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00:00I'm going to jump into my first question, which includes intros of the wonderful women on the

00:10stage. But you're all different pieces of the fashion puzzle. Aurora, you're an activist and

00:17Brother Deliz designer. Angel Chang, a women's wear designer. Carrie Washington, actress and

00:23producer. Why is it so important that all of these pieces of the fashion puzzle come together

00:29in the sustainability realm to make a difference? I'm going to start with your work because we're

00:34making some really good eye contact right here. Well, listen, I think to be honest, anytime you

00:40want to try to affect monumental change, you really need all ships to be aligned in the direction of

00:46the North Star. Right. And I think, you know, we can design all the things in the world, but unless

00:54people like Carrie also help amplify it and explain to their community members why it's

01:00important, right, then it's not really going to get the visibility that it needs. And I think so much

01:04of sustainability right now still needs to be a conversation because we're all still figuring it

01:11out. And we need to engage with consumers as well to help them figure it out and also figure out why

01:19it's even important. And as well as Marie Claire, right, as well as media. Yeah, I mean, I look to these

01:24women for sure in terms of leading this effort. But I think a lot about the role of storytellers and helping to

01:33contribute to narrative, you know, there's something about when Cate Blanchett rewears a gown from three years

01:40before and talks about it proudly. When I take a dress out of the archives that was worn by Whitney Houston, and we

01:47we talk about not just continuing to create new, but returning to the old and uplifting and upcycling

01:55and, you know, reimagining what sexy is moment to moment, like there are opportunities to contribute

02:02to that narrative, again, at every stage of the process. So I think we can't really talk about fashion

02:08without talking about the importance of representation. Why is it so important that women and women of color

02:15are at the forefront of the conversation and included in the sustainability conversation?

02:21Well, I think we're, first of all, like most adversely impacted, right? And when I think,

02:29you know, internationally about all of the different women that are interacting with fashion,

02:35yes, there's consumers, but there's also a lot of women of color in the factories,

02:40right? And I think what's really difficult for me is to hear brands sometimes talk about,

02:47you know, feminism and all of these things when you know that in their factories in Bangladesh,

02:53there are women that are not being treated properly, right? And you can have a woman of color

02:57in your ad campaign, but if you are mistreating women of color in your factory or you're dumping chemicals

03:04in a way that's not helpful to their communities, then really, what are you doing? And I think that

03:11part of representation can be really disturbing, because I think so much of fashion, we just look

03:17at from an editorial perspective and not actually on the balance sheet, right? And it's, a lot of it

03:23is just gestures.

03:25Yeah, it's interesting that you ask about women in representation, because, you know, I work a lot

03:30with nature and with climate, and historically, nature has not been valued, because it's been linked

03:35with the feminine, I mean, we call nature, mother nature. And so, you know, I work with indigenous

03:41artisans in rural China, and I'm now working with indigenous groups in other countries, too. But it's

03:47mostly women who have this traditional craftsmanship that they continue to practice. And so when you give

03:54women jobs, the first thing they do is they give it to their family, and they send their

04:00kids to school. And this is very different from the men that I see in these communities. So

04:05it's not just representation on how we portray who our garment workers are, but also really how it

04:12impacts their lives that you don't see in these villages.

04:16So Angela and Aurora, as designers, there's a lot of hurdles that come with sustainability and

04:23keeping your companies on the sustainability path. What are some of those challenges

04:29challenges? And what can any of us do, or the industry as a whole do to make it easier to

04:36basically be doing the right thing to adopt sustainable practices and climate friendly practices?

04:41So yeah, I started my line during the pandemic two years, two years ago. And now I'm raising capital

04:47and pitching investors. And it's the same exact thing that both of you are saying, especially as a woman,

04:53you know, only 2% of VC funds go to women. And those, the investors, most of the investors who

05:01have money are men, and they're investing in male-dominated businesses or things that they

05:06understand, which are in tech. It's very difficult for sustainable brands who are, a lot of them are

05:14women-led. It's very hard for women to find capital to start their brands. And if these sustainable brands

05:20don't have the capital to start, consumers don't have options of what to buy. These investors,

05:26they're like, they want exponential growth. They want to go scale up really big. And, you know,

05:31you could do that in a world before that was really polluting and extracting of nature. But going forward,

05:37you know, we need to look at impact measurements. We need to look at other things that are quantitative

05:42that are not just looking at profits. So I, what I hear, which is really important, it's so,

05:49because O-Rate is founded by women as well. It's, it's really, there, there, there is something to

05:53that. But so much of this is about narrative. So much of it is about how we define success. And so

06:00I think also it's really important on the media side that we take responsibility for uplifting brands

06:06as successful if they are not bringing in the kinds of numbers that their competitors are bringing in

06:11that are destroying the planet while they're doing it. So a lot of that, it really is about having

06:16the courage to define success in the way that is more holistic and know that that can lead to that

06:23other kind of material success as well. It just may be a longer path.

06:28So I think, you know, obviously we need top-down change from companies like Caring who are holding

06:34themselves accountable and, and, you know, publishing sustainability reports to smaller businesses

06:40that are really prioritizing craftsmanship and being transparent about what that means.

06:47Thinking about what we're talking about today, five years from now, what are we talking about?

06:54What are people wearing on the red carpet? What does sales look like? What are, what are people and

06:59consumers looking to buy? Is it sustainability just in the lexicon or is it still going to be an uphill battle?

07:08I am so optimistic. Seriously. I think that there's so much change that can happen and it can happen so

07:15quickly. And I think we've even seen that with the pledge over the past three years. Right. And so I think

07:23even just knowing with climate change in general, that we can, you know, mitigate climate catastrophe with

07:29the same amount of funding that we put into stopping COVID. Right. And I think sometimes something like

07:36climate change feels completely insurmountable and a lot of people kind of freeze under that pressure,

07:43but knowing that there are very real solutions that are being, um, innovated on right now that can help

07:49us mitigate this is I think very major. These women make me very optimistic hearing you and just knowing

07:57how committed you are to this work and that you've created a space to have this conversation this morning

08:02and that you've made the commitments that you've made, like really just having this space to be in

08:06community and conversation is incredibly optimistic because we just need to be having these conversations

08:12and providing each other with these reminders and insights. And, um, I'm so deeply grateful to you

08:19to, in particular, but to everyone here this morning.

Power Of Our Community | Marie Claire

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