Power Of Our Community | Marie Claire

Marie Claire

4/27/2025

Power Of Our Community

Transcript

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

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

01:33and helping to contribute to narrative, you know, there's something about when Cate Blanchett rewears

01:39a gown from three years before and talks about it proudly. When I take a dress out of the archives

01:45that was worn by Whitney Houston, and we talk about not just continuing to create new, but returning to

01:53the old and uplifting and upcycling and, you know, reimagining what sexy is moment to moment, like there are

02:01opportunities to contribute to that narrative, again, at every stage of the process.

02:06So I think we can't really talk about fashion without talking about the importance of representation.

02:11Why is it so important that women and women of color are at the forefront of the conversation and included

02:18in the sustainability conversation?

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

02:31about all of the different women that are interacting with fashion, yes, there's consumers,

02:36but there's also a lot of women of color in the factories, right? And I think what's really difficult

02:42for me is to hear brands sometimes talk about, you know, feminism and all of these things when you know

02:51that in their factories in Bangladesh, there are women that are not being treated properly, right?

02:56And you can have a woman of color in your ad campaign, but if you are mistreating women

03:01of color in your factory or you're dumping chemicals in a way that's not helpful to their communities,

03:07then really what are you doing? And I think that part of representation can be really disturbing

03:13because I think so much of fashion we've just look at from an editorial perspective and

03:19not actually on the balance sheet, right? And it's, a lot of it is 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.

03:52And so when you give women jobs, the first thing they do is they give it to their family and they

03:59send their kids 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 keeping

04:25your companies on the sustainability path. What are some of those challenges and what can any of us do

04:32or the industry as a whole do to make it easier to basically be doing the right thing to adopt

04:38sustainable 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

04:53woman, you 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 understand,

05:06which 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.

05:44So I, what I hear, which is really important, it's so, because O-Rate is founded by women as well.

05:51It's, it's really, there, there, there is something to that. But so much of this is about narrative.

05:57So much of it is about how we define success. And so I think also it's really important on the media

06:03side that we take responsibility for uplifting brands as successful if they are not bringing in

06:09the kinds of numbers that their competitors are bringing in that are destroying the planet while

06:13they're doing it. So a lot of that, it really is about having the courage to define success in

06:18the way that is more holistic and know that that can lead to that other kind of material success as

06:25well. It just may be a longer path. So I think, you know, obviously we need top-down change from

06:32companies like Caring who are holding themselves accountable and, and, you know, publishing sustainability

06:37reports to smaller businesses that are really prioritizing craftsmanship and being transparent

06:44about what that means. Thinking about what we're talking about today, five years from now,

06:52what are we talking about? What are people wearing on the red carpet? What does sales look like? What are,

06:58what are people and consumers looking to buy? Is it sustainability just in the lexicon or is it

07:05still 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.

07:19Um, and so I think even just knowing with climate change in general, that we can, you know, mitigate climate

07:28catastrophe with the same amount of funding that we put into stopping COVID. Right. And I think sometimes

07:35something like climate change feels completely insurmountable and a lot of people kind of freeze

07:42under that pressure, but knowing that there are very real solutions that are being, um,

07:47innovated on right now that can help us mitigate this is I think very major.

07:53These women make me very optimistic hearing you and just knowing how committed you are to this work

07:59and that you've created a space to have this conversation this morning and that you've made the

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

08:08is incredibly optimistic because we just need to be having these conversations and providing each

08:13other with these reminders and insights. And, um, I'm so deeply grateful to you two in particular,

08:20but to everyone here this morning.

Power Of Our Community | Marie Claire

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