American Fashion Podcast — exploring innovation and sustainability across the industry
178 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 84 ratingsExploring fashion as an art and a business. American Fashion Podcast is the fashion show for fashion people, diving deep into the designing, making, and selling of garments and accessories through long-form interviews with people at all levels and in all corners of the business, with an emphasis on sustainability and innovation, since 2014. Hosted by Charles Beckwith and Cathy Schepis.
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Episodes
162 – What Is A Fashion Community?
February 17, 2018 17:04 - 1 hour - 68.1 MBA roundtable discussion of the human components of the fashion industry. Panelists include Fashion Mingle founder Melissa Shea, Human B founder Boaz David, and Rachel Tobias from the Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator. Fashion Mingle is a community platform that was started in Austin, Texas, helping independent designers find contractors and suppliers in cities across the United States. Human B is a consulting firm which facilitates production. The Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator ...
161 – Norma Kamali
February 07, 2018 12:00 - 45 minutes - 41.8 MBNorma Kamali has a long history of innovation and anticipating “the moment” again and again in fashion and the New York City community. In this interview recorded with a live audience at Spring Place in TriBeCa, the designer talks about her work and life and how they intersect. She describes key events in her career along with her personal transformation to a minimalist lifestyle. “I work with a lot of e-commerce accounts, and they’re fun to work with. They’re all doing well, and when peop...
160 – Inside The RiverBlue Ecofashion Documentary
January 22, 2018 17:21 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBCan Fashion Save The Planet, or At Least Make It Better? Lisa Mazzota , the producer of RiverBlue, an environmental documentary, is passionate about rivers. Hear Lisa, Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs, designer and co-founder of Tabii Just, Charles and Cathy talk about a documentary that is starting a lot of conversation. There are rivers around the world that have been declared biologically dead from toxic, chemical waste that is a result of clothing manufacturing. Consumers need to ask how t...
159 – Navigating The Amazon… Marketplace
December 19, 2017 20:36 - 1 hour - 55.5 MBElaine Kwon used to help run Amazon Fashion. Now she is the founder of Kwontified, an e-commerce management and SAS firm. She and her partner Jordan Taylor consult from the points of “what is the best business model for me to use on Amazon” and “how do I grow my business on Amazon?” Questions addressed in this episode include: What platform do you use to sell on Amazon? How do you get a “verified brand” on Amazon? How do you identify your products as eco-friendly for Amazon searches? What ...
158 – Factory 8 – The New Old Garment Factory
December 19, 2017 20:10 - 24 minutes - 22.2 MBAnya Ferring is Factory8’s Product Development and Local Supply Chain Specialist. Factory8 helps designers and brands large and small manage a streamlined developed and Made In USA production process. Factory8 References: China Snaps Up America’s Cheap Robot Labor USAID Create-A-Marker
157 – Too Much Minimalism?
December 09, 2017 02:10 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MBEliza Brooke is a writer at Racked, who recently wrote an article, “Why Does Every Lifestyle Startup Look the Same?” In the studio, she speaks with Charles Beckwith and Cathy Schepis about how minimalist design is probably the hardest style in which to design well, not just in clothing but in architecture, graphic design, and user interfaces. “I just feel like we’re at an oversaturation point, where it’s kind of like if everything looks like this it doesn’t mean anything anymore.” – Eliza ...
156 – StartUp Fashion Brings A Fashion Posse
November 21, 2017 16:16 - 54 minutes - 50.3 MBNicole Giordano is the founder of the online designer community platform StartUp Fashion, where she helps designers figure out what’s next and how to keep moving forward with their businesses and brands. She has brought along a group of designers from the community to talk about what they do and how they collaborate through the StartUp Fashion platform. Maggie Gillette is the founder of The Giving Bride, a specialty lingerie line for brides, which is making a big splash at bridal showers. ...
155 – Is It Fit To Wear?
November 13, 2017 01:42 - 32 minutes - 29.9 MBA conversation with two designers whose businesses are very much about the fit of clothing. Melissa Mendez of Melissa Mendez Design Studio is a freelance technical designer who spends a lot of time working with clients who “just have an idea” and don’t know much about the engineering of clothing, helping them bring visions into reality. Kristen Allen’s label Exclusively Kristen is designed for women with ample bosoms who tend to look a little too provocative when putting on normal clothing ...
154 – Van Cleef & Arpels CEO With Artist Robert Wilson
November 06, 2017 02:59 - 56 minutes - 51.9 MBJewelry brand Van Cleef & Arpels, part of the Richemont group of companies, has an exhibition of new one of a kind jewelry pieces in a special experience space created by renowned American artist Robert Wilson. The “Noah’s Ark Inspires Van Cleef Arpels” exhibition is at the Cedar Lake event space on West 26th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues in Manhattan. As Ruth La Ferla in The New York Times says, “From Nov. 3 to 19, visitors will be treated to a display of the jeweler’s menagerie of...
153 – True Gault’s Footwear Fashiontech
November 03, 2017 05:12 - 35 minutes - 32.4 MBSandra Gault is the CEO of True Gault, a fashion technology start-up company which uses a mobile app to measure your feet and build custom-fitted high heels at a far lower price point than the average for bespoke footwear. In this interview, she talks about the measurement, fabrication, the thought behind the product, and Nikola Tesla. https://www.truegault.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
152 – Ecofashion Knitwear NIA Clothing
October 30, 2017 23:41 - 22 minutes - 20.3 MBMerica Kahn is the designer of NIA Clothing (link), a Brooklyn-based knitwear label that is using technology to push a sustainability agenda. She’s been using the resources of the Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator to learn about full-garment knitwear printing and currently has her first three products available for sale. An early stage conversation to be sure, but a recent one, so perhaps a valuable look into how things are changing (or not changing) for emerging designers in terms of a...
151 – Outlier.nyc Co-Founder Abe Burmeister
October 10, 2017 16:22 - 32 minutes - 29.7 MBAbe Burmeister just wanted a better pair of pants, but the quest has taken him and Outlier co-founder Tyler Clemens on a long strange road through the depths of the fashion industry. They now release a new product every week, constantly developing new ideas and trying them out on eager fans. The company has a strong ethical fashion ethos, and a fascinating product development process, which Abe details in this interview. “There is a core functionality to almost everything that we do. That ...
150 – Is Brandboom Reinventing Wholesale?
September 19, 2017 19:23 - 44 minutes - 40.8 MBAmy Zhou is COO of the online fashion wholesale marketplace Brandboom (link), which is giving bulk purchasing of luxury apparel a digital dimension for brands and retailers. Thorsten Roth is a veteran fashion and lifestyle photographer who currently teaches a continuing education photography course at the School of Visual Arts entitled Photographic Identity: Artistic Self-Expression and Professional Application.
149 – Talking Timelessness With Jeweler Izaskun Zabala
September 08, 2017 20:28 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MBIzaskun Zabala discusses her business and history as a New York City-based jewelry designer whose major inspiration is an idea of timelessness. We also talk about ancient cultures and palm reading, though that provokes a bit of an argument when she tries to explain how palm reading is a science. Timelessness References: Denisovan Basques
148 – Business of Fashion Professional with Nick Blunden
August 24, 2017 19:43 - 54 minutes - 50.4 MBOur guest, Nick Blunden, is the Chief Commercial Officer at The Business of Fashion. In this episode of American Fashion Podcast, he discusses the new Business of Fashion Professional “information platform and community.”BoF Pro is a members’ platform and community furthering BoF’s mission to “open, inform, and connect the global fashion community.” We also discuss BoF’s editorial process and tone, and Nick reveals who really reads and approves all the commends on the articles, why BoF is ...
147 – The Ensign, the Made In USA menswear hub
August 16, 2017 21:31 - 57 minutes - 52.9 MBThe Ensign is an e-commerce platform showcasing American luxury menswear: https://theensign.us/ Co-founders Luis Morales and Jason Wagg have backgrounds defined by work for premiere labels like Tom Ford and Ralph Lauren. In this interview they discuss the state of American menswear design and domestic garment manufacturing, and the company they are running to amplify and ride its resurgence. “We really waned to highlight and create awareness in America on the design talent that is here, b...
146 – GQ Creative Director Jim Moore
August 02, 2017 20:39 - 1 hour - 56.5 MBJim Moore details how he directs fashion coverage and visual language at the leading men’s magazine. He discusses their Best New Menswear Designers of America feature, and its new global variant in collaboration with Gap. Mr. Moore has been at GQ for nearly 40 years, was instrumental in the creation of New York Men’s Fashion Week, and delivers deep insights into the here and now of men’s fashion. “I think what you’re finding is this new breed of designers that really… they have a mission, ...
145 – Anita Dongre, A Visitor From India
July 25, 2017 16:45 - 34 minutes - 32 MBAlmost every week a new store is opening in SoHo, and this week that store is Anita Dongre’s Grassroot, at 484 Broome Street. The store feature’s the premiere Indian designer’s vision of sustainable fashion, featuring the Grassroot line which provides employment to artisan villages in India, as well as a bridal boutique. In this interview, she discusses where the concept for the label came from, what she hopes to accomplish in New York City, and how she approaches management of the vast Ho...
144 – Philadelphia Fashion Incubator – Part 2
July 20, 2017 13:29 - 51 minutes - 47.1 MBThis is the second half of American Fashion Podcast’s roadtrip to the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator (PFI). This roundtable is with current members of the incubator class, Janell Wysock: www.janellwysock.com, Latasha Hall – facebook.com/Lillie-Designs-by-Latasha-172429349472334/, and Sara Keel – www.penrosedesignstudio.com/shop. Executive Director Elissa Bloom helps lead the discussion. Conversation centers on the launch point for new designers and new brands, touching on design, marketing...
143 – Philadelphia Fashion Incubator – Part 1
July 04, 2017 16:01 - 40 minutes - 37.2 MBCharles is in Pennsylvania at the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator, speaking with PFI founder and executive director Elissa Bloom, as well as incubator alumni Nigel Richards, Milan (Milano di Rouge), Sherrill Mosee (Minkee Blue). “The Philadelphia Fashion Incubator at Macy’s, Center City, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is a collaboration between the City of Philadelphia, Macy’s Center City, Center City District, and various educational institutions devoted to fashion design in Philadel...
142 – Understanding Influencers with Brittany Hennessy
June 08, 2017 23:52 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBAs the Director of Influencer Talent in the Hearst Branded Content Studio, Brittany Hennessy connects influencers with brands for collaboration. The content they produce is featured by dozens of Hearst publications, including Elle, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Seventeen, and Redbook. Influencer marketing is a hot business right now. Brittany shares how she cuts through some of the noise to see the players and the field. Brittany and her husband Alexander are the Co-Founders of C...
141 – Mizzen and Main – Performance Fabric Menswear
May 30, 2017 02:32 - 19 minutes - 17.6 MBMizzen and Main Kevin Lavelle is CEO of Mizzen and Main, a menswear line that prioritizes function over tradition in its fabric selection. In this interview, the conversation covers… running a clothing business from Dallas competitive AdWords strategy for e-commerce YachtCaptcha and the coming of SkyNet making menswear that doesn’t have your customers asking “what was I thinking?” in ten years running a designer-less brand “All the blood in the water that’s happening from the broader...
140 – Edun CEO Julien Labat
May 19, 2017 05:05 - 59 minutes - 54.6 MBJulien Labat On Edun’s Sustainable Choices There is fairly little true long term thinking in the fashion industry, but it’s not surprising to see it come from an LVMH brand. Edun is a very special company, with a very special mission. It was started by Ali Hewson and her husband Bono, with the intention of making sustainable high end fashion in Africa. It has been a long road with a lot of learning and building, and rebuilding, as revealed in this interview with a new New Yorker, CEO Julie...
139 – Miss Marvel Returns
May 17, 2017 15:34 - 47 minutes - 43.7 MBStephanie Maslansky Brings Marvel’s Stories To Life On Netflix Stephanie Maslansky is the costume designer behind several Netflix series based on the Marvel comic book universe: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and now Iron Fist. She was previously on American Fashion Podcast episode #94, and is now back to deep dive into her work on Iron Fist. In this interview she discusses how she created updated filmable versions of the character looks from the comic books, her appreciation of the ...
138 – Nick Graham – Emotional Revenue
May 06, 2017 20:11 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MBDesigner Nick Graham (website) refers to his menswear line’s customers as the perennial millennials, and from his rapid retail expansion, he seems to be tapping into something very interesting. The recent New York Fashion Week Men’s show for Nick Graham featured Buzz Aldrin, Bill Nye The Science Guy, and the planet Mars. In this interview he discusses how he built a brand now found in hundreds of retail stores in under three years, and teases the over the top concept for the next fashion we...
137 – Independent and Emerging: The State of The Business
May 02, 2017 13:42 - 1 hour - 68.1 MBAlmost ten years ago, with the 2008 financial collapse and other market forces in the fashion industry, we saw the rug pulled out from under a massive number of both new and established brands. It has been a rough decade, and now with the retail collapse accelerating things continue to look bleak for traditional fashion companies. But is this the real picture? Independent and Emerging: The State of The Business Seth, Lisa, Cathy, and Charles are live on stage together for this first live ...
136 – Temporary Retail
May 01, 2017 17:34 - 50 minutes - 46.6 MBPop-up stores, experience spaces, temporary showrooms, events, photoshoot locations, and other temporary space needs are the domain of a web and mobile app called Peerspace. They’ve helped us gather a group of experts to talk about the relatively new but certainly growing trend of temporary retail. In the studio for this episode are Gemma Sole, co-founder of Nineteenth Amendment; Parisa Wang, founder of fashion accessories brand Parisa Wang; Aliana Galan, Senior Project Manager at The Lion...
135 – Some Model Tycoons And Fashion Immigration Issues
April 11, 2017 06:16 - 50 minutes - 46 MBSome Model Tycoons Shivani Honwad is a lawyer helping imported fashion folk with green card issues, while Jessica Perez is using her new Tycoon App (iOS) (Android) to help freelancers keep up with the dollar bills, and Aine Campbell is helping models prepare for life Beyond The Runway. This episode touches on a broad spectrum of issues affecting legal immigrants who work in fashion. We also discuss how Tycoon App is getting freelancers paid on time. Jessica and Aine talk about their exper...
134 – John Nicolopoulos Surveys The Retail Landscape
April 03, 2017 20:20 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBJohn Nicolopoulos John Nicolopoulos is a partner and the retail & restaurant leader at RSM, a leading tax, audit and consulting firm. John has more than 35 years of combined retail and accounting experience, and is on the show to talk about his company’s recent Retailer Omnichannel Survey, and what was learned about industry retail trends in their research. References: RSM Retailer Omnichannel Survey 9 takeaways in middle market omnichannel retail They Were Expendable (movie)
133 – Nicole Giordano – StartUp Fashion
March 20, 2017 14:00 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MB“It’s okay if your answer to ‘do you have another job right now’ is ‘yes.'” – Nicole Giordano There are a lot of sites that promise to help emerging and independent designers, but few have the depth of Nicole Giordano’s StartUp Fashion portal. What started as a blog has grown into a global community, where designers share knowledge and resources online. In this interview, Nicole talks about her community and the two biggest problems independent designers face: financing and manufacturing....
132 – Fashion Branding and Marketing
March 03, 2017 17:28 - 58 minutes - 53.5 MBA consultant on fashion branding and marketing with several decades of experience in the field, Bill D’Arienzo, PhD, is in the studio talking about right and wrong approaches to marketing and sales in the fashion industry. His company, WDA Brand Marketing, advises some of the biggest players in the business. Whether they listen is an interesting story. “You have to characterize the differential nature of your customers. Who is spending? For what? And if you just have the names, you don’t h...
131 – American Giant Founder Bayard Winthrop
February 21, 2017 20:36 - 59 minutes - 54.9 MBBayard Winthrop, American Giant CEO Vertically integrated Made In USA brand American Giant has become an icon in the movement to “make it here.” Founder and CEO Bayard Winthrop is the man who hired a former Apple engineer to design their first sweatshirt, and has driven the company to be consistently best-in-class among the new generation of Made In USA brands. “I think that if you’re asking a customer to make an exception for you because you are a U.S.-made brand, I think you are never g...
130 – How To Wing A Fashion Show
February 15, 2017 17:41 - 48 minutes - 44.2 MBThe retail incubator Flying Solo (224 Mulberry Street) decided to mount a fashion show on short notice for New York Fashion Week. Normally this would not be advisable, you really need good lead time to do these things, but with 30 talented member-designers pulling together, it becomes a little more possible to pull off. In the studio is Flying Solo founder Elizabeth Solomeina, along with member designers Elena Rudenko, Silvia D’Avila, Jenny Lai, and Stephanie Schedraui, who were instrumenta...
129 – How CLO Is Changing Everything
February 13, 2017 19:51 - 22 minutes - 21 MBCLO Virtual Fashion Director of Operations Daniel Seo A fashiontech startup called CLO Virtual Fashion (link) has developed software that lets you drape fabric in the computer and see how it will really fall and move. This is remarkable and groundbreaking technology. Our guest in the studio is Daniel Seo, Director of Operations at CLO, who has been responsible for much of the thinking behind how the software supports designers’ visions and needs. “At the core of what we’re doing, we’re re...
128 – The Future of Retail
February 07, 2017 15:35 - 1 hour - 55.7 MBRound Table on The Future of Retail The National Retail Federation is having a giant trade show in town, and it provides an opportunity to have several retail technology executives around a table for a discussion about the future of the businesses they serve. Participants in the panel are Carlos Ponce, Business Development Director at Tlantic; CEO of Infinite Peripherals, Jeff Scott; Gerber Technology Chief Marketing Officer Bill Grindle; and Craig Witsoe, CEO of Elo. The seven main topics...
127 – Paloma Young and The Great Comet of 1812
January 31, 2017 19:47 - 49 minutes - 45.2 MBCostume designer Paloma Young talks about the development process behind her current Broadway show, Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. It is a new musical based on a 70-page love triangle story inside the much longer Russian novel, War and Peace, written by Leo Tolstoy and originally published in 1869. Some of the visual and audio elements of this adaptation are very tied to the history, and many are far more contemporary, projecting a fascinating singing and dancing collage of the ...
126 – A Day In Costume At The Met With Jessica Regan
January 29, 2017 22:02 - 44 minutes - 40.8 MBCurator Jessica Regan We went uptown to The Metropolitan Museum of Art to interview Costume Institute curator Jessica Regan. Her remarkable exhibition, Masterworks: Unpacking Fashion, is on display through February 5th. The exhibition highlights iconic recent acquisitions in the museum’s collection. Many of these pieces have never been displayed for the public. The exhibition includes work from some of the most distinguished and influential designers, covering the 18th century to today. ...
125 – Better Use of Fabric
January 17, 2017 04:24 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBLeaders of three companies making the charge toward better use of materials for sustainability and a closed loop for textiles include Patrick Robinson, designer and founder of Paskho; designers Beth Hynes and Harrison Taylor Johnson, founders of the brand Vestment; and Jessica Schreiber of the textile waste recycling non-profit Fabscrap. “When I started Paskho, the key thing that bothered me was how was I going to source fabric, because I felt that I couldn’t just go out there and buy more...
124 – What’s In A Simon Collins?
January 11, 2017 17:22 - 1 hour - 60 MBIn the studio, Simon Collins, former Dean of Fashion at Parson’s: The New School of Design, founder of Fashion Culture Design: The Unconference, and a globally recognized speaker and slogan master on the subject of good design. Simon talks about retail fatigue, see now buy now, the changing nature of Fashion Weeks, diversity, American politics, and a whole world of other ideas in this whirlwind episode. “It’s like sustainability– Whose fault is it? It’s our fault! It’s everyone’s fault.” ...
123 – Tabii Just 2.0 – Purposeful Decisions
December 08, 2016 23:19 - 36 minutes - 33.1 MBPurposeful Decisions Already a star of the sustainable fashion world, Tabii Just designer Tabitha St. Bernard has decided she wants her company to be about more than just selling clothes. This episode explores her pivot away from wholesale accounts to being a lifestyle brand expressed though more direct customer relationships in e-commerce, trunk shows, and popups. Tabitha’s business advisor in this transition is Tessa Maffucci, who also joins us in the studio. At the core of the need tha...
122 – Raphael Lombardo, Leather Man
December 01, 2016 18:46 - 33 minutes - 30.2 MBRaphael Lombardo, Leather Man photos by Charles Beckwith In fashion, accessories now rival or even outshine the garment business. In the past, American Fashion Podcast producer Charles Beckwith has avoided having many accessories designers on the show because he felt he lacked the vocabulary to host a good discussion about them. So, recently he enrolled in T-Project Showroom’s Leather Handbags Design course, a one-week intensive on materials, design, pattern making, hardware, mass product...
121 – And Then Tim Gunn Showed Up
November 23, 2016 18:08 - 48 minutes - 44.2 MBReshoring, an awkward word for an essential concept: bringing manufacturing back from overseas. Instrumental in this process are new agile factories, able to produce at low cost in smaller quantities. One company creating such factories, and making a major difference for a lot of emerging desingers and even established brands adapting to new market conditions, is Kathryn Hilderbrand’s Good Clothng Company, on Cape Cod and in Fall River, Massachusetts. In the studio for this episode are Kat...
120 – Get Your Own Style, A Men Swear Episode With Will Welch
November 15, 2016 05:43 - 1 hour - 63.3 MBWill Welch GQ Style‘s Editor-In-Chief, Will Welch, is the man at the helm of a brand new approach to a broad appeal fashion magazine for men, investing in multi-platform content with attention rivaling the printed pages. Seth Friedermann calls in from the far reaches of Eastern Pennsylvania to talk mens style, mens fashion business, and music culture. This episode is about… How do magazines work now? How should designers think about advertising? How do men shop? What defines the current m...
119 – Save The Garment Center Status Report
November 10, 2016 16:34 - 1 hour - 86.5 MBSave The Garment Center We’ve been hearing about Save The Garment Center for years, but it’s a bit difficult to gauge the organization’s progress as we see more hotels and condos replacing manufacturing and showroom buildings across the protected zone in midtown Manhattan. “Save the Garment Center was started in 2007 as a grassroots campaign by factory owners Samanta Cortes, Anthony Lilore, Paul Cavazza and Larry Geffner. This campaign was in response to City Hall’s plans to lift the 1987...
118 – Clothed In Cool
November 06, 2016 04:03 - 38 minutes - 35.3 MBClothed In Cool Charles Beckwith and Seth Friedermann chat over Skype about… How important is content creation in selling fashion? How to think about building an e-commerce website in a more holistic sense? Charles tries out “mass customization” and hits a wall. How do you know that the ad agency isn’t just telling you what you want to hear? Does trying to “stay relevant” keep you from being clothed in cool? Who are the trendsetters today? Are they really just the same people they we...
117 – Fashion Historian Patricia Mears
October 26, 2016 18:08 - 46 minutes - 43 MBPatricia Mears is the Deputy Director of The Museum at FIT, and author of numerous Fashion Studies books. Fashion historian Patricia Mears is in the studio with us this week, talking about The Museum at FIT, and her historical perspective on the fashion business now vs. decades past. Topics: Who collects clothing and other bits of fashion and preserves it in private fashion history collections or donates it to museums? What is the dollar value of rarer pieces, and has that changed in the...
116 – The Flying Solo Retail Concept
October 20, 2016 16:38 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MBFlying Solo is a new fashion store in the popular Soho designer shopping area of Manhattan, where there are many, but it is also a different store in the retail landscape. The clerks working the store in shifts are not hourly wage slaves, but the designers of the clothing on the racks and the accessories on the shelves. For someone with a large brand this would be impractical, but for an emerging designer it seems to fit like a glove. Designers Elizabeth Solomeina and Katie Lares stayed la...
115 – Ecocult’s Sustainability Roundtable
October 13, 2016 14:17 - 1 hour - 80.5 MBEcocult founder Alden Wicker moderates a panel of fashion sustainability leaders, featuring jewelry designer Melissa Joy Manning, Zady.com founder Maxine Bedat, Maiyet co-founder Kristy Caylor, and womenswear designer Mara Hoffman. The panel covered a wide range of issues facing designers who are trying to manufacture using the most sustainable methods possible. More photos and a deeper outline of the discussion will be available on the Ecocult website. photos by Rachael Elana Photography
114 – Fashion Is Freedom Author Tala Raassi
October 12, 2016 16:06 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBThe story of a swimwear designer who came the long way round. “When she was 16, Tala Raassi went to a party. She talked to boys, and wore a mini-skirt. She was punished with 40 lashes and five days in jail.” That is the beginning of her story, but what happened in the following years is a story far more familiar to our audience, that of a designer trying to figure out how to get into and stay in the business of fashion. Fashion Is Freedom Author Tala Raassi The book, Fashion Is Freedom: H...
113 – Bringing Billionaires Into Neiman’s – Ralph Rucci
October 04, 2016 14:30 - 1 hour - 56.4 MBRalph Rucci Goes Into Detail The preeminent American designer’s designer, Ralph Rucci, is back with us (swing back to episode #50 to listen to the previous recording). In this episode, Mr. Rucci updates us on his RR331 venture, the couture work he has been doing for private clients, and his plans to return to show during Paris Haute Couture. There is also discussion of his take on the current retail environment, opinion on the exposure level of the Michael Kors brand, pre-show jitters, and...