07/10/2022
This week my guest is Sofi Thanhauser, professor and author of the book “Worn – A people’s history of clothing”. We get into the history of the various fibres, the implications on society and the development of clothing technology through the ages. The evolution of our clothing has been a very mixed joy, depending on your position, so expect som…
30/09/2022
Today’s guest is Jamie Bartlett of Banton Frameworks, a small, independent maker of optical frames outside Glasgow in Scotland. Jamie tells the fascinating story of their bumpy start, making frames from random materials in a car, how they’ve since built the business frame by frame, collaborating with similarly minded brands and how rewarding it is to have loyal fans of…
23/09/2022
This week’s guest on the pod is Alec Leach, former editor of the product hype website Highsnobiety and author of the book “The world is on fire and we@re still buying shoes”. We talk about how he got started in Highsnobiety and what the work there involved, how streetwear brands have changed the way brands market their goods and how tough…
16/09/2022
For the first episode of season 5, and the milestone 100th episode, my guest is Aoife Long, a slow fashion writer from Ireland. Aoife is dedicated to seeking out the stories and craftspeople of her country, putting the spotlight on mainly small, independent makers with a conscious approach to their surroundings and what they produce. We get into the situation…
22/07/2022
In the season finale of season 4, I’m visited by Philippa Grogan, sustainability consultant in Eco-Age, an agency for sustainable business strategy. Since graduating, Philly has been on a fascinating journey (literally) through the garment industry of Asia, before working in Eco-Age to help companies lower their impact on people and the planet. Our conversation covers the recent developments in…
15/07/2022
Professor Becky Earley guests Garmology this week to talk about making the industry of fashion more circular, and what circularity actually means. We cover topics such as how much we wear our clothes, the problems charity shops face, the pros and cons of user-to-user reselling, how the production of clothes has been steeply increasing and the interest from the garment…
08/07/2022
The magic school bus of Garmology stops today in rainy Manchester to take onboard Joe Schindler for a salty chat about denim, small-scale production, making in the UK, how to stumble and keep going in business, how being your own boss means working all hours and the value in making only stuff you really like yourself. You can find Joe…
01/07/2022
This week Genevieve Sweeney stops by to chat about the easy path of starting her knitwear brand. Or rather, how wanting to start making knitwear led her on a tour of discovery of discarded and obsolete machinery, meeting contacts in run-down pubs, locating expert knitters that had been put out to pasture, her husband becoming a trojan horse to get…
24/06/2022
Today’s guest is Alice Sherwood, author of the new book “Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture”. We have a fascinating chat about the counterfeit goods and how brands are actually helping the fakers, storytelling in marketing, how almost all fashion design is an incremental process, influencer culture and how AI is making is both enabling the theft of information…
17/06/2022
This week’s guest is David Courtney of Courtney & Co, arguably the last of the traditional button makers in the UK. I was keen to invite David for a chat about how he happened into what is a rather unusual business, requiring as it does both a plethora of machinery and some rather special source materials. Not to mention the…