Is it possible to truly balance financial and environmental sustainability in circularity? This week's guest not only believes that it's possible to do both, but has proven it by architecting one of fashion’s most impactful resale programs, Worn Wear (at Patagonia). In this episode, she's sharing her lessons learned on everything from the type of resale model that could be capable of reducing new production to how we can better engage customers in circularity.

Our guest Nellie Cohen spent nearly a decade at Patagonia as the architect of the brand’s precedent-setting and award-winning circularity program, Worn Wear. She holds over 15 years of sustainability experience and is widely recognized as a leading figure within the circular economy movement.

In 2019, she founded her consultancy — Baleen — which is a specialized agency that focuses on circularity design and implementation. Over her career, she has worked with some of the world’s best known brands including Levi’s, Target, lululemon, and DÔEN.

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This is a recording of a conversation that Stella led with Nellie inside the Conscious Fashion Collective Membership community!

If you'd like to join in on future conversations like this, access our entire past session library, unlock our value-packed resource hub, and connect with a changemaking community, join us inside the CFC Membership.

💚 Learn more & join: consciousfashion.co/community

If you've been feeling discouraged, overwhelmed, or isolated on your sustainable fashion journey, it may be a sign to lean into community. In this episode, get tangible tips and encouragement to find or cultivate your own slow fashion community.

The second part of this episode features a replay of Elizabeth's interview on the Ecommerce Maven Podcast, where she spoke about building community around your slow fashion business and creating thriving partnerships.

CONNECT:
📧 Conscious Fashion Collective Newsletter (stay updated on upcoming events, like founder x freelancer mixers!)

🌿CFC Membership (private community for sustainable fashion professionals & entrepreneurs)

💌 Slow Fashion Saturday (free newsletter for slow fashion advocates)

After what's been referred to as a "slow fashion recession", what's next for the movement? How can we come back stronger and make slow fashion so irresistible, that it becomes inevitable?

Those are big questions, but that's what we're exploring in this podcast episode!

I'd love to hear your thoughts & ideas on this too — find me at @consciousstyle on Instagram or email me.

CONNECT:

💌 Slow Fashion Saturday Newsletter

🌱 Join the CFC Membership (community for sustainable fashion professionals & founders)

♻️ Upcycling Workshop

For our first-ever Conscious Fashion Collective Membership panel discussion, we discussed a topic that is often taboo in the slow fashion space — money! We believe that financial sustainability is essential for creating a more just, and sustainable, fashion ecosystem with thriving businesses that care about people and the planet.

💰 WE DISCUSSED:

• Taboos/misconceptions about making money in the slow fashion space,
• What alternative business models and revenue streams can be successful for slow fashion brands who don’t want to follow the traditional fast fashion trajectory,
• Slow fashion pricing and forecasting,
• How freelancers can go about finding clients, retaining clients, and creating a client rotation that allows for financial sustainability,
• How to diversify your slow fashion skills and develop alternative streams of income/business offerings,
• And SO MUCH more!

This episode was brought to you by…

Conscious Fashion Collective Membership: the global community for sustainable fashion professionals, freelancers, and entrepreneurs.

Doors will be closing to new members on Friday, March 29th as we prepare to add even more value to the membership.

When we reopen, we'll be increasing the price to account for the additional value. If you sign-up this week, you'll lock-in our current pricing for the lifetime of your membership.

Learn more + join us: consciousfashion.co/community

LINKS:

• Picnicwear
• Kismet Concept Studio
• MAHDIYYAH
• Devinto
• Jacqueline Schumann
• Picnicwear DejaVu Dress Pattern
• YouTube video: NYC Tailor Aims To Reduce Fast Fashion Waste

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

📧Newsletter: https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/subscribe

🌐Website: consciouslifeandstyle.com

📸 Instagram: @consciousstyle

Financial sustainability is essential for creating a more just, and sustainable, fashion ecosystem with thriving businesses that care about people and the planet. But how do you go about actually making money in this space, especially when you care about not overproducing? Money-making is a topic that is all-too-often taboo in the slow fashion space, but our panelists Dani Des Roches, Mahdiyyah Muhammad, Jacqueline Schumann, and Aiste Zitnikaite are unpacking their experiences, transparently, in this episode!

Note: This is a recording from a Conscious Fashion Collective Membership panel discussion, so you may hear references to the membership and “CFC". You can learn more about CFC's membership community here: consciousfashion.co/community

💰 WE DISCUSSED:

• Taboos/misconceptions about making money in the slow fashion space,
• What alternative business models and revenue streams can be successful for slow fashion brands who don’t want to follow the traditional fast fashion trajectory,
• Slow fashion pricing and forecasting,
• How freelancers can go about finding clients, retaining clients, and creating a client rotation that allows for financial sustainability,
• How to diversify your slow fashion skills and develop alternative streams of income/business offerings,
• And SO MUCH more!

LINKS:

• Conscious Fashion Collective Membership
• Picnicwear
• Kismet Concept Studio
• MAHDIYYAH
• Devinto
• Jacqueline Schumann

CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

📧Newsletter: https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/subscribe

🌐Website: consciouslifeandstyle.com

📸 Instagram: @consciousstyle

How can fashion take action right now for a net positive future?

From climate and biodiversity to worker livelihoods and fair wages to overconsumption and textile waste, the gaps between where we need to be and where we are right now feel… vast. 

But in this episode, we're discussing ways that fashion act right now — like tomorrow — on 5 key pillars that encompass both people and planet. These are areas where the research, and tools are readily available, even for implementing at a large scale. 

Ahead you'll hear my conversation with Holly Syrett, the Impact Programmes and Sustainability Director at Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), a nonprofit organization that accelerates measurable impact in the fashion industry.

Perhaps what GFA is most known for is their Global Fashion Summits but they also drive impact through collaborative commitments, impact programs, thought leadership publications and by engaging with policy & advocacy.

Their flagship report — which is freely accessible for all — is the Fashion CEO Agenda. And this year's edition, released at the Boston Fashion Summit, is offering more specific tangible action than ever. I kind of think of it as the no-excuses actionable sustainability playbook for fashion brands.

I was excited to be able to have this conversation with Holly and be able to share it all with you for free because I know that there are so many of you that work in sustainable fashion or aspire to and want to dive deeper into these types of industry insights but they're not always accessible. So enjoy this conversation with Holly!

GET THE TRANSCRIPT

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PRESENTED BY...

The Conscious Fashion Collective Membership

If you are a sustainable fashion professional or aspiring to transition into this industry, check out our sister platform Conscious Fashion Collective. We have a free career newsletter with jobs and resources dedicated to supporting your conscious fashion career journey.

We also have a membership community where you can access extra jobs, attend career-focused member events and workshops, access tons of time-saving resources, and connect with a like-minded group of fashion changemakers. You can find out more about this membership at consciousfashion.co/community.

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GFA's RESOURCES:

• Fashion CEO Agenda
• 2030 Fashion Sector Vision
• GFA Policy Matrix: Americas
• GFA Policy Matrix for EU
• GFA's Policy & Advocacy Work

OTHER LINKS MENTIONED:

• Open Supply Hub
• Article: EILEEN FISHER's New CEO Wants You To Buy Fewer Clothes
• American Circular Textiles

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CONNECT WITH HOLLY & GFA

🌐 Website: https://globalfashionagenda.org/

📸 Instagram: @globalfashionagenda

💼 LinkedIn: Global Fashion Agenda

📺 YouTube: @GlobalFashionAgenda

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CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

📧Newsletter: https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit

🌐Website: consciouslifeandstyle.com

📸 Instagram: @consciousstyle

📹 YouTube: @consciouslifeandstyle

📌 Pinterest: @consciouslifeandstyle

We have reached the 100th episode of the podcast! For the past 100 episodes, at the end of each episode we have asked our guests the same question: What would a better future for fashion look like, to you? 

This question is important, because it sums up exactly why the podcast exists in the first place — to unpack exactly what it will take to cultivate a sustainable and equitable future for fashion.

To celebrate this 100 episode milestone, we decided to mark the occasion by sharing a montage of some of our favorite answers, from guests we have had on the show, over the years. Plus, we are sharing a few listener answers to this question too. And, right at the end, we’ll share our reflections on the topic as well. 

Enjoy listening to these visionary — yet practical — answers. Hopefully they’ll give you some food for thought and reflection points for your own relationship with fashion. And thank you for tuning in to celebrate 100 episodes with us!

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Podcast Episode: EP10: Building a Better Secondhand Fashion System with Emily Stochl
• Podcast Episode: EP82: Rana Plaza 10 Years Later: What’s Changed and What Hasn’t? With Ayesha Barenblat
• Podcast Episode: EP66: Defashioning and Creating a Pluriverse of Clothing Systems with Fashion Act Now
• Podcast Episode: EP22: Colonialism, Consumerism, and Changing the Fashion Industry with Aja Barber
• Podcast Episode: EP77: What Democratizing Fashion Is Truly About with Natalie Shehata
• Podcast Episode: EP54: Slowing Down Media with Kestrel Jenkins
• Podcast Episode: EP81: How We Can Expand the Sustainable Fashion Conversation with Samata Pattinson
• Podcast Episode: EP24: The Fascinating Psychology Behind Fashion and Consumption with Shakaila Forbes-Bell
• Podcast Episode: EP79: Sustainable Fashion Policy and Collective Action with Elizabeth Cline
• Podcast Episode: EP20: How We Can Make Mending Mainstream with Josephine Philips of Sojo
• Yuhanne Natividad’s (podcast editor) contact details: LinkedIn

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CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:

📧Newsletter: https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit

🌐Website: consciouslifeandstyle.com

📸 Instagram: @consciousstyle

📹 YouTube: @consciouslifeandstyle

📌 Pinterest: @consciouslifeandstyle