Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh,
Speaker 1: now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Friday,
Speaker 2: the seventeenth of May.
Speaker 1: I'm Zara, I'm Billy.
Speaker 2: You may have seen that it is currently Fashion Week.
Speaker 2: I know that I have not seen any other content
Speaker 2: this week and it's definitely an exciting time for Australia's
Speaker 2: fashion industry, showcasing the talents of some of the country's
Speaker 2: best homegrown designers. Now, we're not here to take away
Speaker 2: from that excitement, but we're hoping to add to that
Speaker 2: conversation by talking about sustainability. How do we reconcile the
Speaker 2: need for businesses to make money by new trends coming
Speaker 2: through with the need for a more sustainable fashion industry.
Speaker 2: Today on the podcast, Billy is going to speak to
Speaker 2: sustainable fashion educator Nina Gabort to answer all of our
Speaker 2: questions before we get to that deep divert Billy, what's
Speaker 2: making headlines.
Speaker 3: The unemployment rate, which is the percentage of people who
Speaker 3: were looking for work but couldn't find any, rose from
Speaker 3: three point nine to four point one percent in April,
Speaker 3: according to seasonally adjusted Australian Bureau of statistics data. Seasonal
Speaker 3: adjustment means the ABS has removed the effects of calendar
Speaker 3: specific patterns like fruit picking in summer or Christmas casuals
Speaker 3: in retail in December.
Speaker 2: The Federal Police have launched an investigation after an Australian
Speaker 2: e script provider was attacked in a large scale ransomware
Speaker 2: data breach. Medi Secures said patient personal and health information
Speaker 2: was leaked during the incident. The electronic prescription provider suggested
Speaker 2: the cyber attack originated from one of its third party vendors.
Speaker 2: The National Cybersecurity Coordinator is coordinating their response with the federal,
Speaker 2: state and territory government agencies.
Speaker 3: Twenty one crew member remained stranded on a cargo ship
Speaker 3: in the US more than six weeks after their vessel
Speaker 3: collided with a Baltimore bridge, causing it to collapse. I'm
Speaker 3: sure many of you remember that footage. Six construction workers
Speaker 3: were killed when the bridge collapsed in March. A power
Speaker 3: outage was blamed for the incident. A group of Indian
Speaker 3: and Sri Lankan crew members haven't been able to leave
Speaker 3: the ship since due to visa restrictions and ongoing investigations.
Speaker 3: A preliminary report from the US Transport Safety Body found
Speaker 3: the ship experienced multiple electrical faults in the days before
Speaker 3: the collision.
Speaker 2: And today's good news, Australia has been announced as the
Speaker 2: host nation of the twenty twenty six Women's Asian Cup.
Speaker 2: While Australia was the only country to submit a bid
Speaker 2: to host the tournament, you know what you have to
Speaker 2: be in it to win it, the head of the
Speaker 2: Asian Football Confederations said. The Asian Football family joins me
Speaker 2: in reinforcing our confidence in football Australia to elevate the
Speaker 2: ever evolving stature and growth of women's football in Asia.
Speaker 4: Hey I'm Nish and I'm the lead developer at the
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Speaker 4: lot too. Thank you and now back to the deep dive.
Speaker 3: Nita Goodball, thank you so much for joining the Daily Ods.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me. This is incredibly exciting.
Speaker 3: So it is currently Fashion Week and you were there
Speaker 3: last night.
Speaker 1: How was that.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, it was amazing. It was just so
Speaker 5: amazing to see all the different styles and expressions of
Speaker 5: individuality and creativity and of course trends, and the vibe
Speaker 5: was just electric. So I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: That sounds incredible.
Speaker 3: It's such an amazing moment for the fashion industry, and
Speaker 3: I'm interested in how we talk about sustainability in that conversation.
Speaker 3: You know, we're seeing lots of these new trends that
Speaker 3: people will obviously be influenced to go by. How do
Speaker 3: we line that up with a sustainable future fashion industry
Speaker 3: when these new trends are constantly emerging.
Speaker 5: So I coined this phrase called the fashion trendmill, which
Speaker 5: kind of explains about how, for I'd probably say about
Speaker 5: a century or so, we've been influenced by fashion trends
Speaker 5: where we're told what to where, when and for how long.
Speaker 5: And then as time went on, the trends got shorter, shorter, shorter.
Speaker 5: We had fast fashion, now we have ultra fast fashion,
Speaker 5: and pretty soon we're gonna have supersonic fast fashion, right
Speaker 5: because the trends just keep getting shorter, and with micro
Speaker 5: trends on TikTok and so on, and it's just pushing
Speaker 5: us to buy bye bye spence, spend spend to the
Speaker 5: point where we're not even using a lot of our stuff, right,
Speaker 5: and there's so much waste attributed to that. Right. And
Speaker 5: in terms of fashion brands, particularly in Austria, we know
Speaker 5: that they're businesses. They have to profit understandably, and we
Speaker 5: want to support them. However, you know, there are different
Speaker 5: models that we can create where it's not just fashion
Speaker 5: trend by use for a short period and throwaway. We
Speaker 5: can recycle or reuse a lot of the stuff that's
Speaker 5: already existing. We can use materials that are already in existence.
Speaker 5: And instead of having short lived trends, let's just make
Speaker 5: it like there's no trends, because trends don't fully express
Speaker 5: who we are in the moment.
Speaker 1: It's so interesting.
Speaker 3: When I was preparing for this interview, I was thinking
Speaker 3: maybe I should ask is there ever a world in
Speaker 3: which trends don't exist? And then I thought, maybe that's
Speaker 3: too ambitious. But it sounds like you don't think it's
Speaker 3: too ambitious.
Speaker 5: It is ambitious. I'm not going to lie, but it's
Speaker 5: not impossible, right. I always give what I call the
Speaker 5: great example of like when we had the pandemic back
Speaker 5: twenty twenty. Look how quickly the world changed, like almost overnight,
Speaker 5: you know, and it created new systems, new careers, and
Speaker 5: new ways of existing. So we don't have to wait
Speaker 5: until there's like some kind of climate catastrophe or something
Speaker 5: happens in the world before we change behaviors that we
Speaker 5: know are not good for our culture, that are not
Speaker 5: good for our systems. So in terms of trends, I
Speaker 5: know that it's not just fashion, it's everything electronics and
Speaker 5: automobiles and stuff like that. But if we want to
Speaker 5: be sustainable, we're going to just going to have to
Speaker 5: find alternative ways of enjoying new designs and new things,
Speaker 5: but in healthier ways, and trends, unfortunately as we have
Speaker 5: them today, don't serve that purpose.
Speaker 3: And you talked before about the fact that you think
Speaker 3: that there are a few models that the fashion brands
Speaker 3: could go down in order to improve their sustainability.
Speaker 1: Can you explain more.
Speaker 3: About that, because, like you said, obviously these brands are
Speaker 3: businesses and they need to turn a profit. So what
Speaker 3: are the kind of solutions that they can take that
Speaker 3: still align with their need as a business.
Speaker 5: Okay, so some businesses they produce with good quality. So
Speaker 5: for example, you know what fast fashion, it has something
Speaker 5: called planned obsolescence where you wash it a few times
Speaker 5: and it fades or it's just not you know, or
Speaker 5: you wear it once and equality is not there anymore
Speaker 5: after that. So that's called planned ops.
Speaker 1: And when you say planned do you mean.
Speaker 5: It's designed to fail so that you keep buying and
Speaker 5: buying and buying, right, which is why it's often made
Speaker 5: with cheap fabrics. So we want to encourage people to
Speaker 5: buy less fast fashion, but also encourage brands to produce
Speaker 5: durable clothing, right, good quality clothing that lasts a long
Speaker 5: periods of time. So there's that. But then with fashion,
Speaker 5: particularly if you make good quality products, as people are
Speaker 5: buying them, you can say, oh, this has a resale value. Right,
Speaker 5: So as you're buying I don't know, the three hundred
Speaker 5: dollars dress, if you know that there's a market for
Speaker 5: secondhand of that brand because it has such a good
Speaker 5: reputation for making quality clothing, you'll feel good about buying
Speaker 5: it because you know that after you use it, you
Speaker 5: can sell it and get a portion of that money back,
Speaker 5: and somebody else will get it and love it and
Speaker 5: use it and also pass it on right. So that's
Speaker 5: one model that brands could be more sustainable. But it's
Speaker 5: really critical that this is particular for big brands to
Speaker 5: manufacture less because at the moment they're manufacturing too many
Speaker 5: clothes and that's the problem with sustainability.
Speaker 3: In the last decade, as we have become more aware
Speaker 3: of the impacts of the fashion industry on global warming,
Speaker 3: have we seen a shift in consumer behavior?
Speaker 5: I wish I could say yes. I've been in this
Speaker 5: sustainable fashion industry since I was like fifteen years old,
Speaker 5: and to be honest with you, unfortunately not. In Australia,
Speaker 5: we're the second biggest consumer of fashion and textiles in
Speaker 5: the world after the US, So if you just wrap
Speaker 5: your head around that for a second, and globally we're
Speaker 5: manufacturing between one hundred to one hundred and fifty billion
Speaker 5: garments a year. That's billion with a bee, and that's
Speaker 5: in the whole world, and we're on a planet of
Speaker 5: eight billion people. So it's not surprising that, you know,
Speaker 5: I think it's about eighty four eighty seven percent of
Speaker 5: it ends up in landfill every year because we can't
Speaker 5: use the amount clothes that we're manufacturing, So the problem
Speaker 5: is actually getting worse despite of the fact that we
Speaker 5: are a lot of us are beginning to use more secondhand,
Speaker 5: but we're still buying the ultra fast fashions, the Shean's
Speaker 5: and the Tamus you know, at the same time. So
Speaker 5: unfortunately it's actually getting worse. So we need legislation to
Speaker 5: nip it in the bud.
Speaker 3: I think I was going to say, when I think
Speaker 3: about the fashion industry over the past decade, I think
Speaker 3: about the rise of Shane, which just rips off these
Speaker 3: I mean, even these trends that we're seeing on the
Speaker 3: runway this week. Unfortunately, I'm sure that we'll see a
Speaker 3: lot of them ripped off by the cheap of fast
Speaker 3: fashion brands.
Speaker 5: Unfortunately, Yes, Shean is expert, a master at ripping off
Speaker 5: particularly small and medium sized brands, creative brands, you know.
Speaker 5: So I think we should be super hyper vigilant about
Speaker 5: protecting our makers, our designers, the Australian fashion industry as
Speaker 5: a whole.
Speaker 3: And I think the other thing to talk about in
Speaker 3: this conversation is the cost of living crisis, because I
Speaker 3: think a lot of younger people know what the right
Speaker 3: decision is and they want to make that, you know,
Speaker 3: green a choice, but they can't afford to what is
Speaker 3: the solution between that disconnect?
Speaker 5: She and TIMU are not the answer to that. You know.
Speaker 5: The first thing people want to do is go op shopping,
Speaker 5: and then a response to that is like, oh, op
Speaker 5: shops are so expensive now, blah blah blah, And that's true,
Speaker 5: they are. However, there's an alternative. So I've been running
Speaker 5: clothes swaps for like thirteen years, right Basically, everyone brings
Speaker 5: a specified number of items, let's say five to ten items,
Speaker 5: your best quality items, not the stuff that's like horrible
Speaker 5: fast fashion, and get rid of good stuff that you
Speaker 5: just no longer need or use. And everyone brings those
Speaker 5: items and you just have like a haul or a
Speaker 5: shop or it could be run throughout the day or
Speaker 5: several days where people come in and out and you
Speaker 5: just take what you need to posit what you don't need,
Speaker 5: and you can have a standard or quality of what
Speaker 5: people can and can't bring or run a close walk.
Speaker 5: You get free clothes, you give out stuff you don't need.
Speaker 5: It doesn't cost anything, and that's what I encourage people
Speaker 5: to do. You know, in addition to things like op shopping,
Speaker 5: you know, buying secondhand online and so.
Speaker 3: On, if people did want to buy new clothes, do
Speaker 3: you think it is realistic for a large majority of
Speaker 3: consumers to completely shift their perspective on buying something a
Speaker 3: bit more expensive that will last longer over the cheap
Speaker 3: thing that, like you said, is designed to fail.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I think, yeah, if you can afford it,
Speaker 5: definitely go for something that will last longer. Also, something
Speaker 5: for people to bear in mind is that when you
Speaker 5: buy that cheap thing, know that somebody somewhere, any other
Speaker 5: you know, probably in a different country, is paying potentially
Speaker 5: with their lives, with their blood, with slavery. So that's
Speaker 5: something to bear in mind when you're paying probably two
Speaker 5: dollars for that top, but somebody's paid for it. You know,
Speaker 5: what that top is worth is probably like thirty dollars
Speaker 5: considering the labor and the material, even fifty. And if
Speaker 5: you're paying two or five dollars, know that somebody else
Speaker 5: is paying the balance, even though not financially. Then you
Speaker 5: look at the environmental factor. You know a lot of
Speaker 5: it is made of plastics, and plastics are bad for
Speaker 5: our health. You the person that wears it, and you
Speaker 5: know we have the issue of microplastics pullw in the
Speaker 5: oceans and the soil. So there's a lot of factors
Speaker 5: to consider in buying something that's cheap, so you are
Speaker 5: better off. You can buy something that's well made, made
Speaker 5: with good materials and made to last, that's durable, that's
Speaker 5: going to last too longer. And it's hard because I mean,
Speaker 5: throughout our lives, like we've been told, you know, the
Speaker 5: next season's trends are. And I'm sure if you grew
Speaker 5: up since you were a toddler hearing that on the
Speaker 5: news or from stylists or designers. We've been dictated to
Speaker 5: like how we should dress, how we should look, how
Speaker 5: long we should wear it for. And you know you
Speaker 5: have the fashion police that Lord help you if you
Speaker 5: are not on trend this season. Oh my gosh. You
Speaker 5: know you're there for crucifixion. So you know, we've been police.
Speaker 5: We don't realize that we've been coerced into living thinking
Speaker 5: that this is how we have to consume clothing, and
Speaker 5: this is our relationship with clothing, which is it's not
Speaker 5: the truth.
Speaker 3: I'm currently going through the process of selling all of
Speaker 3: the clothes that I have stupidly bought for you know
Speaker 3: one or two occasions, and I'm selling them all and
Speaker 3: I'm never doing it again because it is literal just waste.
Speaker 5: It is waste and unfortunate. In Australia, over two hundred
Speaker 5: thousand tons of clothing goes to landfill every year. That's
Speaker 5: how much we're wasting. So the average person buys about
Speaker 5: I think it's fifty six items per year, which is
Speaker 5: almost fifteen kilos, and yeah, a lot of that goes
Speaker 5: to waste.
Speaker 3: My last question, going back to fashion Week, in an
Speaker 3: idea world, what does a sustainable fashion weake look like.
Speaker 5: I think you don't have more secondhand stylists shows demonstrating
Speaker 5: how you can use secondhand clothing or upcycled clothing or
Speaker 5: repair stations. Right, so it's not just about how you
Speaker 5: look in the moment and get rid of it, but
Speaker 5: you know, making it cool to repair your own clothes
Speaker 5: when they're damaged, making it cool to swap your own clothes.
Speaker 5: So you'd have like a swap station, a repair station
Speaker 5: or runway, and you could have a runway where you'd
Speaker 5: have like secondhand clothes from you know, it could be
Speaker 5: from an op shop or a consignment store or whatever.
Speaker 5: Who have styled it in really cool ways. Just should
Speaker 5: show people what you can do with like styles from
Speaker 5: I don't know, like the early nineteen hundreds, mix it
Speaker 5: up with modern trends.
Speaker 1: That would be so cool.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just to show people how creative you can be.
Speaker 5: There's literally enough clothes on the planet to last the
Speaker 5: next six generations of humans. Wow, so your great great,
Speaker 5: great great great great great brand kids, we'll have enough
Speaker 5: clothes if we start producing right now. So using the
Speaker 5: stuff that's already in existence in core, fun and creative ways,
Speaker 5: I think that would make a phenomenal sustainable fashion week,
Speaker 5: in addition to the brands who are manufacturing you as well.
Speaker 1: N Nikolele, thank you so much for joining the Daily Ohs.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: I love when our Friday episodes are a little bit
Speaker 2: lighter but also managed to teach us something and that
Speaker 2: episode was no exception. Thank you so much for joining
Speaker 2: us today on the Daily OS. It's been another big
Speaker 2: week in the news. If you have learned something this week,
Speaker 2: or if you liked what you listened to, it would
Speaker 2: help us a lot. If you could click follow on
Speaker 2: either Spotify or Apple wherever you are listening, We'll be
Speaker 2: back again on Monday, but until then, have a fabulous weekend.
Speaker 1: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Dunda
Speaker 1: Bungelung cargotten woman from Gadigo Country.
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