Dressing for the Future: Sustainable Fashion & Textile Innovation with Julie Moorhouse

Julie Moorhouse of Goodmaker Tales joins me to discuss sustainable fashion and how you can become more sustainable in your clothing choices!

Takeaways

• The most sustainable clothes are the ones you already own, so value and reuse them.
• Consider buying secondhand or renting clothes to reduce waste.
• Choose quality over quantity and invest in pieces that will last.
• Be mindful of the toxins in clothing and look for labels like Oecotex and BlueSign for safer options.
• Opt for clothing with sustainable design features, such as button flies instead of zippers.
• Follow trends consciously and focus on developing your personal style. There are differences in fashion trends between countries, with Spain known for its colorful and expressive clothing.
• Fast fashion brands like Zara have a rapid production process, going from concept to store shelf in a short period of time.
• There are sustainable alternatives in footwear, such as apple skin leather and pineapple leather.
• Individual actions and conscious consumer choices play a crucial role in driving sustainability in the fashion industry.

Enjoy!

To connect with Julie and find more resources on living a more sustainable life, visit https://goodmakertales.com

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Overview
08:45 Innovative Technologies for Recycling Clothing
26:03 The Impact of Toxins in Clothing
32:32 Sustainable Design Features in Clothing
41:11 Sustainable Alternatives in Footwear

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

Welcome to Tailoring Talk. I'm Roberto Ravilla, Bespoke Tailor and owner of Roberto Ravilla London Suit Shirt and Shoemakers. I weave superpowers into every stitch. Join me as we meet self-starters and creators, diving into their journeys and uncovering valuable lessons. To help you be the best you can be Hit, subscribe, leave me a rating and let's tailor greatness together. Today's guest is the founder and editor of the Goodmaker Tales website covering all aspects of sustainable and ethical fashion, and home from a British perspective. Following a globe-trotting career in real estate, including work on the zero-carbon city of Masdar in Abu Dhabi, she's always had a passion for sustainability, which recently extended into fashion. Here to share her story and give us some practical tips on how we can all become more sustainable in our lives. Tailoring talkers, please welcome Julie Morehouse to the show. Julie, how are you?

Speaker 2: 1:06

Thank you very much. I'm good. Thank you, I'm very happy to be here, very happy indeed.

Speaker 1: 1:12

I really wish I was on the other side of the phone line right now, because you're calling in from Madrid, which is my other home, our other home. I miss it so much. We hope to be back over at some point in the next few weeks. We're just trying to find a dog sitter at the moment.

Speaker 2: 1:27

Um bring the dog.

Speaker 1: 1:28

They love dogs here yeah, well, you know, passports, all that nonsense, yeah, and sometimes we need a break from them. To be quite honest, as much as I love them. Um, you have somehow brought us some very madrid-like weather today, so I'm sitting here wishing I was outside. It's 20 degrees, which it hasn't been for flipping ages.

Speaker 2: 1:52

It's actually really hot. They told me this morning it was going to reach 30 today, so I'm actually hoping it doesn't, because it gets a bit hot when you have to go and pick children up.

Speaker 1: 2:03

Yeah, I can imagine. And, speaking of children, run, etc. Um, let's get into it. So, sustainability, so it's really interesting because I make clothes for a lot of people in real estate and it's, um, it's something that is and has been heavily talked about in the real estate industry for a number of years now. People moving offices are very proudly boasting the eco credentials and the carbon zero credentials of the buildings they're moving into, and you know to to be as positive as I can about all of it, although you know knocking things down and rebuilding them again is arguably not that sustainable, not very sustainable but people are at least building better, or they seem to be in a lot of instances, and I think obviously we do have to applaud that.

Speaker 1: 2:56

Um, so if we go back a little bit before we get into the fashion side of things and just sort of take you back to your real estate days yeah, you've worked all over the world on some amazing projects well, yeah, right why hesitate what?

Speaker 2: 3:15

no, I was gonna say well, I've worked, yeah, I have worked in the Middle East and I'm Spain in the UK.

Speaker 1: 3:19

Haven't worked anywhere else but that's to me, that's low-tr. Yes, yeah, I have. I don't get out that much yeah no, I have, I have, I have.

Speaker 2: 3:30

I don't travel very much these days, so it's like a distant memory, yeah how?

Speaker 1: 3:36

when did you come out of real estate? Um, was that when you started a family, or was it a decision that you kind of came to because you fell out of love with it? Just take me kind of back there and give us your origin story, as it were.

Speaker 2: 3:51

Yeah, no. Well, I love real estate and I always will. But no, I got made redundant when I was six months pregnant and in the middle of COVID and I just thought I'm not going to start looking for another job. At the moment, in Spain, they work much longer hours as well, so with children, I didn't want to have to work long hours, so I wanted to work for myself and I just fancied a change. Really, I didn't know where it was going to take me, but I've always been, as you mentioned, I've always been interested in sustainability.

Speaker 2: 4:30

I started learning more and more about sustainable fashion. I was quite shocked, especially because I myself had been there sitting in meetings talking about sustainable buildings, all the while, you know, buying loads of new clothes I didn't need and wondering why I couldn't fit them all in my wardrobe. You know, I was a classic. I wasn't one of these kind of young Instagram girls that goes out and buys a dress and wears it. Once I still got clothes I bought 20 years ago or more, but I really have always loved buying clothes and now I just I just generally don't.

Speaker 2: 5:00

I try not to. Or, if I do, I buy from a sustainable brand or I buy secondhand really don't. I try not to, or if I do, I buy from a sustainable brand or I buy second hand. So yeah, I would never want to preach to people because I definitely was one of those people that was really kind of like buying without really thinking about it, thinking that I was sustainable but hadn't really considered the sustainable aspects of fashion. And a lot of people just haven't, and it's not because they don't care, they just haven't thought about it yeah, and I think also a lot of people.

Speaker 1: 5:26

They don't or aren't aware of what actually happens to their clothes afterwards. Um, because the you know that we've gone beyond landfill, because it's all on the surface now. So, yeah, I was reading a news article recently about the clothes melting in the Chilean desert.

Speaker 2: 5:46

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:47

You know, which is where a lot of our clothes are ending up. Obviously, you've also got places in the Far East as well, where there are clothes mountains. Developing the visual of that from an out, from outer space is a quite incredible, and I don't mean that in a good way at all yeah watching all this thing. I really don't, but it is also extremely frightening yeah you almost wonder how the hell we can come back from this, because it just seems to have got out of control yeah, I mean it totally has.

Speaker 2: 6:27

You know, and just kind of going back to my own story, I used to take bags of clothes to the charity shops. But when you think about it, you know the charity shops can only sell so many clothes. You know, if everybody else is taking bags and bags of their clothes as well, there's just not that much demand. And luckily there is more demand now. People are starting to get more into second-hand fashion. But historically, um, I don't think, I just think they just had too much stuff, so they were getting stuff sent, they were sending stuff away. It's ending up in africa and you know, like you say, in in the middle east, in deserts, in chile, which I was reading last week, that some of it has now disappeared from view on the satellite images and someone had commented that it's because a lot of it has been burnt, which is even more shocking and horrific. Um, whether that's true and I don't know, but yeah, there's a massive problem. And then I read something else the other day that we've got six times as many clothes in the world that we'll ever need, like ever. There's no, uh, no, new clothes are really needed. So we've just got so many clothes and it's just what to do with them. So, actually, something that is really great.

Speaker 2: 7:31

And even when I started only a couple of years ago writing about sustainable fashion, it was, it still seemed to be a really good thing to recycle plastic bottles into clothes and in that short space of time, um, it's been recognized that that's not a great thing. It's not great to recycle plastic bottles because they can be recycled back into plastic bottles and once you recycle them into clothes, they can't really be recycled again. So actually, what we need to do is deal with exactly what you're talking about all the textile waste and recycle that back into clothes. And there's so much new technology coming out. It's so great to read about it.

Speaker 2: 8:05

All these amazing people that are doing all this work about how to recycle clothes, chemical recycling and um. There was there's a great company called circ and they can recycle a poly cotton blend. Now they can extract the polyester and they can extract the cellulose from the cotton and remake it into a type of very pure viscose um which is purer than normal viscose um. So it's just you know these great minds and what they're doing. It's just fantastic. It's great that we've got people like that on the planet? Who are helping with this massive problem?

Speaker 1: 8:37

yeah, no, absolutely. I mean you mentioned the um instagram influencer or tiktok influencer thing, which is a big issue. I mean we see it in london and you see so many influencers on the doorsteps of. I was saying to my wife the other day, if we could afford one of those townhouses, I think I would just be like victor meldrew, I'd be permanently people standing on my doorstep, you know, posing and taking pictures and stuff. It would just really irritate the bloody hell out of me.

Speaker 2: 9:05

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:06

But you know they're buying things from places like Boohoo and Primark and whatever, wearing them once for the photo opportunity or to create an Instagram reel or a TikTok video, and then they get thrown away. They don't wear them again. Some of these influencers have got huge followings and I don't want to, you know, kind of crap on all influencers, because there are some, and this is where I think things need to pivot in social media, where, when you've got influencers that have got huge followings, they've actually got the power to either continue contributing to being part of this problem or being part of the solution and helping to start reversing it. So I need to find her Instagram handle, actually, because I can't remember exactly what it is. But there's an influencer I follow.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Her videos are so, so funny and she's so genuine. Her following grown so rapidly over the last few months Ellie, oh god, what is it? But the thing that she's doing is that when you watch her videos, she's very often wearing the same pieces. In a lot of videos it's, like you know, I'm wearing my mango shmango top, again, blah, blah, blah, and then a lot of the other things that she that we're seeing from her, that she's wearing that I knew um. She's um promoting sites. Um, uh, you know, so uh, you get sites where you can actually rent dresses yeah um and rent outfits um or um she's.

Speaker 1: 10:52

She's proudly showing off things that she bought second hand um, or things that she's just borrowed and that will get returned and then somebody else will use them. So so she's using and I don't know if she's aware of what she's doing, but but if it's intentional, it's brilliant, because she's using her growing influence to actually do something about this problem rather than being a contributor yeah, no good for her, definitely.

Speaker 2: 11:21

Um, that's it. It's just, I mean, isn't that crazy that people don't want to wear the same thing twice? You know, I mean that's just crazy. You know, most of the clothes that I live in are the ones that I just I'm sure we've all got our favourite pair of jeans that we wear like all the time.

Speaker 2: 11:39

You know, I can't imagine only wearing things once but you know and I've read somewhere as well, and I try and live by this if you want to buy something, you should really think about how many times you're going to wear it, how useful it will be, and you should buy something that you're going to wear as much as possible. And also, you should sleep on things that you want to buy as well. In fact, I've had things that I've thought about for a year before I bought them, and then I'm like no, I really do want this. I'm going to buy it, um. But yeah, we should buy things that we're going to wear again and again and again, um, until they wear out, and then we should get them fixed.

Speaker 1: 12:14

Should come to you and get them fixed well, that's what happens back in the day, right? So if we go back to, I mean, I grew up in the sort of 80s, 90s, so you know my mum would always fix things rather than I mean she couldn't afford to buy me anything new anyway, because I've been six foot since I was about 12 years old and um, but you know, my, my trousers always, you know, had a patch on them somewhere. You know socks if they got holes in them they would always get darned and repaired. And you know, I think if we go back, there was that sort of attitude back then because pre 1970, you know, people had things made. You know, seamstresses were very common, or you know just your mum being able to sew things and put them together. Andstresses were very common, or you know just your mum being able to sew things and put them together and make clothes was very common right.

Speaker 1: 13:01

A lot of the magazines that our parents might have grown up with um had sort of knitting patterns and things yeah you don't see that, so much these days um, and I remember when I was younger and I first got into the tailoring industry, a lot, of, a lot of clients would would talk about their parents, their fathers and how you know my father, we, we grew up we weren't that well off, but my everybody had a tailor. And then we get into the 70s and I think that's where the beginning of this sustainability problem started, with the advent of mass manufacturing yeah, artificial fibers and sportswear and so on, and then all of a sudden, it just exploded, um, I think. I mean, from our point of view, I think we're starting to see people become a bit more aware of what they're doing, and so they. You know we're hearing people talk more about buying less but buying better quality, so it lasts. And you know we're hearing people talk more about buying less but buying better quality, so it lasts. And you know we'll always share stories.

Speaker 1: 14:01

I had a client recently who changed shape again, um, but he brought in a bunch of trousers that I've made for him about 20 years ago, when I first started cool, um, and he was so proud as well and he said look, they're still going, um. And I said to him this is sustainability in nutshell, because we can retailer all of this for you, and then it saves you buying as many new things that you thought you might have to come in and buy he wants them and they'll be really different because they'll be his unique piece, rather than um something that everybody's got or something that other people have got.

Speaker 2: 14:41

I've bought a few dresses um second hand from brands that I know. I know the size that will fit me, but actually they've not quite been right or they've been too long or needed. Taking in one dress, I had it taken up too much and it was so short that you could see my bum at the back and I was like, oh my god, I can't wear this.

Speaker 2: 14:57

So I went and bought this kind of like bit of fabric at the bottom, in fact, my boyfriend went and bought it for me and it's kind of like a bit frilly and I was like oh my god, what am I gonna do with that? But they sewed it on the bottom and it looks really, really cool and like I've got this unique, this unique dress.

Speaker 2: 15:12

Now, that's way better than it was doesn't show my bum anymore. Um and uh, and I was thinking, you know, nobody else has got this dress because it's completely unique, and other dresses that I've had taken up and then changed and taken in and and now they're unique to me and actually if I was only good with the sewing machine I could do it myself. Um, I should get, I should. My mum's got a sewing machine and she doesn't use it anymore, so I should uh try and figure out how to, how to work it.

Speaker 1: 15:39

Do some sewing you've interviewed um some quite incredible people in the field of sustainability, when it comes to fabric fashion and so on. Is that, is there anyone in in the kind of um field, production of fabric field that's really stood out to you?

Speaker 2: 15:59

Not so much in the well, yes, it is manufacturing. I was thinking about Nudie Jeans. So they offer a free repair service for their jeans and I think they I can't remember the number now, but they've repaired something like 5,000 pairs of jeans in the last year. So you know and they were very much about you know repairing your jeans and and then reusing them. I've got a few. I've got like I was talking about my favorite pair of jeans I wear all the time.

Speaker 2: 16:25

They're starting to get a hole in the knee and I was like, oh no, I need to like either. Um, well, I need to basically repair them and I was thinking how can I, how can I do this so it looks cool rather than just like looks crap with a rubbish patch on it? But yeah, it's so cool that they do that and they and they use old denim from old jeans that can't be repaired as patches and they say they need a lot of, they need a lot of material for patching. But that makes those jeans completely unique and I love that. I really. I just think that's amazing. And they do it in their shops as well. If you can't find a shop, you can send it in, you can send your pieces in and get them repaired and they even do like a patch kit so you can send off with their kit and repair it yourself at home. So maybe I'll do that.

Speaker 1: 17:11

Yeah, yeah, no, we do the same at home. It's like jeans I always talk about with a lot of fondness because, um, you know, I talk to clients and I explain that you know the the dye on jeans is made up of indigo which is layered, and jeans kind of, as they age, that those layers kind of chip and fade it. The conversation starts when people say I've heard that you should never wash your jeans. Is that a thing? And I'm like, yeah, wash your jeans if you want.

Speaker 1: 17:39

But the problem is, every time you wash them you strip a layer of that indigo off and what you really want to do is is you want to wear your jeans, not launder them, or launder them infrequently, because as you wear them, the things that you do in them start to chip off bits of that indigo in the indigo layers and then that's how your genes start to fade and start to, you know, get little patches and things from the things that you do.

Speaker 1: 18:06

Um, and it tells a story. So I've still got the genes that I was wearing pretty much all through our house build and I remember exactly what bit of the scaffolding I was on when I was doing whatever it was that I was doing. You know, when you, when you talk to people about that, about the, the history, the story that their clothes can write, the tales that their clothes can write as they age, um, using terms like you know your jackets linen jackets are great. You know the fabric. Lasts for a very long time, yeah, um, but it wears in in a certain way that you know your jackets linen jackets are great.

Speaker 2: 18:36

You know the fabric lasts for a very long time, yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:37

But it wears in in a certain way that you know a good linen jacket like the one I'm wearing now just becomes like an old friend, and talking in those terms gets people sort of more connected with their clothes. Trying to help people to make that connection with their favorite pieces of clothing then makes them think actually how can I keep this going longer?

Speaker 2: 19:00

or at the very least ask the question to people like us yeah, well, actually, going back to what you said about nudity, to what I was saying about nudie jeans is they were talking about raw denim, which I didn't really know very much about, and exactly that that the way that you wear your jeans determines the different types of of creases and everything in them, and I think it's on their website you can actually see there's like an example of the same pair of jeans worn by someone sitting at a desk, worn by someone who is really active and worn by someone who I don't know was probably doing the house, something like you, and and all those three pairs of jeans are completely different, even though they all started the same. So, yeah, you're right, clothes have a character, don't they? And mine all have a character, with a hole in the knee and hole in the toes, and clothes that we love to wear.

Speaker 1: 19:46

But where do you really start with that? Because you must get people asking you this question right, like how can I get more sustainable.

Speaker 1: 19:52

There's obviously the obvious stuff that we're already touched on sustainable. There's obviously the obvious stuff that we're already touched on. But you know where, where would you kind of start with people because, also, you kind of want to do it in a way that you know they sort of take things on board and don't feel like they, they're not made to feel guilty for sort of their behavior to this date, because we've all been, we've all been part of the problem, right?

Speaker 1: 20:15

totally yeah, and I I said sorry on no, no, I was gonna say I remember when I was a lot younger and I first discovered brands like Uniqlo, and you know I wasn't earning that much money, but suddenly I could actually buy a whole load of stuff for not much money and it only lasted about a year.

Speaker 1: 20:33

But then it was like, say what, you throw it away and then you just get more stuff yeah looking back on it, I'm horrified at myself for my own behavior, for that, because you know that, that that clothing has just contributed to, you know, part of this whole global crisis that we're now potentially facing yeah, no.

Speaker 2: 20:54

Well, I feel the same about my own behaviour, you know, and horrified at myself, but one thing I would say is that it doesn't matter what's in your wardrobe. What matters is that you use it well. So I've got clothes in my wardrobe that I bought previously, not knowing anything about sustainable fashion, from brands that I now know aren't great, but the most important thing is that I wear them and that I use them. So the most sustainable clothes you own that you can get are the clothes you already own, and that's the most important message, really, is that you don't need to go and buy a whole lot of new clothes to be sustainable. So the most sustainable clothes are already in your wardrobe. The least sustainable thing you can do is go and throw them all away and go and buy a whole lot of new clothes, even if it is new clothes from sustainable fashion brands, because pre-existing clothes are the most sustainable, um. Having said that, of course, if you've got clothes that are shedding a load of microplastics in the washing machine every time, that's slightly less, um less sustainable. So you can do things like buy a guppy bag which you put your clothes, your synthetic clothes, in to keep in, uh, microplastics, um. So that's, that's the first thing. And just going to your point about clothes being really cheap, that is a problem because we're all, we're all pre um, we're all kind of what's what I'm looking for? We're all too used to seeing our clothes, seeing clothes being really cheap, and so therefore we don't value.

Speaker 2: 22:15

I found or my auntie actually recently shared me a letter which was from my granny's boyfriend before she met my granddad, so this is from like the 1920s or something, and he put on the letter.

Speaker 2: 22:25

He said oh, I've not seen you wearing that new dress that you bought because it was such a big deal that she bought this new dress, because she probably got one or two a year, and so he knew about this new dress that she'd got, because it was a thing you know. And can you imagine now someone writing about the new dress that they bought because people buy so many new clothes, and so that was really interesting because, of course, the prices were such that you couldn't afford to buy a new dress every week or every day or whatever people are doing now. And so that's the first thing is, value the clothes that you already have, really value them. If you don't like them, think about what you can do with them. Either you can change them to adapt to yourself, go to a tailor's, or give them to somebody else who might like them. I did go through a phase of giving a lot of my clothes to my sister when I was buying.

Speaker 2: 23:09

I was basically buying too many clothes and not wearing them all and said to her do you fancy this? Do you fancy this? Bought it, don't really wear it. She'd be like, yeah, that's great. So we kind of were sharing clothes quite a lot um, and look at buying second hand clothes, look at rental and then look at some of the amazing sustainable fashion brands out there. So there's a whole kind of pre um.

Speaker 1: 23:33

I keep guessing what word I'm looking for. There's a whole.

Speaker 2: 23:35

There's a whole kind of um uh idea that sustainable fashion is really really expensive. Well, it's not if you're keeping your existing clothes and reusing them and using them better. It's not if you're buying secondhand. It's not if you're mending the clothes that you've already got and making your clothes last for longer, also washing them less and washing them according to their care label so they don't wear out. And when you do buy new clothes, hopefully you've got a bit more of budget to buy good quality clothes.

Speaker 2: 24:02

Like you were saying, buy good quality, but not all sustainable fashion brands are really really expensive and I always talk about yes, friends who, um, are a brand based in bristol, um, and they set out to show that a sustainable t-shirt could be made through fair trade with organic cotton and they started off selling them for £7.99. And now I think they sell them for £12. So that's very affordable. It's not £2 or something, but actually if you're paying £2 for a T-shirt, that's because somebody else is paying the price for your T-shirt somewhere else. So somebody is working for nothing or slave labor pretty much to make your T-shirt and that is how brands can afford to give you a T-shirt that cheap if you basically a T-shirt that cheaply because somebody down the line is paying the price. And so when you pick up something and say I can't, believe how cheap it is, it's almost too good to be true.

Speaker 2: 24:49

It is too good to be true. Somebody, somewhere is paying the price. So those are some of the things you can do. Is paying the price? Um, so those are some of the things you can do. And the other thing that has kind of become more into my consciousness recently is, uh, the toxins in our clothes. You know, we don't think, we all just think that our governments are doing everything that they can to protect us and the sad fact is they're not. Um, you know, dyes in clothes, stain resistance, stain resistance, particularly, is forever chemicals, uh, water sorry, waterproofing particularly is forever chemicals, I think. So resistances as well. These are really carcinogenic chemicals that are affecting us. They're affecting our fertility. Fertility rates are going down. Well, probably because of all the chemicals in our environment that we don't realize we're exposed to.

Speaker 2: 25:32

Um, you know we all used to use, um, what was it? Scotch guard to waterproof all of our, our clothes, our shoes. And you know, I remember buying a sofa not the one I have now, but I remember buying a sofa in the past and paying extra to have it stain proofed probably was absolutely full of chemicals. You're sitting there relaxing on your nice comfortable sofa and actually you're breathing in all these toxic chemicals. So I just think that's something we need to be a lot more conscious of. So you can look for labels like Oecotex and Bluesign that show that it's safe, that it's within a level of acceptable chemical use, because there's always going to be some level of chemical use, unfortunately particularly for children and babies' clothes. That's really really useful to look out for and great that we're seeing more and more. I'm seeing that label more and more on clothing, on bedding, um, as well, even on mattresses. I've read an article about non-toxic mattresses because, you know, you don't think about all the places where chemicals get into everything that we, everything around us.

Speaker 1: 26:33

So, yes, that's something I'm becoming more and more conscious about it's uh, you know, on the clothing side of things, of talking to people about, you know, really trying to, before they, before they hit the shops, try and work out what you're trying to achieve, what you really want to achieve, and if, if you need to, because just because we can do something doesn't necessarily mean that we should um, you know. So when I'm not wearing so, I'm very, very careful over my wardrobe. It is very carefully curated. A lot of people assume that I've got rails and rails of my own clothes. You know, suits and jackets and hundreds and hundreds of shirts, and you know I'm the kind of male Imelda Marcos when it comes to my shoes, and it couldn't be further from the truth. So so the point is, I don't have this massive wardrobe that people think that I have.

Speaker 1: 27:23

I'm very, very careful with what I buy. So when I'm, you know, for example, this, this jacket that I'm wearing is part of a suit, and so I always, when I'm buying suits or, sorry, when I'm buying suits, sorry, when I'm making suits for myself rather I look at the colors, fabrics very, very carefully to see where I can get the most versatility from them. I talk about this a lot on my YouTube shorts and Instagram reels and things. So, for example, this suit I can wear it as I am today, with a navy T-shirt or any T-shirt really and jeans. I can put the whole suit together. I use the trousers on their own, with other jackets. I try to work out.

Speaker 2: 28:07

Versatile.

Speaker 1: 28:08

Yeah, just the most multiples of something that I can get out of one thing.

Speaker 2: 28:13

Amazing.

Speaker 1: 28:14

I try to do that with our clients as well. Obviously, it benefits us as a brand, from a sales point of view, if we're able to sell more, but that's not really what we're about. We try to come at things from a sort of different angle, and when it comes to fashion because that's another thing as well I mean, fashion itself is a beast. It's the second most polluting industry yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:39

Industry in the world yeah, yeah yeah, um, but you know, fashion, by its very definition, thrives on change and trying to encourage people to forget about everything they invested the previous season and get a whole load of new stuff and keep following and chasing. And you know we really try to talk to clients about how it's important for them to really consider what their personal brand, their personal style is, and then trying to just tread within those lines as much as possible.

Speaker 1: 29:17

So you know, something I always say is you can be kind of influenced by fashion, but you should never be dictated by it yeah because if you're someone who's dictated by fashion, over your lifetime you will spend an enormous amount of money chasing and you'll have ended up buying a ridiculous amount of clothes, probably that person would have ended up buying enough clothes to clothe the a small town or village or something absolutely yeah you know, you know, versatility, I think, is key and also just identifying, um, what, what your own kind of style and someone's is about.

Speaker 1: 29:56

So yeah, so there we go. That was a very long-winded way of saying I've actually got a very small wardrobe in comparison to what people think it is. But you know, and it's other things as well, julie, like I didn't realize, and now we're starting to talk to people about things like, you know, not having zippers on their trousers, yeah, and having button flies instead instead because if you need to take that garment and break it down a zipper you can't do anything oh yes, that's what you mean.

Speaker 2: 30:24

Yeah, yeah buttons. You can buttons you can.

Speaker 2: 30:27

You can take them off and break the rest of the garment down yeah yeah, when you're looking at some of the technologies that you were talking about, where people are taking fabrics and able to sort of start to break them back down, to then make them back up into something else, there's quite a few jeans companies actually, tommy Hilford is one of them there's several that part of this jeans redesign project which was set up by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and one of the things they do is not put rivets in their jeans because again it makes it less recyclable, and there in their jeans because again it makes it less recyclable.

Speaker 2: 30:59

Um, and there's various loads of things they do and they actually have a label saying jeans redesign project so you can find out which which jeans when you go out shopping for jeans have been part of this project and they're just doing like small things like that, but lots of things like that to make things much more recyclable. Um, type of thread, that thread that they use as well, um, and nudie jeans were talking about that as well because they use it.

Speaker 2: 31:18

They use the, the entirety of the of the cloth, um, so they're not kind of wasting yeah parts of the edges, um, but yeah, so there's like you say, there's lots of things like that that people can do when they're designing their clothes. But just going back to your point about your wardrobe being small like my wardrobe is still too big. There's lots of things like that that people can do when they're designing their clothes, but just going back to your point about your wardrobe being small like my wardrobe is still too big. There's so many things I want to get rid of, but actually I almost have a conscious, a conscience about getting rid of stuff, that I don't want to get rid of stuff, because there's some things I just don't know how to get rid of. So, um, I'm doing an experiment at the moment and I probably will regret saying this, but, um, I'm doing a experiment with some underwear that is opposed, supposedly biodegradable. So it's outside in a plant pot and I'm waiting to see if it biodegrades so you.

Speaker 1: 32:05

So, once you finish with it, it's kind of looking a bit worn and stuff and you know you don't want to use those knickers or whatever they are.

Speaker 2: 32:12

Um you don't want to throw them in the bin.

Speaker 1: 32:14

I don't want to throw them in the bin. Yes, composting them.

Speaker 2: 32:15

I don't throw them in the bin. I don't throw them in the bin.

Speaker 1: 32:17

Yes, composting them I don't throw them in the bin. I don't really want to use them as a cleaning cloth.

Speaker 2: 32:21

Um, it'll be embarrassing. Before came around. So um, they're in a plant pot on the terrace and they've only been there a short while. I haven't told anybody else this, so, um, I don't know. Um, I'm waiting to see if they biodegrade.

Speaker 1: 32:41

Have you got any idea how long it takes? I think it's meant to take. I don't know if I'm supposed to water them.

Speaker 2: 32:46

That's the only thing. It might be a bit dry, so I think it should take a few months. I'm not really sure we might have to reconvene after the summer, julie, I was thinking I should have taken a picture beforehand and stuck it on Instagram, but I didn't, I just buried them. I was getting a bit excited when Carolina and I are out in Madrid.

Speaker 1: 33:10

Don't be surprised if I look you up. Say hey dear. This isn't about getting together for dinner or anything. I just want to come look at your plant pot, see if the knickers have biodegraded, yeah, composted.

Speaker 2: 33:23

That's the thing I mean. That's the thing. It's like there are some certain amounts of clothes that you just can't.

Speaker 2: 33:27

You don't know what to do with, and I do have an article about how to donate and recycle your underwear. Unfortunately, a lot of the companies are in the UK, so I need to bring bags of clothes back to the UK and put them through the appropriate recycling initiatives and there are some amazing recycling initiatives now, actually, and some great underwear companies that will take underwear from any company, because that's the other thing you don't want to. Just, you know you're going to have underwear from different places that you need to recycle. So, um, rather than just sticking it in a closed recycling bin, which unfortunately seem to have disappeared in madrid now as well um, stick me plant pot. No, no, like I say there's, there are companies that will do it on that note, I wanted to ask you, sorry to interrupt it.

Speaker 1: 34:12

I literally just not sure and I just and also I'm conscious of time for you as well what time's the school run, or whatever over there?

Speaker 2: 34:18

don't worry, I don't have to go today. I've got my other half is going. Is he's going today, day off? So? Yeah the one thing I noticed?

Speaker 1: 34:27

um, when I go to, when we go to madrid, I see trends starting there before they do in london, do you? All right yeah, so uh, as a recent example, bell bottoms are back right although everything's starting to go tapered again, but bell bottoms.

Speaker 1: 34:47

When we were there not last christmas, the christmas before I started to see it there, and it wasn't until summer of 2020, I think it would be 2022. Uh, it wasn't until about the summer of 2022 that I started to see jeans that girls were wearing. Start to get a little bit wider legs, you know the right thing is is very prevalent over here. Yeah, so every single time I go to Madrid, I see what is going to happen in London about six months before.

Speaker 1: 35:19

Wow, that's so interesting in this day and age you wouldn't think would be the case because obviously, with social media, the internet and everything, we can see what the whole rest of the world is doing. But I don't know why that is. Do you ever notice? Do you pay attention? Do you keep tabs on what's going on over here compared to over there? Do you think there's more focus on people really hitting trends Because you've got brands like Zara? So my wife used to work in family office for Inditex, for the owner, yeah and um, you know she said to me that they. She went to the uh Inditex factory, uh that manufactures for Zara and their other brands, and she said they, if something hits the catwalk, they at the time this time this was about 10, 12 years ago at the time they could go from concept to manufacturer to shop shelf in a week.

Speaker 2: 36:15

Wow, yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:16

It must be faster now, because this was a while ago, yeah, so what was my question? I asked very, very long-winded questions. Did I notice?

Speaker 2: 36:25

do I notice the difference in the trends between London and Spain? I don't actually, because I probably I've not been back to London that many times, but when I have been I'm normally running around and don't have time to, but I don't think to look at that. But you're actually right, you know. I mean, the Spanish are very kind of fashionable and they do like to wear. I guess they would like to wear looser clothing, probably because of the heat, but yeah, the bell bottoms are a big thing over here and very bright and colourful clothes. As you can imagine, I'm here in a black T-shirt. I'm not really. I have been told that I dress too English, which is hilarious.

Speaker 2: 37:04

I don't really care. I'm English, so yeah, but they dress with a lot more a lot more brightly coloured big necklaces you know Desigual, which I'm not a big fan of, but Desigual obviously is big over here. But, yeah, definitely much more expression through clothes, I think, yeah, we dress a lot more simply in the UK, simple colors, and yeah, I think so that's what I would say.

Speaker 1: 37:30

the difference is um, the I guess the kind of last thing I wanted to talk about, whilst I've got the pleasure of your company, was moving down to our feet. Um, because footwear is another thing that's been quite top of mind for me. We launched custom footwear about a year ago. Um, and I didn't realize at the time, it was just during another podcast interview where I was explaining to my guest what we were about to launch and she found it absolutely fascinating, um, that we don't actually stock any shoes at all. We just have, um different sizes and lasts. So we size our client and then we have a 3d design tool that we use to actually then virtualize their shoes so they can choose wow and then we make the shoes, so we're not producing any more than our customers need us to.

Speaker 1: 38:25

That's amazing like a traditional shoe shop, they've got a storeroom, or worse, if it's a big brand, they've got warehouses full of boxes and boxes of shoes, and if they don't sell them, we know what happens. Right. And it's even worse with some of the really big luxury brands, like the one that begins with B and ends with Y, as an example.

Speaker 2: 38:46

It was caught burning its clothes.

Speaker 1: 38:47

yeah, yeah, that's it Exactly. Like handbags and stuff as well, they'll either burn them, incinerate them, or they slash them so that they then can't be sold at a cheaper price to maintain the perceived value of the brand or something Value yeah. It's absolutely nuts Outrageous. Yeah, it is, yeah, yeah, no, so anyway. So, yeah, so shoes, because obviously veganism in in footwear is coming. So we're we are now able to produce a vegan trainer.

Speaker 1: 39:20

Uh, we've done three or four pairs now um and um, and and and, also trying to make our footwear whether it's a trainer or whether it's a shoe in a way where, when it starts to show signs of age, like the sole wears out or whatever, we can get the shoe back and we can actually take it apart and actually put it back together again that's amazing that actually need doing.

Speaker 1: 39:44

I mean, you've been able to do that for a long time with traditional english brands like chuck crockett and jones churches etc. Um, you know, good year welted formal shoes. You've always been able to recraft, so we're just following that trend, but we're trying to extend it to, you know, casual footwear like trainers and things like that because those are generally throwaway items.

Speaker 1: 40:06

But again, through through all of the, the, the amazing people that you've met, interviewed for the site, and so on, what are some of the brands that you've you've come across that are making really, really big waves in that area of sustainability and footwear?

Speaker 2: 40:20

footwear. So there's people like good guys, don't Wear Leather who are a Paris-based brand Nay Vegan, n-a-e is no Animal Exploitation, who are a Portuguese-based brand, will's Vegan are a UK brand, and there's quite a few. I've got an article about vegan footwear which gets a lot of visitors and what's really great is that traditionally you thought of vegan shoes as being like a plastic pbu, pu, um, plastic leather which would rub your feet and get really sweaty and just be horrible. And now there's these really cool plant-based leathers, particularly um apple skin leather, pineapple leather, apple skin leather, for example. I think is must be more commercially um, because originally they were obviously very expensive. But I think apple skin leather must be more commercially viable because quite a few brands now are selling apple skin leather shoes and bags as well, and so you don't have these issues of it being plastic. It's actually a natural. Going back to the point about biodegradable, I'll have to test. I'll have to test some of those out as well.

Speaker 1: 41:22

I fluff bot um it'll still be really interesting at some point, won't it?

Speaker 2: 41:30

because you'll have a trainer sticking out of one a handbag sticking out of another.

Speaker 1: 41:35

You know knickers in another one because we're voluntarily buried down um, that's fascinating because you think about it, it kind of makes sense that if we're able to utilize, like I mean take apple skin leather as an example, which is something I'll be honest, I've not heard of until you just mentioned it, but then it takes me to. Well, where would they get apple skin from? It comes from apples. There's a whole industry around cider, apple juice and so on, where there's loads of waste so the amount of waste that's produced in the skin, because that's what we drink.

Speaker 1: 42:14

But then you know, creating these connections between these different manufacturing industries where we can utilize each other's one man's or one company's waste is another's handbag range or shoe range or, you know, t-shirt range or whatever.

Speaker 2: 42:31

It's fascinating yeah, pineapple um, I think it's pineapple leaves that they use as well to do to make this one that's called pina tex. Uh, this one's made from coffee, this one's made from wine waste. Uh, there's also stella mccartney has an agreement with another company who are called my. The product is called mycelium, which is made from mushroom roots. They're kind of fungi, the fungi roots, and they make that into leather um, but it's just so cool and I certainly now try not to buy leather shoes at all.

Speaker 2: 43:02

I mean, occasionally I have to buy leather shoes for my children, but I try not to. Or, if I do, I buy them second hand. Um, because I've started learning a lot more about leather production and I don't like it. Um, whereas historically I always bought leather shoes, I wouldn't buy them if they weren't leather um. So, uh, it's great that there's so many great alternatives, um, but just going back to that point about you know, sometimes you just have to, and I just think you can't beat yourself up. You can't do everything all the time, and I've come to realize that from you know, there's times you just need to buy something.

Speaker 2: 43:33

Um, I have a classic example at Christmas I was in John Lewis and we did, to buy some tights. And I picked up this packet of tights and it said wool tights and I turned it over and just to see, find out more information, and it said like 60 something percent viscose, 20 something percent acrylic and seven percent wool. I was like that is such green washing. They're not really wool tights at all. They've got a little bit of wool in them and they're mainly viscose. Um, but I bought them because I needed some tights and that's it. You know, sometimes you just can't or you know I didn't have time to go home, research sustainable types, wait for them to come.

Speaker 2: 44:07

Sometimes you just have to be practical and you know we all are doing our best and sustainability is a journey and we all do the best that we can. And you know we shouldn't beat ourselves up if we do occasionally buy something from a fast fashion brand or we buy a product or a material that we wouldn't ideally like to buy that material. But stuff is becoming more and more and more available and it will become and it is becoming easier. That's a sustainable fashion, but it's not always. You know we should. We have to do the best that we can in everything, um, in all aspects of our life being as sustainable as we can. Sometimes we, you know, uh, do stuff that we, we know, isn't as sustainable as we'd like it to be.

Speaker 2: 44:45

And also, just going back to another point that you made earlier about business, and that is that companies have to make money, and you were saying about, you know, you don't want to sell more products to your customers, but at the same time, you do because you want to make money, and that's how all big business operates. And so it's a really difficult conundrum that to make money, companies have to sell products. Um, have to sell products, but that's a big form of making money is to sell products, and therefore it's not, it's not sustainable. So therefore it is difficult.

Speaker 2: 45:14

And there's this huge kind of like, um, capitalism it's all about, you know, producing and expanding and growing and showing growth to you, your shareholders, and that's very difficult if you're then trying to limit production and manufacturing and be more sustainable. So it's it's. It's a huge conundrum. I don't think any but one person has got the answer. Um, but there's amazing companies out there doing amazing things and taking amazing steps, like you know, producing apple skin, leather and other things like that. You, manufacturing with less waste, manufacturing with less chemicals, um, and, and we're seeing more and more of it and it's getting more and more publicity, which is great.

Speaker 1: 45:48

So, um, yeah, we all just need to do a bit what we can yeah, and it's funny because a lot of um, I mean it's not funny, but you know what I mean. It's, yeah, it's. It's interesting that a lot of the brands that you mentioned in the sphere of sustainability are smaller, independent brands. Yeah, you didn't really. I think the biggest name you mentioned was tommy hilfiger. Yeah, on the jean side of things, but you know all of these innovative concepts like apple, skin, leather, etc. Etc. You mentioned smaller brands and that's the thing. Right, you know, when you're a big behemoth of a company, I mean switching to electronics, for example. So you know, there you're a big behemoth of a company. I mean switching to electronics, for example. So you know there's a whole thing about like you change your phone every single year, which yeah.

Speaker 1: 46:32

I'm guilty of um, but you know, now I'm holding on to them longer because technology has just reached a point where you know you buy a phone today it's probably good for at least five, six, seven years. So why?

Speaker 2: 46:45

do you?

Speaker 1: 46:45

have the latest thing all the time, right, so, um, uh, but then you look at a company like Apple and they do have shareholders and stockholders, etc. Etc. You know, um uh, they, they and they are, I think, the most valuable company in the world, or the second most valuable company in the world.

Speaker 1: 47:05

You know if they suddenly climb back down on. I know they talk about how you know 60%, I think, of a MacBook is made from recycled materials etc. But then there's a lot of you know stories and articles that dig into the truth of that and really question it. You know how sustainable can you really be when you've got to answer to profit, hungry stakeholders, et cetera, whereas when you then flip that to smaller brands, independent brands, you know so. Take even us as an example.

Speaker 1: 47:37

Our company, it's myself, it's my wife, it's our workroom team. We're not answerable to anybody else. So you know we. So we're able to make decisions, like when we send shirts out to clients. Now we don't use plastic packaging anymore. We ran out of plastic.

Speaker 1: 47:54

You know, the shirt sleeves we ran out of those about a year ago. Um, the ones that we have for people that do want their shirts wrapped. We make sure that they're recyclable. But 90% of our shirts are sent out wrapped in recyclable tissue paper, which itself has been made from. You know, it's all recycled itself. We just don't send out in plastic where we can help it. So you know, we're able to make those decisions without fear of, you know, having a bunch of shareholders or you know, at some director's meeting or something, people coming down on us like a ton of bricks, because you know it's like say what we can do whatever we want, and I think that's the point right. It's, you know, if you're quite serious about making a difference. I think it's really important what you said, that people shouldn't beat themselves up. I think if we're at least thinking and we're considering all of this, it's a step in the right direction.

Speaker 2: 48:49

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 48:51

But then also picking who you buy from and purchase from can make a big difference, and over time I think that's what sends a message out to the bigger companies and eventually they'll be forced to make a change.

Speaker 2: 49:05

Yeah, talking about big companies, h&m have done a lot and they do really well on transparency and they certainly are doing a lot in the sustainability sphere. You can't criticize them for that, but you can criticize them because, at the end of the day, they are producing more and more products all the time and they are promoting overconsumption. But again, that is their business model. So it's very difficult, but as fast fashion brands go, they certainly do a lot. If you look at the fashion transparency index, they score consistently at the top. Um, so you know they're being very transparent. They're doing as much well, they're not doing as much as they can, but they're doing. They're doing a lot compared to other brands is what I would say yeah, no, absolutely brilliant julie.

Speaker 1: 49:49

Thank you so so much.

Speaker 2: 49:51

That's a bit I thank you we could literally go on forever and ever. No, I do I could. I'd literally sit here and chat all day I.

Speaker 1: 49:59

I am really curious about your composting pot now. So when, when we've sorted out our dog sitting arrangements and so on, and because we do need to get out to midwild, actually we've got family we really really need to visit um, I will let you know and yeah, if you're up for it, then I'll you know, we'll, we'll say hi come and look at my plant pot yeah, exactly thanks, julie.

Speaker 1: 50:24

Thank you all so much for joining julie, and I follow the show on Instagram at Tony Talk Podcast for the latest episode updates, highlights and news. The podcast is also on YouTube at Roberto Revilla, london and if you're watching there, thank you very much. And if you haven't checked out the YouTube channel, do me a favour, go and subscribe and show it some love, because it is starting to grow, but I want it to grow more. You can email me at tailoringtalkpodcast at gmailcom. Hit subscribe, give the show a rating and a review and click the share button in your player to send this episode to someone you know who needs to hear what Julie shared with us today. If you love tailoring talk and you want to support the show, hit the support the show link in the show notes. Have a great week, be good to each other and I'll catch you on the next one.