Inclusive! Sustainable! No b.s! Can Collina Strada Save New York Fashion?

WARDROBE CRISIS with Clare Press

As New York Fashion Week rolls around again, it’s the perfect time to listen to this interview with Hillary Taymour, founder of the much-talked-about NYC label Collina Strada.

Collina Strada is produced locally in small runs, using mostly deadstock. They’ve been working with the Real Real to upcycle unsold items, and with Liz Ricketts at the Or Foundation to upcycle and divert T-shirt waste in America before it heads offshore, and ends up in places like Kantamanto Market in Ghana.

Known for shaking up the sustainability conversation stateside, this CFDA/ Vogue Fashion Fund finalist is also often heralded for its work around diversity and inclusion, and championing representation in their shows, but Hillary has no time for that. She says, they simply cast their community; their friends and artists they admire. Whether that’s the label’s co-designer Charlie’s septuagenarian mum; the model Aaron Philip (self- described “a black woman in a wheel chair who happens to be trans”); or a musician like Dorian Electra - it's not that Collina is doing something radical. Rather, that the conventional fashion system is super out of touch.

This is a candid conversation about going your own way, finding joy on creativity, and the frustrations of trying to be a sustainable fashion designer inside an unsustainable system.

*Note: We've been saving this one up - this conversation one was recorded before the break after Series 7.Also before Alessandro Michele’s departure from Gucci was announced.

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Find Clare on Instagram & Twitter. More on www.thewardrobecrisis.com

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