Can A ‘Repair Not Replace’ Culture Be Revived In Fashion? (Your Radical Questions with Josephine Philips)

Pibisi podcast ei se pohsi puhsi kun äänsä, että itse on ykk. Täästä maasta tulee äitiys pakkaus. Sekä kotimaista vispipuura. Et sitpäsitten välipalaa pienille tai isommille, niin kotimaista tuote perheistä löydät maistua jokaisen ruokahetkeen. Kotimaista, tästä maasta ja äsryhmän ruokakaupoista. Hello and welcome to your radical conversation. Sain tuota, että se on tietysti suurin. Täästä maasta ja äsryhmän ruokakaupoista. fast-fashed it. But also people like the idea being attached to craft. I can say this because in total honestly he's a friend of mine and actually spoke to him on the today program. The best book that I've read in the past year is called Craftland by an art historian called James Fox which is absolutely amazing and it's about these vanishing trades around Britain. And when you discover whether it's watchmakers or someone who creates a bell tower somewhere or someone like you will make you create such a jumper, people when they discover it's to be honest it's the reason the repair shop is such an extraordinary successful program. When people discover the distilled practical wisdom that goes into these craft and the folk and the communities that arise from that it's just so much cooler to wear that stuff than some you know some pair of traders you off the internet because you saw a YouTube ad for them. Exactly, cooler, happier, like it speaks to what we were speaking about in the last episode around how does it make you feel. Also when I have witnessed the work that our tailors have done I'm in complete awe, like it's truly as you say a craft and it makes you appreciate the expertise but also the item that you then get given you think wow they really did that and I'm so connected to them now. So Julie et's question is which was about the linen industry but we could apply it more widely. Is there an argument for reviving the UK linen industry as part of a radical overhaul of how we produce the clothes we wear. If you were going to try a national level to revive these industries what do you kind of what what actually needs to happen is it about tax breaks is it about social media is what what you need to do to give these industries a bit more weight. I mean to be honest not to in any way shape or form highlight what Trump is doing but there's an equivalence in terms of him being like let's bring manufacturing back to the US blah blah blah which is a ultimately potentially. Joseph being Phillips, Maga, Maga cheerleader. I'm just trying to say his name. When we booked you I knew that you wanted to come in here in a Maga hat. But you can see the parallel you can see the parallel to if the UK government even made a decision to bring more manufacturing back to UK particularly as we used to historically in places like Leicester have a really really strong kind of clothing manufacturing fashion manufacturing industry. I think it's no bad thing but I think it entirely connects to the previous question around education. You can't have a workforce that hasn't been created in terms of skill sets. So if we're to bring more UK manufacturing to the forefront of the fashion industry we need the people know how to serve. Yeah there is just to be mildly pompous radio for a person which I'm very much not in my normal course of affairs. There's a really serious and important point there which is that the decline through it being exported through globalization of manufacturing industries is kind of one of the fundamental facts of our lives today. If you look at you know for instance JD Vance's book Hillbilly Elegy which is all about what happened when globalization came in it's true to say that a hundred years ago which is nothing in the course of human history. Many many many towns in parts of the democratic west did have manufacturing industries which provided not just jobs and secure employment but meaning and community and when they left it wasn't just the jobs that left but a way of life left and it's so interesting when you mention Leicester I know through various bits of reporting that the Guardian and others have done that the Leicester garment industry is seen as a kind of migrant industry and migrants alone and obviously they're a fundamental part of it but there is even older tradition of manufacturing and textiles in this country which has been in I think I looked at before we got together in sort of decline and there's huge benefits in bringing that back you know. A hundred percent jobs meaning security you know people like Juliet being able to talk about locally grown fiber such as flex and hemp and I don't think that has to be nostalgic I think actually you can be quite an exciting future facing. 100 percent and I think actually it speaks to the fact that if something were being manufactured here the restrictions the local production create for example what fabrics are you you know we probably wouldn't be using the globalization in and of itself has made the items cheap because of the labour being cheaper and has made the items a lot more material leaning to plastics etc because you know fracking etc happens elsewhere and I think that by making things locally we connect to them they're probably more sustainable for the planet and it's just a better approach to fashion. What is good is there are companies like John Smedley you know a really heritage knitwear brand who actually their factory is the oldest factory in the world and it's in the UK. Yeah I went for a tour there and I was like really I mean I'm funny I'm comfortable saying it here because they said it to me and I was like really but they they create marino wool jumpers and they've recently opened their facility to manufacture jumpers for other brands and they're trying to bring more manufacturing back to the UK by facilitating like marino wool jumpers creation for different brands and I thought that's really incredible because it's making the industry come back. Juliet thank you very much indeed let's have a final question this is from Susie. I'm a keen upcycler and a lover of goth style fashion I love all vintage the green westwood and Alexander McQueen etc like that and I say it as an art form but unfortunately this has got almost elitist association I might have the time and a small amount of skill to be able to upcycle and do amazing things with charity shop purchases etc but I'm lucky and I have a genuine interest so how do we go about making the repair not replace culture accessible to everyone so that it's not so much cheaper to buy mass produced clothing that even if they do say they are recyclable that means in about 100 years time or so and in the meantime the terrible white burgs of waist textiles pile up on the shores of anywhere that isn't regulated to prevent it thank you wow Susie first of all what are white burgs of waist white burgs of waist that sounds like a that should be the type of a novel or something what are white burgs of waist um I think she might be referring to piles and piles of clothing that are so big I mean there's actually exactly there's piles of clothing in the Atacama desert and Chile that you can see from space that's how big they've got in this beautiful desert the mountains are so massive that you can see them from space oh my goodness okay Susie thank you so much I've learnt something significant from you how do we go about making the repair not replace culture accessible to everyone so that it's not so much cheaper to buy mass produced clothing so I'm going to answer that in two ways the first is that I want to acknowledge that quite often behaviors that are more sustainable are inherently more expensive and more inconvenient so for example if we were to um let's say you know refills like going to a shop that offers refills when your news agents on the corner or your scenes be local is on the corner but your other is two miles away so you've got a sustainable option where you can go to a zero way shop for example you know there's there's no plastic there it's doing good but it's more expensive and it's further away so it is important to acknowledge that is privilege and speaking to you should do this and you should do that etc but what I would say is I'd actually and it's really important that we actually really question the premise of but the repair is more expensive than if I could have bought a new item because the repair has a lot of ethics behind it and those ethics include paying people fairly so for example if someone says I compile jeans for 1599 but these it replacement is 20 pounds why would that make sense it's about actually just truly fundamentally making them understand the true cost of that 151599 item the cost that isn't numerical the cost of a person's livelihood the cost of the impact on the planet like there are costs that aren't monetary that that 1599 is speaking to that isn't the same when flipping the script and looking at the repair so I do really think it's important that we also acknowledge that repair is a skill it is a cost etc but obviously she's also speaking the fact that she repairs herself which is free so learning to repair and repairing yourself is something that you can do for free which is amazing but obviously then there's the cost of time so it's it's a big balancing act and I think what we're just trying to do at Sojo is by making repair easier and making it akin to the easiness of buying something new we're trying to make it more mainstream more accessible in and of itself and trying to get people to understand the cost of something the true cost of something what do you think about Suzy's point that it's elitist the elitist associations of loving vintage stuff from Vivian Westwood and Alexander McQueen I mean those people didn't as far as I remember a graph particularly rich do you she sees it Suzy as an art form is there is there an elitist association there is anything we could do about that I mean there's a litus and maybe associated with it from a point of view of it of them being luxury brands like fundamentally to be able to buy a Vivian Westwood dress you have to have a certain amount of money and be because it's of a certain price point and similar with Alexander McQueen so I do think that it would be remiss to be able to say that's a sustainable way to shop because it's it's not accurate but again it goes back to what we spoke about in the podcast on Thursday which is you know not shopping not shopping is also free repairing things yourself is free or just being more intentional about not buying as much as a really really great way to engage with clothing in a way that doesn't cost the bank and I do think that also secondhand as a path for an affordable way to engage in clothing and in shopping is I mean it was my into the industry but it really is the way that so many people are engaging with it the kind of younger generations yes but everyone kind of finding great finds on you know eBay or vintage and and it won't cost the bank so other than going on some of those platforms you mentioned I'm going to go home go through my wardrobe very methodically and be like what do I really think about this do I really want that do I I'm not going to check that away what kind of do about that and that's going to be a useful exercise for sure I suspect many of our listeners will do. Josephine thank you so much for being so generous with your time I know there's a lot of people that want a piece of it so we're massive It must be grateful. Have you vaguely enjoyed the experience? I absolutely loved it. And I wanted to say thank you as well to the community for asking questions and getting involved. And I'm just really excited to hear the reception of us talking about such an important topic. Thank you for having me. And you're hiring. So job applications come in. Thank you all so much for your questions. Thank you to Josephine for answering them. I'll be back with another episode of Radical on Thursday. But until then, thank you for your time. And goodbye. [MUSIC PLAYING] If there was a big rent button that would just demolish the internet, I would smash that button with my forehead. From the BBC, this is the interface. The show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world. This isn't about quarterly earnings or tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work, your politics, your everyday life. All the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.