Jessie Frances (@cappuccinosandconsignment) on the complications with resale's *moment* — fast fashion addictions becoming secondhand addictions, luxury's obsession with exclusivity & the gentrification of thrifting
Release Date: 07/18/2023
Wafa Ghnaim of Tatreez and Tea & Dr. Tanveer Ahmed of Central Saint Martins on preserving culture, decolonial frameworks, and how intersectional reform can be a pathway toward sustainable fashion futures
Conscious Chatter
Episode 320 features Wafa Ghnaim, a Senior Research Fellow at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Curator for the Museum of the Palestinian People and Founder of The Tatreez Institute, alongside Dr. Tanveer Ahmed, a Senior Lecturer in Fashion and Race at Central Saint Martins and also Course Development Lead for MA Fashion and Anthropology at London College of Fashion. “Inherently, just by being Palestinian and by teaching about Palestinian life and history, and including oral history in my work as a foundational aspect of my research, I am threatening these kinds of structures, in and of...
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Sustainable fashion podcasters unite — Emily Stochl of Pre-Loved Podcast & Stella Hertantyo of Conscious Style Podcast help us reflect on 11 years since Rana Plaza, celebrating collective movements & ways to focus our continued advocacy
Conscious Chatter
Episode 319 features guests Stella Hertantyo, the co-host of the Conscious Style Podcast, alongside Emily Stochl, the host and creator of Pre-Loved Podcast. Stella also works as writer and communications coordinator, while Emily also works as the Vice President of Advocacy & Community Engagement at Remake. “There are so many painful roots when you look back at the way that certain dyes came about and you know, cotton farming — there are so many different legacies of colonialism that existed and still exist. But I also want to take the word painful out of that sentence and say that...
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Upcycling artists Francisco Alcazar & Ella Wiznia of Series NY are redefining sustainable fashion while reimagining craft & challenging the gender binary
Conscious Chatter
*DISCLAIMER — this episode features stories connected to eating disorders and sexual abuse. Episode 318 features guests Francisco Alcazar, a zero waste designer based in Los Angeles, California, alongside Ella Wiznia, the founder and designer of Series NY. Using his 25 years experience as a structural engineer, is leading the movement that promotes circularity in fashion, and expanding these principles to other disciplines, whilst celebrating the material stories of each textile and the individuality they represent. A New York based brand of ethically made genderless clothing and...
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How gender plays into the devaluing of knowledge and its links to sustainable fashion & wellness with Megan Schnitker of Lakota Made and Niha Elety of Tega Collective
Conscious Chatter
Episode 317 features guests Megan L. Schnitker, an Indigenous Traditional Herbalist and Niha Elety, a fashion advocate, designer, chef, and storyteller. Megan is the owner of , who offer plant medicinals and personal care products. Niha is the founder and CEO of fashion brand, , a brand that co-creates with Adivasi (Indigenous) communities celebrating their craft and knowledge with each collection. “American herbalism was founded on Indigenous knowledge and use of all the plants that are in North America. And so, American herbalism is founded on Indigenous women’s knowledge, Indigenous...
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Celebrating the cultural tradition, past and present, of Palestinian Tatreez with artists / educators Lina Barkawi and Eman Toom & why sustainable fashion must include cultural sustainability
Conscious Chatter
Episode 316 features guests , a Tatreez practitioner, preservationist, and educator based in Brooklyn, alongside , a Palestinian Tatreez artist, teacher, sewer and crafter. “Part of just doing tatreez, in my personal opinion, is a form of resistance because we’re basically just existing and we’re showing our Palestinian identity, but there have also been very explicit uses of tatreez as a form of resistance. And so you have thobes that came out of the intifadas in the ‘90s where the flag was banned and so these are very explicit uses of tatreez where they would stitch literally the...
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Intergenerational knowledge & sustainable fashion — how clothing is more than just aesthetics; it’s about the upholding of cultural practices and the amplifying of knowledge & traditions
Conscious Chatter
Episode 315 features guests Amy Denet Deal, the founder of , a Diné (Navajo) owned sustainable artwear brand, alongside Sha’Mira Covington, Ph.D., an and Assistant Professor in Fashion. “Thinking about sustainability beyond just the textiles, thinking about the land that we’re on, how we can live in reciprocity with the people, the four-legged relatives, everything, the plants, the animals here — in all the work we do. Which is why community focus is so much part of what I consider sustainability ‘cause everyone should be thriving from what we do — not just the brand, not just a...
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Vintage stylist Beth Jones & Dounia Wone of Vestiaire Collective on whether fast fashion brands fit into the resale experience
Conscious Chatter
In episode 314, you’ll hear our first official roundtable format, featuring guests Beth Jones, YouTube star and creator of , alongside Dounia Wone, the Chief Impact Officer at , a platform that showcases luxury preloved fashion. “It’s few and far between that the fast fashion holds up against vintage or really quality pieces maybe made by a designer or things like that … Even if it has a vintage look to it, there’s something about it that doesn’t hold up in a way. And honestly, I will be a little bummed. It’s Zara. I’d rather have the old Kathys of California blazer or dress. I...
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Why self work is integral to advocating for transformation in fashion & why we must deeply question our personal values to truly get active in creating a more sustainable fashion future
Conscious Chatter
In episode 313, you’ll hear from co-hosts (yes, co-hosts!) Kestrel Jenkins and Natalie Shehata in the launch of Season 7. This is also the first episode in which Kestrel and Nat showcase their new co-host dynamic. With this powerful community-driven change, they’ve teamed up to reimagine some aspects of the show. Here’s what you can expect this season: Roundtable Discussions — featuring at least 2 guests per episode Focus On Making The Conversation More Circular — bringing more folks to the table to learn from various voices at the same time Monthly Themes — we’ll hone in...
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Denali Jöel on fashion as an art praxis rooted in Afro-Indigenous philosophies, interrogating the emphasis placed on the *industry* & reminding us of the possibility of creating new ecosystems
Conscious Chatter
In episode 312, Kestrel welcomes Denali Jöel, a non-binary Multidisciplinary Artist, Designer, Educator and Fashion Griot, to the show. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, has been an asylee living in the US since 2014, recently obtaining their U.S. citizenship this year. Their art praxis intersects design, performance, media and community engagement with particular focus on queer identities and Afro-diasporan histories, futures, collective healing, and radical imagination. “It comes back to us as an individual but also as a collective to recognize that we need to shift our own...
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Julius Tillery aka the "Puff Daddy Of Cotton" on the need to remix both the perception of the cotton industry and the business model
Conscious Chatter
In episode 311, Kestrel welcomes Julius Tillery, founder of BlackCotton, to the show. A 5th-generation cotton farmer from North Carolina, Julius founded to help center and uplift the Black community closest to the cotton fields in Northampton County, North Carolina. “There’s so many demons and like bad spirits and bad tropes around cotton and the industry in general, and you know, just coming from the South, and people having these perspectives of cotton production relating to slavery — I felt like people was making these notions about cotton and not really knowing anything about...
info_outlineIn episode 302, Kestrel welcomes Jessie Frances (@cuppuccinosandconsignment) to the show. Highly knowledgeable on the world of preloved fashion, Jessie holds a BFA in Fashion Design and French with a Minor in Art History. Through her work, she shares ideas around luxury vintage savviness, smart travel tips, and slow-living hacks, and also consults companies on luxury resale.
“It is an addiction. Even when you look on YouTube and whatever social media, you see thrifting hauls. I remember hauls were just specifically for new items — you only did hauls with your fast fashion. It was very singular. Now, there are thrifting hauls multiple times a week. And we have just replaced fast fashion with thrifting.” -Jessie
I think it’s pretty undeniable that RESALE is having a moment.
If I think about the shifts in recent years, when it comes to the secondhand market, it’s overwhelming. I remember thrifting in high school, growing up in the midwest – and for me, it was always about searching for pieces that no one else had – and thrift shops were where I could find those unique pieces.
But the changes since then – almost 20 years later – are immense.
I was looking at thredUP’s 2023 Report, and in it, they say that – The global secondhand market is expected to nearly double by 2027, reaching $350 Billion. And the global secondhand apparel market is expected to grow 3X faster on average than the global apparel market overall.
Clearly, there is a lot of GROWTH happening in resale fashion.
This week’s guest is highly knowledgeable on the world of preloved fashion – she started thrifting as a kid out of necessity. As she reflects – at that time, you didn’t want anyone to see you at a thrift store and you didn’t want anyone to know you were wearing thrifted styles. So, she would always find ways to customize her secondhand pieces, to give them an extra edge.
Since then, as I mentioned, a lot has changed. This week’s guest now consults companies on luxury resale.
We talk about whether this growth in resale is connected to folks simply transitioning their fast fashion addictions to secondhand instead. We talk about luxury’s obsession with exclusivity and how that conflicts with the potential accessibility of the resale market. And we touch on the gentrification of thrifting and how this weaves into the luxury resale conversation today.
Quotes & links from the conversation:
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“So, it’s being very, very strategic when you’re shopping with thrifting because it really is a thrill. It has turned into like modern-day hunting, it’s for sport now. People get such a thrill because the prices for the most part (depending on what city you’re in), the prices are so good that you just want to buy, buy, buy. You love saying — look how much I got for $100. But you want to know — how much out of the $100 haul are you keeping? Are you returning $85 of that to your next thrift store run? So, it’s really being strategic when you are thrifting.” -Jessie
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“Not just in fashion, we’ve all seen what happens when big brands come in and take over smaller ventures. I mean, look at ride sharing, without naming any names. You see how it changed things. So, it makes me question — ok, now you’re offering me, let’s say 80% of what I paid. Now, once you wipe out these smaller consignment shops, once you wipe out these smaller resellers, what’s gonna happen then? Cause now you have the upper hand. So, are you now gonna offer me 50% for what I purchased? Or are you just not gonna offer anything at all because you know — there’s no competition.” -Jessie (27:19)
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“How Are Luxury Brands Creating (Even More) Scarcity In The Resale Era?”, article in Fashionista Kestrel mentions
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“It’s accepting, knowing and being secure in your style. Once you know who you are, you’re not swayed by a trending hashtag, by what the princess is wearing — when those things no longer matter, when you know who you are, it makes life so much easier.” -Jessie (47:07)