Slowing Down Fast Fashion with Boryana Uzunova

The disastrous impacts of fast fashion are becoming more evident every day. In this Old Fox Young Fox episode, Boryana Uzunova co-founder of Kool & Konscious, talks us through the conscious consumer movement, working to wean us off our addiction to cheap, disposable, fashionable clothing with sustainable, ethical alternatives.

Fact: It takes 20,000 litres of water, half a kilo of chemicals to produce 1 T-shirt. We buy and sell over 2 billion a year, with many left unsold, or thrown into landfill after a couple of uses. 

If we want to save our environment we can’t carry on as before. It’s time to change gear!

We take a long hard look at the destructive consequences to the planet of fast fashion; with its mountains of waste, pollution of our water, chemical contamination of our environment and exploitation of its workers. To Boryana it’s just no longer either sustainable or acceptable. 

Boryana offers Old Fox Young Fox an exciting and optimistic introduction into the coming together of nature and the material sciences, technology, the circular economy, the ‘slow movement’, and the rise of the ethical consumer, that are all combining to lead us an alternative world of quality, sustainable, ethical clothing, designed to last for years rather than weeks and in so doing having a dramatic impact on the quality of our environment globally.  

In a wide ranging conversation we explore the psychology of fashion, the current business model of a vast global industry that puts profit before the environment and the practical challenges of educating governments, companies and consumers to shift to a new paradigm. 

After listening to this conversation, buying a pair of socks will never be the same again!

About the show:

Old Fox Young Fox is an intergenerational conversation between Jeremy Woolwich and Oliver Happy, one that explores the impacts of a rapidly changing world.

• Check out Ollie's new show: Problem Busters

About our guest:

Fashion entrepreneur and TedX speaker Boryana Uzunova is a leader in the sustainable, ethical fashion movement. Before moving into the world of fashion, Bory studied engineering, robotics and business. Unsurprisingly this background gave her a different perspective on the fashion industry she experienced when working with major fashion brands in Hong Kong and China.

This led her to co-founder her own business, Kool and Konscious, an online marketplace for ethical fashion. 

Bory is committed to focussing on design, fashion retailing and manufacture, technology and the environment, to creating a credible, alternative and sustainable business model to fast fashion. One that can meet the growing demands of the ethical consumer and benefit the environment rather than destroy it.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boryana-uzunova-3338b581/
• TedX talk: https://tinyurl.com/yycfrm7s
• Kool and Konscious: https://koolandkonscious.com/

Show mentions:

• Emma Watson and Good on you app via Gucci
• Supply Compass - identifying factories and making invisible visible
• Klarna retail financing
• The Art Collective - repairing clothes
• Patagonia - the good company
• Nudie Jeans and mobile repair stations
• Vitrolabs (https://www.linkedin.com/company/vitrolabs/) - lab-grown leather
• Avaaz.org online petitions
• The H&M foundation and awards
• Impakt_ID
• Tesla cars
• Social credits in China
• Fashion revolution https://www.fashionrevolution.org/
• Better cotton initiative BCI
• Movie: The true cost (Netflix)
• Crocs
• tbf.co.uk To be Frank socks
• Icebreaker merino: https://icebreaker.com

Support the show

As an independent podcast, Old Fox Young Fox is listener-funded. You can support us via Patreon: https://donate.oldfoxyoungfox.com.

Cover photo by Sarah Brown on Unsplash

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