This week we look at the role of biotech in the beauty industry. It promises the ability to program and design molecules that can be less toxic, more sustainable, and customizable in everything from moisturizer to perfume. Our guest this episode is Dr. Sunil Chandran, chief science officer and head of R&D at Amyris, a company using the tools of synthetic biology to build molecules for beauty products.

We ask Sunil about that pivot, dig in on business models for biotech in the beauty industry, and wonder what the future holds for fashion and beauty when ingredients and materials can be “designed” in a lab.

Have a question for Christina, Rachel and Shilla? Give us a call at (508) 622-5361.‬ We might feature your voicemail in an upcoming episode.

Resources:

• WWD interview with Amyris CEO Jon Melo
• Oprah Daily on Clean Beauty
• Info on Bonsucro
• CNN covers Doja Cat on Schiaparelli's latest runway show
• haute-couture-fashion-week-lion-dress.html">New York Times on the Schiaparelli’s controversial show

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

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We wanted a minute of Gisele Fetterman’s time to hear about her advocacy work, how she champions thrifting and vintage, and what she learned from last year’s bruising campaign on behalf of her husband, Senator John Fetterman. But we got so much more! 

Gisele gave us the inside scoop on the culture of Capitol Hill, her work on behalf of those in need in Pennsylvania, and the racism she’s experienced as a Brazilian-born activist who married into U.S. politics (let’s just say she’s been mistaken for the hired help more than once…). Plus, the wild card we never saw coming – she’s currently training to become a volunteer firefighter!

Have a question for Christina, Rachel and Shilla? Give us a call at (508) 622-5361.‬ We might feature your voicemail in an upcoming episode.

Full transcript here.

Resources:

• Vogue on the Fettermans’ political power dressing
• Gisele Fetterman on her childhood and her advocacy, in Teen Vogue
• Washington Post profile of Gisele Fetterman
• A list of Gisele’s favorite thrift shops in the Washington, DC area

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’ve decided the best way to understand claims of sustainable textiles and leather is to step outside the fashion universe and go straight to someone who lives at the source: in food, agriculture and climate. Tamar Haspel is the host of our sister podcast here at Post Script Media, Climavores, and is one of the more delightful people you’ll ever hear on the subjects of how our food system and our personal choices within it just evolve in the face of climate change. She’ll help us think about vegan leather, organic textiles, fast fashion, GMO cotton, land and water use, and even sheep farming. 

We also take a look at the news, which included a big win for the environment in a landmark law in New York banning PFAS, and Amazon’s “greenwashing on a grotesque scale.” 

Have a question for Christina, Rachel and Shilla? Give us a call at (508) 622-5361.‬ We might feature your voicemail in an upcoming episode.

Click here for a complete transcript

Resources:

• WWD on New York PFAs ban
• Sourcing Journal on Amazon’s greenwashing
• Climavores podcast
• Tamar Haspel

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy New Year! We’re back with our review of 2022, and predictions for 2023. But first, we have to say goodbye to Dame Vivienne Westwood, and take a few more shots at Balenciaga for what can only be described as a rather cowardly approach to repairing their brand. 

There was a lot to like about climate and sustainability progress in 2022, and we’re coming into this year hopeful we’ll see more of it in action, not just words. We talk about climate bills, progress at COPs, taking on greenwashing, new policies addressing fair labor, and new technologies that take us closer to a circular economy. But skepticism abounds, so we’ll talk about that, too.

Have a question for Christina, Rachel and Shilla? Give us a call at (508) 622-5361.‬ We might feature your voicemail in an upcoming episode.

A lightly edited transcript of the episode can be found here.

Resources:  

• Vogue Business on the life of Vivienne Westwood
• Hypebeast on the potential for a year of “Nothingcore”
• profitable-growth.html?campaign_id=40&emc=edit_tz_20221209&instance_id=79822&nl=open-thread®i_id=2408100&segment_id=115575&te=1&user_id=ab952fecf1ff38854c23d8bcf0959bf7">New York Times on the industry’s struggle with the concept of degrowth

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the end of the year, and our listeners have been asking questions: What does it mean that menswear is often made with better materials than womenswear? How do we kick the overconsumption habit when it’s so baked into our culture? And is underwear compostable? Lizzo blows up Twitter wanting to know. 

Have a question for Christina, Rachel and Shilla? Give us a call at (508) 622-5361.‬ We might feature your voicemail in an upcoming episode.

Resources:  

• cop15-montreal-30x30.html">New York Times on the 30 x 30 biodiversity pledge coming out of COP15
• Vogue Business on Dolce & Gabbana’s sustainability plan
• The Fashion Law talks through the FTC’s plan to update their Green Guides

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Charles Conn, Chair of the Board of Directors at Patagonia joins us to share his story of how the company made the landmark decision to “make Earth its only shareholder.” This was news not just in the apparel industry, but everywhere. Patagonia had been private its entire existence, and as its founder Yvon Chouinard looked to step away, he opted for something entirely unique: give all the company to a 501(c)(4) and a perpetual purpose trust designed to put the profits to work exclusively for the planet. 

The market is still digesting this move: will it signal a new path for purpose-driven companies? Will it alter the course of late-stage capitalism? Charles Conn had an insider’s view on the process of coming to the decision to embrace this unique model, and continues to be actively involved in bringing it to fruition.

Patagonia is an apparel company, too, so we talk about how they approach sustainability, from measuring their emissions throughout their supply chain, sourcing all their textiles and materials, and participating in resale and circularity. 

And finally, Yvon Chouinard was recently given the outstanding achievement award at the British Fashion Awards, and Charles was there to accept it on his behalf. So, we had to ask what he wore.

Have a question for Christina, Rachel and Shilla? Give us a call at (508) 622-5361.‬ We might feature your voicemail in an upcoming episode.

Resources:  

• Charles Conn in Fortune Magazine on Patagonia’s evolution
• WWD on Patagonia’s transformation 
• story-behind-mic-drop-heard-round-world.html">Inc. naming Patagonia company of the year
• WWD on Yvon Chouinard receiving the outstanding achievement award at the Fashion Awards in London

Full transcript of this podcast here

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We want your feedback! Fill out our listener survey for a chance to win a $100 Patagonia gift card.

This week, we’re setting our news feeds aside and spending our time with Natalia Modenova of DressX, a multi-brand retailer and innovator for Web3. If you’ve followed digital fashion at all lately, you’ve definitely heard of DressX. Since 2019 they’ve been in every conversation about what fashion in the metaverse could be. They’ve created a retail ecosystem for digital fashion that works as well as any e-commerce platform. And they’ve partnered with brands, designers, influencers and bloggers to bring digital fashion to the masses.  

We have so many questions!!

What are the business models? What keeps brands from competing versus collaborating? Are digital fashion items usable across all metaverse platforms? How is the digital design ecosystem different from traditional ones? Is there evidence that this reduces demand from real clothes and leads to sustainable consumption? Will users always feel a bit seasick wearing digital fashion in the metaverse?? Natalia brings us the answers.

And....we're still talking about Denma.

Have a question for Christina, Rachel and Shilla? Give us a call at (508) 622-5361.‬ We might feature your voicemail in an upcoming episode.

Resources:  

• DressX official website
• L’Officiel interview with DressX
• WWD on DressX fundraise
• Vogue Business on Meta, Avatars, and DressX

Click here for a full transcript.

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We want your feedback! Fill out our listener survey for a chance to win a $100 Patagonia gift card.

First, we have to talk about Balenciaga. If you type “Balenciaga child porn” into Google right now, you get 2.6 million hits. That is not good and they have only themselves to blame for an ad campaign that posed toddlers with bondage-themed plushie bear handbags and booze glasses, like they’d walked in on the tail end of of a sex-fueled all-nighter. For the time being, the CEO, Cedric Charbis, and designer Demna Gvasalia have managed to avoid taking direct responsibility for this blunder, which is a real mess. The brand issued an apology using the royal “we.”

We also take a look back on Raf Simons’ career as he shutters his label after a 27-year run, and then wonder what happened behind the scenes at Gucci that led to them parting ways with Alessandro Michele. 

COP27 ended with a whimper, so we brought on our Executive Producer, Scott Clavenna, to give us his takes on what was accomplished and what was left to next year’s delegates to address.

Then we take a quick look at the holiday season for retail this year, and it’s not all bad. There are some bright spots for resale, and hopefully less bright for fast fashion. And speaking of fast fashion, luxury resale powerhouse Vestiaire Collective announced they’re banning fast fashion from their platform. And H&M released an ambitious carbon reduction plan. 

Have a question for Christina, Rachel and Shilla? Give us a call at (508) 622-5361.‬ We might feature your voicemail in an upcoming episode.

Resources:  

• WWD on Raf Simons
• Vogue Business on COP27 and fashion
• The Fashion Law on the rise of resale this holiday season
• Vogue Business on Balenciaga making a series of “grievous errors”
• Sourcing Journal on H&M’s decarbonization plan

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We want your feedback! Fill out our listener survey for a chance to win a $100 Patagonia gift card.

Join us on November 30 for a live, virtual episode of Climavores. Come ask a question about food, nutrition, and eating for the climate.

We’re checking back in on the metaverse this week with Vogue Business’ senior innovation editor Maghan McDowell. For many, the hype surrounding NFTs, Web3, and the metaverse is beginning to feel overblown. Crypto is still firmly in its winter, and the stock price over at Meta continues to fall as Zuckerberg’s big bet on the metaverse isn’t delivering yet. But in the fashion industry there are signs of real disruption and innovation, with nearly every major luxury brand continuing to invest and partner to establish a presence in the digital realm. Does this mean fashion has just fallen harder for the metaverse? 

Have a question for Christina, Rachel and Shilla? Give us a call at (508) 622-5361.‬ We might feature your voicemail in an upcoming episode.

Resources:  

• Maghan McDowell’s articles for Vogue Business
• WWD on how the metaverse may not be the panacea for sustainable fashion 
• McKinsey on the metaverse and fashion in 2022

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s COP27 week, so we look at how well the fashion industry is doing keeping its promise to dramatically reduce emissions. A recent report from Stand.earth gives most major brands a failing grade and shows how much work they still have to do to clean up their supply chains. We also look at how some luxury brands are embracing the digital ID as a way to show where their materials are sourced and improve resale value. 

Then, we take a walk outside the world of fashion and find the scourge of disposability has come for furniture. We have lots to say about that, particularly the parallels with fast fashion. Finally, vegan shoe startup Loci has raised money, and Leonardo DiCaprio is on the cap table. We have some thoughts on vegan leather we’d love to share with him.

Have a question for Christina, Rachel and Shilla? Give us a call at (508) 622-5361.‬ We might feature your voicemail in an upcoming episode.

Resources:  

• Stand.Earth on fashion industry emissions
• furniture-clogged-landfills.html">New York Times on “fast furniture”
• Vogue Business on digital IDs
• Sourcing Journal on Leonardo DiCaprio’s investment in vegan footwear brand Loci

Hot Buttons is a production of Post Script Media. The show is hosted by Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker. Follow the show on Twitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices