In this week’s episode of Wardrobe Crisis, Vogue Australia’s Sustainability Editor-at-Large Clare Press is in London speaking to Mother of Pearl creative director Amy Powney.
Recorded just ahead of Mother of Pearl’s London Fashion Week presentation and before she hosted a screening of the documentary she produced in collaboration with the British Fashion Council and BBC Earth, Clare spoke to creative director Amy Powney.
On Trends
“Anything goes now, I don’t think trends are so relevant. […] There is so much noise with social media, there’s just too much information out there, so I kind of think trends don’t really exist anymore to some point which is actually amazing, because that means anything is possible.”
On Sustainability as a culture, mindset and lifestyle
“You can’t use the word sustainability for one thing, it has to be an approach, a culture […]. You have to use that sustainable filter in everything that you do if you truly wantto have that culture. The brilliant part of having that fiter means that every choice you make you’ll consider, if you consider every choice, you’ll make better choices.”
On growing up off the grid
“People say that living off grid is what inspired me to be sustainable, but I don’t think that it has. I don’t think that it was the main reason, but I think that my intrigue about where things come from arose from it.”
About her first sustainable collection
Last year, Mother of Pearl launched the No Frills collection which was made as sustainably as possible and took the MoP team one year to research every aspect of the supply chain properly. “Turning the design process on its head, we started not with design but with geography. A typical garment can travel to five countries before it reaches you, sometimes even 10, ” Amy tells Clare.
On having less than 12 years to reverse climate change
“I see it as a possibility to change it now, we have been given this amazing piece of information that this is what is going to happen, people didn’t know that when world war two was about to happen, or didn’t know ten years before it – we know this is going to happen, we can prepare and we can change.”
On seeing more sustainability in the industry
“Designers are going to change, because they’re going to have to. Becasue brands like Mother of Pearl and other brands that are changing, consumers are engaging with. So, they’re going to need to be doing it, if they’re going to want to keep their customers”
Read more about Amy Powney in her Life As I Know It interview.
Discover more Wardrobe Crisis podcast episodes including Livia Firth’s here.