00:05I'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
00:53people 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
01:04so much of sustainability right now still needs to be a conversation because we're all still
01:11figuring it out. And we need to engage with consumers as well to help them figure it out
01:17and also figure out why it's even important. And as well as Marie Claire, right, as well as media.
01:23Yeah, I mean, I look to these women for sure in terms of leading this effort. But I think a
01:29lot
01:29about the role of storytellers and helping to contribute to narrative. You know, there's something
01:36about when Cate Blanchett rewears a gown from three years before and talks about it proudly. When I
01:43take a dress out of the archives that was worn by Whitney Houston, and we talk about not just
01:49continuing to create new, but returning to the old and uplifting and upcycling and, you know,
01:56reimagining what sexy is moment to moment. Like there are opportunities to contribute to that narrative
02:03again 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
02:17and 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
02:57color in your ad campaign, but if you are mistreating women of color in your factory or
03:02you're dumping chemicals in a way that's not helpful to their communities, then really what are you doing?
03:10And I think that part of representation can be really disturbing because I think so much of fashion
03:15we just look at from an editorial perspective and not actually on the balance sheet. Right.
03:21And it's, a lot of it is just gestures.
03:25Yeah. It's interesting that you ask about women in representation because, you know,
03:29I work a lot with nature and with climate and historically nature has not been valued
03:33because it's been linked with the feminine. I mean, we call nature mother nature. And so,
03:39you know, I work with indigenous artisans in rural China and I'm now working with indigenous groups
03:45in other countries too, but it's mostly women who have this traditional craftsmanship that they
03:50continue to practice. And so when you give women jobs, the first thing they do is they give it to
03:59their family and they send their kids to school. And this is very different from the men that I see
04:03in these communities. So it's not just representation on how we portray who our garment workers are,
04:10but also really how it impacts their lives that you don't see in these villages.
04:17So Angela and Aura, 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 and
04:30what can any of us do or the industry as a whole do to make it easier to basically be
04:37doing the right
04:38thing to adopt sustainable practices and climate friendly practices?
04:41So, yeah, I started my line during the pandemic two years ago, and now I'm raising capital and
04:47pitching investors. And it's the same exact thing that both of you are saying, especially as a woman,
04:54you know, only 2% of VC funds go to women. And those, the investors, most of the investors who
05:01have
05:01money 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
05:19brands don'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.
05:36But going forward, you know, we need to look at impact measurements. We need to look at other
05:41things that are quantitative that are not just looking at profits.
05:45So I, what I hear, which is really important, it's so, because O-Rate is founded by women as well.
05:51It's really, there is something to that. But so much of this is about narrative. So much of it is
05:58about how we define success. And so I think also it's really important on the media side that we
06:03take responsibility for uplifting brands as successful if they are not bringing in the kinds
06:09of numbers that their competitors are bringing in that are destroying the planet while they're doing
06:13it. So a lot of that, it really is about having the courage to define success in the way that
06:19is
06:19more holistic and know that that can lead to that other kind of material success as well.
06:25It just may be a longer path.
06:27So I think, you know, obviously we need top-down change from companies like Caring, who are holding
06:34themselves accountable 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
06:53about? What are people wearing on the red carpet? What does sales look like? What are people
06:58and consumers looking to buy? Is it sustainability just in the lexicon or is it still going to be
07:07an uphill battle?
07:08I am so optimistic. Seriously, I think that there's so much change that can happen and it can happen
07:15so quickly. And I think we've even seen that with the pledge over the past three years, right?
07:20And so I think even just knowing with climate change in general that we can, you know, mitigate
07:28climate catastrophe with the same amount of funding that we put into stopping COVID, right?
07:33And I think sometimes something like climate change feels completely insurmountable and a lot of
07:40people kind of freeze under that pressure. But knowing that there are very real solutions that
07:46are being innovated 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
07:58and 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
08:07is incredibly optimistic because we just need to be having these conversations and providing each
08:14other with these reminders and insights. And I'm so deeply grateful to you two in particular,
08:20but to everyone here this morning.
Comments