Power Of Our Community | Marie Claire
Power Of Our Community
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00 [music]
00:06 I'm going to jump into my first question, which includes intros of the wonderful women on the stage.
00:12 But you're all different pieces of the fashion puzzle.
00:16 Aurora, you're an activist and brother to Ellie's designer.
00:19 Angel Chang, a women's wear designer.
00:21 Kerry Washington, actress and producer.
00:24 Why is it so important that all of these pieces of the fashion puzzle come together in the sustainability realm to make a difference?
00:33 I'm going to start with you, Aurora, because we're making some really good eye contact right here.
00:37 Well, listen, I think, to be honest, anytime you want to try to effect monumental change,
00:43 you really need all ships to be aligned in the direction of the North Star.
00:48 And I think we can design all the things in the world, but unless people like Kerry also help amplify it
00:57 and explain to their community members why it's important,
01:01 then it's not really going to get the visibility that it needs.
01:04 And I think so much of sustainability right now still needs to be a conversation,
01:10 because we're all still figuring it out.
01:13 And we need to engage with consumers as well to help them figure it out
01:18 and also figure out why it's even important, as well as Marie Claire, right, as well as media.
01:23 Yeah, I mean, I look to these women for sure in terms of leading this effort.
01:28 But I think a lot about the role of storytellers and helping to contribute to narrative.
01:35 You know, there's something about when Cate Blanchett re-wears a gown from three years before
01:41 and talks about it proudly. When I take a dress out of the archives that was worn by Whitney Houston,
01:47 and we talk about not just continuing to create new, but returning to the old
01:54 and uplifting and upcycling and reimagining what sexy is moment to moment.
02:01 There are opportunities to contribute to that narrative, again, at every stage of the process.
02:06 So I think we can't really talk about fashion without talking about the importance of representation.
02:12 Why is it so important that women and women of color are at the forefront of the conversation
02:17 and included in the sustainability conversation?
02:21 Well, I think we're, first of all, like most adversely impacted, right?
02:27 And when I think, you know, internationally about all of the different women that are interacting with fashion,
02:35 yes, there's consumers, but there's also a lot of women of color in the factories, right?
02:41 And I think what's really difficult for me is to hear brands sometimes talk about, you know,
02:48 feminism and all of these things when you know that in their factories in Bangladesh,
02:53 there are women that are not being treated properly, right?
02:56 And you can have a woman of color in your ad campaign, but if you are mistreating women of color in your factory
03:02 or you're dumping chemicals in a way that's not helpful to their communities, then really, what are you doing?
03:10 And I think that part of representation can be really disturbing
03:14 because I think so much of fashion we just look at from an editorial perspective
03:19 and not actually on the balance sheet, right?
03:22 And a lot of it is just gestures.
03:25 Yeah, it's interesting that you ask about women in representation because, you know,
03:29 I work a lot with nature and with climate and historically nature has not been valued
03:34 because it's been linked with the feminine.
03:36 I mean, we call nature Mother Nature.
03:39 And so, you know, I work with indigenous artisans in rural China
03:43 and I'm now working with indigenous groups in other countries too,
03:47 but it's mostly women who have this traditional craftsmanship that they continue to practice.
03:52 And so when you give women jobs, the first thing they do is they give it to their family and they send their kids to school.
04:01 And this is very different from the men that I see in these communities.
04:05 So it's not just representation on how we portray who our garment workers are,
04:11 but also really how it impacts their lives that you don't see in these villages.
04:17 So Angela and Aurora, as designers, there's a lot of hurdles that come with sustainability
04:23 and keeping your companies on the sustainability path.
04:28 What are some of those challenges and what can any of us do or the industry as a whole do
04:34 to make it easier to basically be doing the right thing to adopt sustainable practices and climate friendly practices?
04:41 So, yeah, I started my line during the pandemic two years ago,
04:45 and now I'm raising capital and pitching investors.
04:48 And it's the same exact thing that both of you are saying, especially as a woman,
04:54 you know, only 2 percent of VC funds go to women.
04:57 And those that the investors, most of the investors who have money are men,
05:02 and they're investing in male dominated businesses or things that they understand, which are in tech.
05:08 It's very difficult for sustainable brands who are a lot of them are women led.
05:14 It's very hard for women to find capital to start their brands.
05:18 And if the sustainable brands don't have the capital to start, consumers don't have options of what to buy.
05:25 These investors, they're like they want exponential growth.
05:28 They want to go scale up really big.
05:30 And, you know, you could do that in a world before that was really polluting and extracting of nature.
05:36 But going forward, you know, we need to look at impact measurements.
05:39 We need to look at other things that are quantitative, that are not just looking at profits.
05:45 So I what I hear, which is really important, it's so because O-Rate is founded by women as well.
05:51 It's really there. There is something to that.
05:55 But so much of this is about narrative. So much of it is about how we define success.
05:59 And so I think also it's really important on the media side that we take responsibility for uplifting brands as successful.
06:07 If they are not bringing in the kinds of numbers that their competitors are bringing in that are destroying the planet while they're doing it.
06:14 So a lot of that, it really is about having the courage to define success in the way that is more holistic.
06:20 And know that that can lead to that other kind of material success as well.
06:26 It just may be a longer path.
06:28 So I think, you know, obviously we need top down change from companies like Kering who are holding themselves accountable.
06:35 And, you know, publishing sustainability reports to smaller businesses that are really prioritizing craftsmanship and being transparent about what that means.
06:46 Thinking about what we're talking about today, five years from now, what are we talking about?
06:53 What are people wearing on the red carpet? What does sales look like?
06:57 What are people and consumers looking to buy?
07:01 Is it sustainability just in the lexicon or is it still going to be an uphill battle?
07:08 I am so optimistic. Seriously.
07:11 I think that there's so much change that can happen and it can happen so quickly.
07:15 And I think we've even seen that with the pledge over the past three years. Right.
07:19 And so I think even just knowing with climate change in general that we can mitigate climate catastrophe with the same amount of funding that we put into stopping COVID.
07:33 Right. And I think sometimes something like climate change feels completely insurmountable.
07:39 And a lot of people kind of freeze under that pressure. But knowing that there are very real solutions that are being innovated on right now that can help us mitigate this is, I think, very major.
07:53 These women make me very optimistic hearing you and just knowing how committed you are to this work and that you've created a space to have this conversation this morning and that you've made the commitments that you've made.
08:04 Like really just having this space to be in community and conversation is incredibly optimistic because we just need to be having these conversations and providing each other with these reminders and insights.
08:16 And I'm so deeply grateful to you two in particular, but to everyone here this morning.
08:22 Thank you.