role in — is thinking about how do we help just bring more Palestinians into this art form and help them reclaim this art form and use it, because just by doing that, no matter what your color preferences are, whatever your background is, that is just in and of itself a form of resistance against an occupier.” -Lina

“The technique and the skill that you’re using to create these motifs — it is at its simplest form, a form of cross stitch. There’s other forms of tatreez, but for the most part, it is that. But what I try to always remind people is that tatreez is so much more than that, in the sense that it is a record of our history. You know, the more that we study Palestinian embroidery, the more that we’re studying tatreez, the more that we’re studying the history of Palestine at the same time. You can’t have one without the other, they go hand in hand.” -Eman

When we think about sustainability, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps curbing our addiction to consumption, mass manufacturing, and circular materials. But what about cultural sustainability, craft, connection to ancestral land, and challenging colonization through continuing to uplift centuries old traditions?

In this week's episode we learn from our guests about how Tatreez inherently IS sustainability. The motifs and symbols embroidered on cloth are a language of symbols documenting spaces in time, they tell stories of nature, the flora and fauna around the Women making them. We learn that the hand made process is the antithesis to homogeneous fashion - it is slow, considered and truly one of a kind.

In 2021 the art of embroidery in Palestine was recognized by UNESCO as an important intangible cultural heritage - an artform that connects the Palestinian people to their roots. Preserving culture is inherently and naturally, as our guests share - sustainability. It needs no labels, or commodifying - it is made up of the everyday rituals, traditions, craft and practices that celebrate identity.

Quotes & links from the conversation:

• “The Land In Our Bones” by Layla K. Feghali, book Kestrel brings up briefly

• Lina’s Landing Page

• Listen to Tatreez Talk (Lina’s new podcast)

• Eman’s Website

• Follow Lina on Instagram

• Follow Eman on Instagram

Episode 315 features guests Amy Denet Deal, the founder of 4Kinship, a Diné (Navajo) owned sustainable artwear brand, alongside Sha’Mira Covington, Ph.D., an interdisciplinary scholar-artist and Assistant Professor in Fashion.

“Thinking about sustainability beyond just the textiles, thinking about the land that we’re on, how we can live in reciprocity with the people, the four-legged relatives, everything, the plants, the animals here — in all the work we do. Which is why community focus is so much part of what I consider sustainability ‘cause everyone should be thriving from what we do — not just the brand, not just a couple people, everything around needs to be in that harmony.” -Amy

“I’m very much so motivated by truth. We, as a society, have gotten really deep in the business of pretending, pretending that things are ok and they are not. We, as as society, are very spiritually unwell, yet we continue to go on as business as usual. This facade of sorts keeps me up and the performative untruths we have to tell ourselves every day to function in this society is very unsettling to me. This motivates me to be a seeker of truth, to better connect to myself, to nature and to other people.” -Sha’Mira

In this week's episode, we explore the topic of INTERGENERATIONAL KNOWLEDGE IN FASHION & TEXTILES. To say this episode was healing, would be an understatement. 

We talk about how we can learn from the trees, and the sky and the land that we walk on each day. What Black and Brown Indigenous cultures teach us about truth-telling, and the unlearning and relearning of traditional ways. We also explore how community circles are a solution to creating more social impact and better connections … with one another, with our four legged relatives, and the natural world around us. 

This episode teaches us how to live in reciprocity, and how fashion is more than just aesthetics; it’s about the upholding of cultural practices, and the amplifying of intergenerational knowledge and traditions. In order for these to live on, we all must actively participate in honoring and respecting and appreciating them – not appropriating them. 

We all have a responsibility to take part in challenging systems to better heal the planet and its Indigenous cultures who have always been the inherent teachers of these connected ways of life. We can’t wait for you to listen and learn from our guests this week who are the holders of so much wisdom, knowledge and truth.

Tune in as we contextualize our February theme – Sharing Textile Knowledge Across Generations.

Quotes & links from the conversation:

• Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, children’s book Kestrel mentions 

• Images above are from Sha’Mira’s recent installation at the Fashion for Good Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, entitled Curative: Confronting and Healing the Fashion-industrial Complex

• 4Kinship currently has 2 fundraisers active for their community initatives:
  1) Text SKATEINBEAUTY to 707070 to help them deliver skateboards on Navajo Nation with Diné Skate Garden Project

  2) Text ILLUMINATE to 707070 to help amplify and elevate Indigenous creatives with 4KINSHIP INDIGENOUS FUTURES FUND

• 4Kinship’s Website

• Sha’Mira’s Website

• Follow 4Kinship on Instagram

• Follow Sha’Mira on Instagram

In episode 313, you’ll hear from co-hosts (yes, co-hosts!) Kestrel Jenkins and Natalie Shehata in the launch of Season 7. This is also the first episode in which Kestrel and Nat showcase their new co-host dynamic. With this powerful community-driven change, they’ve teamed up to reimagine some aspects of the show. Here’s what you can expect this season:

• Roundtable Discussions — featuring at least 2 guests per episode

• Focus On Making The Conversation More Circular — bringing more folks to the table to learn from various voices at the same time

• Monthly Themes — we’ll hone in on a specific topic each month

• Bi-Weekly Episodes — expect to hear 2 episodes per month, instead of the previous 4 because, slow media :)

JANUARY THEME —
FAST FASHION, CONSUMPTION & WHY SELF WORK IS INTEGRAL TO CHANGEMAKING

Do you remember episode 303 when we talked about slow media and telling stories through love, not labor? In our kickoff to the new season, we decided to go deeper into this love-not-labor concept – to explore what it really means and how this approach directly relates to sustainable fashion. 

Pulling back a little further – our focus of this show is Self Work. But what does this really mean? In general, it gets aligned with the idea of self improvement. Across the fashion media landscape and socials lately, we’ve seen a heightened interest in looking inward to question what you really want out of your life. Why? Well, it’s the time for annual resolutions, as we just celebrated the launch of a new year.

And with that – in sustainable fashion lately, there’s been a lot of commentary about how things need to be reimagined across the industry, with folks voicing different approaches to achieve larger scalable transformation. At the same time, it feels like the movement needs to have a more organic approach and not be so defined or limited – because as it stands, sustainability is so different to each of us, and in order to cultivate a space that is truly diverse, we all need to be at the table to provide our unique approaches. 

But whether or not we’re at the table, in order to take any sort of action, we need to go back to the beginning and tune into ourselves. When was the last time you questioned your values? What do you truly care about? Until we are clear on these aspects within ourselves, how can we live out these values and put them into practice? 

Therein lies the crux of what we break down in this week's show. 

Find more notes at www.ConsciousChatter.com.