Deepening our understanding of cultural sustainability & information vs knowledge
In episode 217, Kestrel welcomes Katie Pruett, the founder and editor-in-chief of Ethical Style Journal, back to the show to reconnect. A multimedia platform exploring fashion with a modern and mindful perspective, Ethical Style Journal is expanding the conversation surrounding ethics and sustainability in fashion.
“That’s the issue with sustainable fashion a lot of the times is that people want to do good, but they want to do good on the surface — they don’t really want to do good at the core, and that has become something that is too familiar in this space and it needs to be challenged at every corner.”
-Katie Pruett, Founder + Editor-In-Chief of Ethical Style Journal
ETHICAL STYLE JOURNAL
On this week’s show, Katie shares an update on what she has been working on since we last chatted, and how her approach to sustainability and fashion has evolved since then.
We also discuss a couple of the articles currently available on ESJ, and get into some of the nuances connected to cultural sustainability — the origin of natural dyes, the co-opting of ideas from BIPOC communities, the entitlement present in the sustainable fashion movement, the importance of getting beyond diversity and inclusion, beyond accountability and so much more.
The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat:
Dominique Drakeford, featured on ESJ’s Issue 7 cover — listen to Dom host The Root series on Conscious Chatter
“How Do We Preserve Culture Without Commodifying It?” by Seren Sensei for ESJ
“The issue for me when it comes to specifically Black American culture is the constant erasure of us and our contributions to pretty much everything.” -Katie
“Cultural Sustainability and Natural Dyes in Fashion” by Nathalie Peña for ESJ
“Angela Davis said in a recent conversation she had with Yara Shahidi that there’s a difference between having information and having knowledge … you can Google something and have information about avocado pits but you’re not suddenly the expert or the most knowledgeable on the subject — and I think people need to start to reflect on that and the differences there and really pay homage and give credit to and space to the actual experts and the actual folks who hold the knowledge and the understanding of these practices.” -Katie
Katie’s personal thoughts / response to the #MUTED campaign on Instagram
This week’s Conscious Chatter episode is brought to you by:
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