My So-Called Sustainable Life

We’re rounding off our discussion about plastics–micro and macro– with the documentary A Plastic Ocean (Leeson, 2016). Tanya Streeter and Craig Leeson embark on a mission to understand the plastic situation across the globe. A surfing aficionado and a former free-driver, these folks have a vested interest in keeping the ocean free of plastic! We follow them as they go all around the world, Maria tells us about their trip to Spain and we talk a little bit about our staff retreat. A special thanks to Temple KÀ for hosting us for our retreat. The location was so cozy and peaceful I cried on entry! Further reading: https://www.retaildive.com/news/uncontained-the-complex-link-between-retail-and-packaging/552562/ https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0236410

This episode is kind of like the Lion King one and a half of our direct-to-consumer model analysis episodes because Maria went on vacation to Barcelona! (Living their Cheetah grrlz fantasy, I’m not jealous at awwwll) So I brought my other work bestie, Duha Elmardi, on as a guest co-host! We talked a little about our consumption habits during the pandemic, a little about our upcoming retreat and A LOT about what is going on in Sudan right now! The country has been undergoing a revolution since 2018 and a military coup as of October 2022. Embattled by dictatorship since 1989 the people of Sudan continue to resist and to have hope. Shimona Mehta’s thoughts on how to scale a Direct-to-Consumer business responsibly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHA-I1zjkA4&list=PLZ1mVWeImki-TU0UTrzm8x3kAKIieCEsk&index=2&ab_channel=TheBusinessofFashion Sara’s instagram: @BSonBlast Nene’s Substack, somatic semantics https://nnmk.substack.com/

In this episode, we talk about the environmental impact of the Direct to Consumer business model and our carbon footprints. What does it mean to offset carbon emissions? Who really benefits from the rising popularity of this new method of consumption? And do these companies encourage mindful consumption or do they contribute to a mounting and collective self-esteem issue? These are the questions that haunt us.

In this episode Maria and Paige are joined by Miguel Felismino. He is a Master's Candidate in the Biology Department at Concordia and a Sustainability Ambassador for Concordia’s Sustainability Ambassador Program. He tells us about his master's thesis, which looks at microplastic pollution and how it affects different fishes' hunt for food. Then we talk about his collaboration with Concordia Precious Plastics Project (CP3) to generate more sustainable research practices and we finish the episode off with the babiest of eco-grief circles! Content Warning: in this episode we talk about the personal choices we make around mask wearing and the COVID-19 pandemic. Sustainable Concordia and CJLO strongly advise that you wear medical masks when in crowded public places, and medical masks are required (and provided) at Concordia. Getting covid is not inevitable, the government just wants you to think that so that you keep going to work!!!!

Our deep dive into fast fashion, made us very aware of the plastics and non-biodegradable material in our clothes. So we’re shifting our focus to discover what microplastics are, how they are affecting our planet, our bodies and our future children’s bodies?! We watch Ramin Bahrani’s short film Plastic Bag (2010) and we contemplate our attachment to our things. Then, a familiar face from our past resurfaces as we discuss Lucy Seigel’s Huffington Post article asking us if our plastic addiction has gone too far. Tune in if you’re in need of an eco-anxiety circle!

In this bonus episode, we discuss how fatphobia in the fashion industry is the real climate villain.

Is the answer in new textiles, localisation of garment making or something different? First, Paige presents a fashion industry retrospective as she sees it as a consumer and then Maria and their longtime friend and colleague Nadia Bunyan correct her! They lay down a REAL timeline that isn’t inspired by not being allowed to watch The Hills or the one time Paige went to fashion day camp and watched The Devil Wears Prada for the first time. Then, we shift our focus domestically to shed light on what it really means to have your clothes Made in Canada, garments workers in the carceral system, Carcel Clothing company and greenwashing in the sustainable fashion industry. What is the solution… we still do not know. We establish a fashion industry timeline to try and figure out when exactly we lost the plot, luvs.

*Content Warning* brief discussions mass death, sexual violence, heartbreaking circumstances” This episode Paige and Maria uncover the true cost of fashion with a documentary about the Dhaka plaza fire aptly named, The True Cost (2015). We compare our styles to the cartoon characters of our youth (which three cartoons inspire your ‘fit?') and we waffle between minimalist wardrobes and carefully curated pieces–which method is the most sustainable when Fashion is Life.

In episode 2, Maria being a sustainable fashion ingenue, is the perfect person for Paige to enlist with her fast fashion problem. Then, Paige recaps the documentary Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts (2008) (featuring a young Stacey Dooley?!) and Maria draws comparisons between to Nazma Atker’s recent interview on the Wardrobe Crisis podcast. Spoiler alert: the working conditions for garment workers have not changed much in 13 years! We compare our styles to the cartoon characters of our youth (which three cartoons inspire your ‘fit?) and we waffle between minimalist wardrobes and carefully curated pieces–which method is the most sustainable when Fashion is Life.

In this introductory episode, we meet our newest coordinator, Maria Mariano and we talk about our relationship with clothes, our positionality as consumers and occasional-to-expert garment makers. We talk about the complications of expressing oneself as kids, teens and university students trying to explore gender when your parents still buy your clothes for you and we try to pinpoint which cartoon characters we consciously–or subconsciously–modeled our style after.