In episode 240, Kestrel welcomes Maxine Bédat, the founder and executive director of New Standard Institute, to the show. A think-and-do-tank, New Standard Institute is dedicated to turning industries into a force for good. Maxine is also the author of Unraveled: The Life and Death Of A Garment.
"The society in which we live in is very much a result of the rules of our society — in that, it is people who change the rules, who create them and can change them, I should say. And so, I think that was definitely my biggest takeaway, is like, nothing about this system that we live in right now is inevitable. You know, where women garment workers are exploited and we’re just trashing rivers and throwing up climate change-causing emissions into the air and creating this product that isn’t making us happy — that’s not an inevitability, it’s just the systems of rules that we create and have to change.”
-Maxine
On this week’s show, Maxine shares more on her past journey, from law to fashion, and what has culminated in the writing of her new book — Unraveled: The Life and Death Of A Garment.
Maxine and Kestrel quickly discover their mutual love of “context”, which plays into the overall conversation. They explore more on the origins of business — something Maxine discusses in her new book — and how corporations were initially founded on democratic ideals with the intention of being for the peoples’ benefit, where citizens were also considered as shareholders in the model. This may be surprising, considering how businesses have now become aligned with profit, profit, and profit, at the expense of everything else.
Maxine helps tie some of these layers of context into how we should be looking at the current state of the fashion industry, and how we must get beyond these buzzwords (how circularity won’t save us), to move toward doing business based on equity, that exists within planetary bounds.
“We have learned that there has been an enormous investment in getting us - citizens - to see ourselves as docile buying machines, which social media has only exacerbated, rather than powerful stakeholders in our democracy.” -quote Kestrel mentions from Maxine’s book
“This adoption of circularity as this kind of panacea that’s gonna get us to this magical place where we can keep growing to infinity, in a land of limited resources — it’s those frameworks that are just denying really the central problem that you just identified. And I think, to me, when I first was reading about the origins of business, which as you said — it was not to maximize profit, the whole corporate forum was created as a vehicle to pool resources for public goods like bridges and hospitals. And that’s why the government of the people would give corporate paperwork and created the legal infrastructure around it. And then, as you said, it was Milton Friedman and the conversations from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s that just took this in a completely different direction, and that’s … where we now really need to have the serious conversation. We desperately and do not have any time to waste in moving beyond these like “win, win”, “triple bottom line”, “circularity” — this fluffed … how do we actually go from a society that is based now on maximizing profits for shareholders to a society that is much more equitable and that exists within planetary bounds. And nobody within business has a good answer to that right now, but that’s where the conversation has to be.” -Maxine
“I will not just be a consumer, passively consuming while things fall apart.” -quote Kestrel mentions from Maxine’s book
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This week's episode is brought to you by OEKO-TEX® - a worldwide association of 18 independent research and test institutes that sets standards for safer textile and leather production and products. The OEKO-TEX® portfolio of independent certifications and product labels help all of us make responsible decisions to choose products that are safer, more environmentally friendly, and manufactured in a socially responsible way.
Learn more about their labels at www.oeko-tex.com.
Scientist Dr. Lisa Erdle of 5 Gyres on what we know about microfiber shedding from clothing & the solutions can make an impact
Liz Spencer of Dogwood Dyer on growing organic natural dye gardens to coax color from plants & acknowledging the cultural origins of dyestuffs along the way
Researcher Anjana Baburaj on the pervasiveness of Shein & the ways in which social media and the drive to increase social status are directly fueling the overconsumption of clothing
Lizz Leral of Quilting For Community on the links between quilting and mental health, and how accessing the flow state via hand-oriented activities can help unlock answers to life's questions
Kelly Drennan of Fashion Takes Action on the importance of youth education that centers fashion's impact on people + the planet
Rayouf Alhumedhi, creator of the hijab emoji, on examining Gen Z's shopping behavior & highlighting why product designers should rethink existing product before designing new
Jeff Garner of Prophetik on how synthetic fabrics & toxic chemicals connected to our clothing are impacting our health
Jenna & Jon of Revival Eyewear on what makes deadstock vintage eyewear superior in quality & how conglomerate Luxottica has created a monopoly-like hold on today's glasses industry
Denica Riadini-Flesch of SukkhaCitta on rediscovering Indigenous regenerative farming and dyeing techniques & challenging the status quo
Abby Mills (aka @abbyontheinternet) on the de-influencing *trend* & questioning whether this movement can help us combat overconsumption
Samata Pattinson, the CEO of RCGD Global on their Sustainable Style Guide, how it's being distributed to all attendees of Academy events this Oscar® season & the power of generative conversations
Amy Powney of Mother Of Pearl on the new documentary *Fashion Reimagined* and the need to reconnect to the people, the land & the process behind our clothes
Trish Langman of Sovereignty on the need for comprehensive fashion education from childhood and beyond, to help collectively shift awareness about how our clothes are made
Sage Paul of Indigenous Fashion Arts on why thinking sustainably is innately an Indigenous cultural practice & why we must see Indigenous designers on a global stage
Doen's Director Of Impact Kristine Kim on their 2030 Roadmap & the importance of welcoming discomfort when navigating value chain impact work
Kelly Lottahall on making art out of old clothes and bringing the fashion & art worlds together to tell stories about *waste culture*
Angel Chang on why listening to Indigenous knowledge & preserving textile traditions can offer solutions for a more sustainable future
Kristin Morrison of All Species asks: what if we *embodied* our garments by actually wearing the land?
Katia Dayan Vladimirova on The Hot Or Cool Institute's new report, what a 1.5 degree wardrobe could look like & questioning how much is enough
What are *healthy clothes* & understanding that our clothing actually enters and impacts our bodies
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