What if designers could go all the way back to the source of the fibers their garments are made from? Many of fashion’s favorite fibers — and our favorite garments — begin on farms. From cotton to wool, hemp, and linen. But, often, designers are so far removed from the places where these fibers are produced. Bringing designers back to the source would result in greater transparency and traceability in fashion that would allow designers to make choices that are kinder to people and the planet. The fast fashion system thrives on building one, uniform, global fashion system that requires a lack of transparency and traceability to continue perpetuating its profit-seeking harms. On the other hand, a more equitable future of fashion will comprise multiple regional and local textile systems that are each in tune with the contexts of local communities. But what will it take to get there, in practice? Well, in today’s episode, Stella chats with Laura Sansone, who is passionate about creating regional and regenerative textile systems. Laura is an Assistant Professor of Textiles at Parsons School of Design and the creator of New York Textile Lab, a design and consulting company that supports environmentally responsible textile methods, and bioregional systems of production.
What if designers could go all the way back to the source of the fibers their garments are made from? Many of fashion’s favorite fibers — and our favorite garments — begin on farms. From cotton to wool, hemp, and linen. But, often, designers are so far removed from the places where these fibers are produced. Bringing designers back to the source would result in greater transparency and traceability in fashion that would allow designers to make choices that are kinder to people and the planet.
The fast fashion system thrives on building one, uniform, global fashion system that requires a lack of transparency and traceability to continue perpetuating its profit-seeking harms. On the other hand, a more equitable future of fashion will comprise multiple regional and local textile systems that are each in tune with the contexts of local communities.
But what will it take to get there, in practice? Well, in today’s episode, Stella chats with Laura Sansone, who is passionate about creating regional and regenerative textile systems. Laura is an Assistant Professor of Textiles at Parsons School of Design and she is the creator of New York Textile Lab (@nytextilelab) a design and consulting company that supports environmentally responsible textile methods and bioregional systems of production.
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Stella Hertantyo
What if designers could go all the way back to the source of the fibers that their garments are made from?
Many of fashion’s favorite fibers – and our favorite garments – begin on farms. From cotton to wool, hemp, and linen. But, often, designers are so far removed from the places where the fibers are produced. So bringing designers back to the source would result in greater transparency and traceability in fashion that would allow designers to make choices that are kinder to people and the planet.
While the fast fashion system thrives on building one, uniform, global fashion system that requires a lack of transparency and traceability to continue perpetuating its profit-seeking harms, I have no doubt that a more equitable future of fashion will be comprised of multiple regional and local textile systems that are each in tune with the contexts of local communities.
But what will it take to get there, in practice? Well, in today’s episode, I am sharing a conversation with Laura Sansone, who is super passionate about creating regional and regenerative textile systems.
Laura is a Part-Time Assistant Professor of Textiles at Parsons School of Design. And she is the creator of New York Textile Lab, which is a design and consulting company that supports environmentally responsible textile methods, and bioregional systems of production.
In this episode, we talked about why localized textile systems are better for people and planet, how materials in the fashion industry are connected to the climate crisis, bringing designers back to the source, what climate-beneficial materials are, and how designers can access these materials by forming purchasing cooperatives. And we also spoke about the need to shift fashion’s economic logic towards slow growth models and cooperative growth models, as well as the importance of working collectively to push for change in fashion.
Now, this conversation unpacked a lot of complex terms that I often hear in conversations about sustainable fashion – like what climate-beneficial materials, purchasing cooperatives, and bioregional textile systems really are. Even if you are not a designer – and you are just a curious person like myself – this conversation was really great to dive deeper into the stories behind our clothing, think about where our clothing begins, and also really got me curious to look into the materials and fibers that are available in my geographic context and find ways to advocate for building up localized textile systems.
Don’t forget to visit the show notes in the episode description for any relevant links mentioned in the episode, and also to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter called, The Conscious Edit, which is packed with resources for you to keep learning about all things sustainable fashion – from articles, to podcasts, and events, and so much more. It will land in your inbox once a week, and all you have to do to subscribe is head on over to consciouslifeandstyle.com/edit or just click on the link in the episode description.
Now, let’s dive into the episode!
Stella Hertantyo
Welcome or welcome back to the Conscious Style Podcast. I'm Stella, and on today's episode, I am joined by a very special guest whose name is Laura Sansone.
Laura is a textile designer, activist, and a consultant. She's also the creator of the New York textile lab. And within this, Laura has developed initiatives that bring New York Designers and farmers together with the goal of creating a distributed regenerative textile supply network.
She's the founder of the Carbon Farm Network, which is a purchasing cooperative that connects designers to climate-beneficial fibers that are grown on New York State Farms, practicing carbon farming on their lands.
Welcome, Laura! I am so looking forward to diving into all things regenerative textile systems with you, which is a topic I'm personally really fascinated by. But before we get there, could you just tell us a bit more about yourself and also what led you to work at this intersection of fashion, textiles, and sustainability?
Laura Sansone
Thank you, Stella. It's a delight to be here. I studied textiles all of my adult life. Early on in my career, I worked in the industry as a woven designer, in the home furnishings industry. And I've been teaching at Parsons for 17 years in New York City. I teach textile-related courses there.
Just to give you a little background, I currently live in the Hudson Valley area in the United States, in New York. That's in New York State. It's the original trivalance of the Muncie, Lenape, Mohikin, and Wapinger Confederacy people.
That's a river, it was formed, by a glacier that that melted, 20000 years ago and formed a valley that is now the Hudson River. And it runs three hundred miles from the Adirondack Mountains north, 300 Miles South, which is about 500 kilometers. And it lets out in the Atlantic Ocean, in the New York City area, in the New York Harbor. So that gives you a little, like, backdrop about where I live and operate.
The Hudson River has been, like, a vital economic artery for manufacturing, you know, historically. And, of course, historically, there is a lot of textile manufacturing that happened on the banks of the Hudson River. And that was all outsourced over the decades. But historically, we had that here.
And there's a lot of agriculture that happens in this region too, made up mostly of small family farms. Like so our farms our our geography here is, you know, we don't have large ranches. We have smaller farms. And we're cultivating a diverse types of crops. We do a lot of apples here in Hudson Valley and vegetables. We have some wine growing that happens here. And, of course, we have fiber and wool and and an alpaca growers, which is where my intersection happens.
But I moved up to the Hudson Valley 20 years ago to live here. I moved up from New York City. And I was living on a farm, and I was I had a studio there and was really interested in creating textile products that could go back into the ground. And because I was living on a farm, I was really looking at the plants that were on the farm where I could extract dyes. And I was painting with natural dyes on organic cotton see if I could compost it, doing some R and D around that. And my neighbor at the time was a vegetable grower and who's carting his vegetables down to New York City, you know, and I was teaching at Parsons. And he would cart his vegetables down, and I would see him at the local green market.
So I would see my neighbor there, selling his vegetables. So I started thinking when I was traveling down the river, which is a beautiful trip, you know, along the river on the train, weekly. And I was thinking about the resources that traveled from the upstate, New York area down to the city, particularly our our food and water.
And it it got me thinking about how important the soil health is to the 9 million people in New York City because the the Catskill in Hudson Valley region is the watershed for the water. It's the source of water for the nine million people that live in the city.
So and I would go to the market and observe what was happening there. And notice that the market is sort of this place where we can start to look at systems interdependencies. There were meat producers there that would sell added value products like their wool.
And I got a grant from Parsons, and I built a five foot mobile cart, kitchen, and workstation called Textile Lab. And I started building curriculum around that and working with students at the Union Square Green Market, and we would create dyes there. And this this course that I was teaching, like, you know, it was over 10 years ago. And back then, people were really were not thinking that their clothing originated on a farm like their T-shirts, you know, were cotton and they originated with the soil.
So it was really like kind of a social intervention project that would happen with students where we would raise awareness, and do that through handcrafting. So we would make dyes, and we would compost the dyes at the market. There was composting station there. We would work with the added value product, the wool, and there was the used clothing, a drop off station there. We would also integrate that.
So it was a really beautiful place to kind of demonstrate circularity and and and closed-loop production systems and also highlight interdependencies between food producers and textile producers.
And what was really important about about that kind of a forum, you know, was that it was so different from our global systems where you go to the green market every week and you see the farmer, and you see the producer regularly, and they hand you a bunch of radishes and what does that do? It creates transparency, traceability and trust, which is something that we're really lacking in our real systems. So that really kind of launched my whole investigation and my growth within New York Textile Lab.
Stella Hertantyo
That was so beautiful to listen to. And also the way you painted that picture, I could almost imagine each step of the way, as you were speaking, the journey that you took to get to where you are today.
I loved it because you focus so much on the importance of local, the importance of creating those connections, and focusing on what is around you and how that can be connected with other things around us and also the broader system. And I think as somebody is sitting so far away from you right now to be able to understand your local context was just, like, really beautiful to listen to. So thank you for that.
And, yeah, I can also see, like, how that feeds into your work today with the New York Textile Lab, which I assume came from that original, I guess, like, pilot that you started with experimentation. Could you tell us a bit more about what's New York Textile Lab does today and kind of what your mission is in the world?
Laura Sansone
Sure. So New York Textile Lab is a design and consulting company. And I work with designers who are interested in sourcing climate beneficial, textiles and yarns, and bio-regional yarns and textiles.
I'm also a Fibershed affiliate, and Fibershed is an international nonprofit organization that's made up of affiliates. And I'm a New York affiliate, and I have brought over their climate beneficial programming to the East Coast to New York State. We we could talk a little bit more in-depth about that. But it's very important for me to bring that program here so that we have access in our region to regeneratively farmed fibers.
But I've also developed a purchasing cooperative. I'm part of the cooperative with other designers to purchase fiber and make yarn in in the northeast. And I think my big mission is really to change the economic shape of the textile industry from linear models to distributed models. And, you know, one way I do that is I'm really interested in moving designers to the beginning of the clothing and textile value chain.
When we think of the value chain, you know, we think of, like, if you're making a sweater, you know, you share the sheep and the greasy wool is, like, worth a certain amount of money. Right? And then you wash it and the value goes up and you process it, the value goes up, etcetera. Right?
But we're only really looking at the monetary value. And there are all of these other deep value flows that can be happening like, along that value chain. And, like, regenerative farming is one of them, humane treatment of animals is another. Like, you know, localism is is a value flow.
Typically, designers don't enter the value chain until we're buying yarns from a distributor or even later on when we're buying textiles from a supplier. Moving to the beginning gives us agency to make these decisions about who we're partnering with and interventions. There's more creativity that can happen in terms of systems design if we move to the beginning.
The other way I changed the shape is by really looking at the growth model itself, which is a centralized growth model. Right? You know, capitalism grows in in a silo in siloed ways. Right? And centralized ways. It's just nature. And there's, like, this directive to grow grub you know, unfettered growth.
So we have to think about new ways of of changing that growth model to slow growth models and also cooperative growth models so that we're working together to, build our systems and really internalize our impact on the environment because, of course, our clothing and textile systems are constantly externalizing, you know, and there are all these hidden costs that those are big parts of the mission of my work.
Stella Hertantyo
Amazing. And, yeah, I love what you were saying. And there's so much to get into. I think what I wanted to touch on briefly is this restructuring of the economic logic that you were speaking about because I believe that we have to transform the way the industry functions from the ground up.
I've read, previously, an interview where you were speaking about kind of the need to shift from an industrial economy as we're currently in, to a nature based on nature's economy. First time I heard that wording being used, I was wondering if you could just share a little bit more about the difference between the 2 and why you're advocating more for the nature based on nature's economy.
Laura Sansone
Natural systems work in circular models for 1, naturally. There's growth in regeneration naturally happening in our in those systems. And they also grow in decentralized ways. You know, think about the way Mycelium grows under the ground. Right? It branches off and spreads. So we need and and our, you know, our clothing does the exact opposite of that. You know, it it grows you know, it it mushrooms and grows in centralized ways and and and siloed ways. So that's that's really important.
And it's really hard because capitalism orchestrates over human activity and drives our systems, takes a lot of effort for us to to really look at that and invent new ways, you know, working together and figuring out how to shift to these different models.
The bioregional development that we're here in New York is is really about kind of disconnecting or decoupling from the from the rigor of the market, you know, where you have especially in fashion, where you have, like, all these crazy seasons, like happening all the time, like, in trends, you know, pushing us to buy and produce and consume.
So we're looking more at Agrarian Systems. So we're paying close attention to, like, when we're sharing the sheet. Right? And that kind of, like, kicks off our production for the year where, you know, we're gathering the fiber. We're cleaning it. We're making our yarn, and then we're largely knitting right now into product. So it's sort of following those agrarian systems and really thinking about how we might grow things as well.
Our purchasing cooperative for example is set up in a way where our industrial systems operate through efficiencies of scale. So the more you make you're rewarded. Right? Because the price point comes down. So you're rewarded for efficiencies of scale. And really, we can't be doing that and we have to really look at that model.
So the way our purchasing cooperative is set up is the designers who make more yarn actually pay more into the membership fees of our cooperative, which go towards Carbon Farming. So, if we're going to be taking more from the environment, we must put it back.
So this is like a recognition of the impact that we have as makers, as consumers on the environment. Right? And take your responsibility for that. And, you know, often, it's just a few cents on the dollar of what we're adding to the end, the cost of the end product. It's not a huge sacrifice, but you know, we're sharing it collectively. So that's why it's not a big sacrifice.
But internalizing these costs is, like, super, super important. And, you know, when we're growing, this way, we're only working within the capacities of our workable landscape. So we're signing farms on to carbon farming initiatives and and we're limiting the yarn production to what we have available. We're not over taxing our environment.
Stella Hertantyo
Right. I think that point about kind of collective accountability and working within a collective is so important because we've become so separated in this industrial model. Like, everybody works in their silos, and it's so difficult to see the connections, and that's also when kind of the cost become externalized.
And it was really interesting because South Africa has got quite a big ball production industry as well. And I actually got to travel to the area in the country last year where a lot of the whole farmers are and a few regenerative farms, and it was amazing to see the different ways of doing things and also realize how disconnected even I am. I'm not a designer, but I wear clothing and wool. And this connection just has opened my eyes up to so many things.
Stella Hertantyo
Even as we're talking about materials now in textiles and fashion's impact on the climate it's quite difficult sometimes to draw those linkages. And we've been speaking about it in quite broad brushstrokes, but could you just, like, clearly outline the connection between materials or textiles in the fashion and textile industry, and the climate crisis. What are the major issues and impacts and the worst offenders?
Laura Sansone
We're dependent on an extractive system of taking from the earth. And especially with synthetic textiles they're fossil fuel based. The nylons and acrylics and polyesters they're part of that, you know, industrial oil system.
So for me those are the biggest offenders because not only are we extracting, but we're also creating textiles that never leave the planet. You know, they can never go back into the ground. They just break down as microfibers and and, you know, now we're finding them in our food and in our bodies and our lung tissue and blood. I mean, everyone's heard these horrific, these horrific reports around what's happening with the microfibers. So you know, for me, that's that's a big offender.
But we also have to shift the, you know, the way we're growing cotton and the natural fibers as well and do it in a way where we're really looking at how to how to put nutrients back into the ground, how to move away from like, petrochemicals, like, you know, fertilizers or inputs that are that are also disrupting our our very fragile ecosystems. And grow things in ways where they're truly regenerative. And where we can pull carbon out of the air and store it back into the plant matter and the soil. You know?
Stella Hertantyo
Definitely. And it's actually reminding me of a past episode we have on the podcast with Nishanth Chopra of Oshadi Collective. When he's built this, like, beautiful seed to sew supply chain and really is focused on regenerative farming as well. And so I think that's a great episode to reference back to as well, you know, to complement this conversation.
We've been chatting a lot about nature, which is so important, and this term like nature based solutions has also been coming up quite a bit in different conversations about how we we need to move towards systems that are more in tune and in harmony with nature.
And we've also been chatting now about climate beneficial materials. And I think that those are one nature based solution if I'm not mistaken. Could you just share, like, a few example of a few examples of climate beneficial materials and also, like, what this connection to nature based solutions is in challenging fashions impact?
Laura Sansone
So climate beneficial materials are verified through the program that I'm involved in, They're verified through Fibershed. And we're working with farms to have them shift their practices to what we call Carbon Farm Practices where they're implementing, like, specific on the farm practices which are specific to each individual farm. You know? And and what's happening here on the East Coast could be very different than what's happening out on the West Coast of the United States or or what might be happening in South Africa, you know, where you have droughts and more arid conditions.
But, you know, the protocols that we're looking at are are, like, composting protocols or rotational grazing of animals, cover cropping, planting for windbreaks might be something that's important where you have top soil erosion in drier climates. I mean, you know, it it's It's really dependent on on the farms.
So this is actively happening through Fibershed, their fiber shed's moving 100 of 1000 of pounds of of climate beneficial fiber to market every year. And they're interfacing with larger brands as well and really trying to shift the industry. They're doing a phenomenal job really working at that.
They work with a distributor named Stacy Chavez from Imperial Yarn. And she runs the common beneficial fiber pool, and she's a distributor manufacturer of yarns and textiles, that are climate beneficial. And and there are different blends of fine wool, like the fine wool that's coming out of that region of the world of this country. And also blending with cotton that is regeneratively grown. They're starting to shift some of the cotton growers in California and other parts of the country to to regenatively farmed cotton as well. So those are some examples of climate beneficial materials.
And, of course, our program here, which is happening through a cooperative entity. We are making yarns as well, and we're not dying our yarns. You know, the yarns are colored through the colors of the animals. We're making a 50/50 wool alpaca blend because, and we're using the wool that we have here in our region, which is a long wool. Mostly we we mostly we have long we don't have the fine wool Cormo and Marina wools that that are grown in other parts of the world and and on the west coast of this country. So we have more long wools and and the they're a little coarser. So we have to figure out a way to make them, you know, desirable for clothing, for apparel. I mean, this is something just because we had so many apparel brands coming to us. Yeah.
And I have to also make that distinction that I'm mostly working with smaller brands and independent designers. You know? So they were coming to me, wanting to make sweaters and and those types of products. So by blending the alpaca, you know, we can really soften that fiber and color it and and kind of, like like, kind of move away from any kind of chemical dyeing.
Although I'm very interested in natural dying, I think that there's great potential for that. But, you know, again, we have to look at the growth model of that and how do we you know, it's it's an artisanal sort of activity. You know, it's done in small scale quantities. So how do we, how do we adapt that, you know, on a commercial level. I mean, it's happening in this country, but I think there's still great potential for it. It's just you know, there there are some limitations because of price point. You know, we have to come in at a price point where we can sell our products.
Stella Hertantyo
The climate beneficial materials, if I'm understanding correctly, are cultivated on the carbon farms in the network. Mhmm. Okay. Amazing.
I will definitely link Fibershed’s, like, websites in the show notes that people can go and check out more about their work because they as you have been, also explaining to do such amazing work in different low calls to kind of cultivate these systems. So that's incredible.
And you've also been talking about bio regional textiles. So I've been hearing climate beneficial and bioregional. Can you just, I guess, explain a bit more about the connection or the similarities between the two?
Laura Sansone
Bioregionalism or bioregional economies really work within the capacities and limitations of our region. So we're using what is available, and it could be, you know, certain dye plants or or fibers, that's the idea behind bio regionalism.
And and also working with the people in the communities in our region as well. Right? So, you know, how does the how does the production of materials go back into, you know, sustaining the communities, in those locales. So that's that's really what bioregionalism is about.
And and, you know, we when we're working within small bioregians, like, we it's it's like, you know, we can be more resilient for 1 on some level, like, you know, if we're working within smaller networks, and we can also, steward the land and, you know, work with the regenerative programs.
So so bioregionalism is is really important, but Remember, I must distribute this. Like, I I really believe in a distributed economy, like, and building ecosystems that can connect globally, but looking at, these smaller or really more than even decentralized, really distributed ecosystems that kind of, like, branch out, like, networks. And remember the myCelium growth that I referred to? That's how I would imagine our production systems can start to resemble.
Stella Hertantyo
I like that imagery as well because I also think they would like the fashion and textile industry as an ecosystem. And I feel like it has been so siloed, and we kind of need to make those connections again. It's the only way to do it. And if you could sum up both the environmental and social benefits of, of localizing these textiles systems and also, as you said, creating a more distributed network. what would you sum those up to be?
Laura Sansone
There are so so many benefits around stewarding our land, and connecting to the soil and the the the animals and and the people who are in our our region. I mean, it's really about building an economy that can go back into the community. You know? I mean, that's that's really critical.
Mhmm. I mean, you know, often these, like, these these, like, VC companies or, you know, these companies that are on a path for fast, expensive growth, they might have an initial, really, impactful job creating impact in a community. But because of their need to grow quickly, very soon after, they often grow and are pulled out of the community.
So the idea is, you know, how do we keep industry that is placed in a place and and have it really become place based. Right? So yeah.
I think and I think there's really great benefit in that obviousy to building economies in ways that are much more economically diverse. You know? So, again, we're not, like, consolidating all the economic resources in one place. Right? Yeah. So that's a huge benefit.
And then, of course, the carbon farming benefit. Right? If we're if we're collectively stewarding the land I mean, how beautiful is that too? You know? Like it's really about a shift in this collective embodiment about, like, how we relate to the land, the animals, the people, you know, the things that we eat, the things that we put on our bodies.
Stella Hertantyo
I couldn't agree more. And I think it's also lending itself to creating solutions that are context specific and in tune with the needs and aspirations of those specific communities, which sometimes when you have more blanket solutions feels like it's a bit out of touch, and I think it's also quite like a a bottom up approach, which I think works so well in in the fashion industry that has become so top down in a way.
Earlier, you were speaking about bringing designers to the source and how often they are vastly disconnected from the places that the textiIes they work with originate from. Do you, like, have a a story about, like, a designer that you've worked with? You've you've introduced to the source of the materials and, like, what that value added to the design or the collection or their work in a whole?
Laura Sansone
I'm so proud of the designers that I'm working cooperatively with. I'm working with a few brands. One is called Wol Hide, and one is called Vincent James Design, and then another brand is Manymoons.
And all these designers have just been so incredible in terms of their commitment to, you know, this bioregional development, you know, and integrating that into their body of work. You know, the products that they're developing, it's not easy. You know? The price point is higher. There are a lot of challenges. I mean, even just reshoring in general, nationally here in the US has been challenging. We have limited infrastructure and you know, it's a challenge.
So I think that these designers have all really, like, embraced this idea to,to use these materials and to educate the consumers about the materials.
Stella Hertantyo
Yes.
Laura Sansone
Through marketing and building narratives. I mean, there's some really beautiful narratives that I've seen come from these designers just explaining, you know, what climate beneficial means.
They talk about how different the fiber feels compared to fiber that is heavily processed more heavily processed. They think it's still when you touch it and smell it, it still retains that connection to the farm, which I love that.
They're starting to really also, like, understand the nuances of, like, the behavior of the fiber and and just it's different because it isn't as heavily processed.
Stella Hertantyo
Yeah. I love that. And I think that those connections are invaluable.
Laura Sansone
It's also about this idea of both transparency and traceability. You know? And it's something that designers are demanding. Designers want that. We find it really, like, necessary to have those elements, you know, integrated into what we're doing. So…
Stella Hertantyo
That's a really great point. And I think it's also amazing that they've integrated that into their storytelling because then as a person that's engaging with them, from a consumer's perspective, you can actually, as you're saying, notice the traceability and transparency and make more informed choices and also just feel more connected to the clothing that you are investing in and putting on your own body.
I often get questions from designers who are curious about becoming creating lower impact collections or working with more sustainable fibers and things like that about where to source. And I know you were speaking about, like, your purchasing cooperative as well, which I think the model of that was incredible because it it does, like, bring people together. And I think designers are often feeling like they're isolated from each other in terms of weight source and how to even begin with with creating collections made for more sustainable fibers. So do you have any tips for designers or small brands who are curious about working with climate beneficial or bioregional materials about where they can look or begin to source from?
Laura Sansone
I wanna point to something that you said because for designers, especially small business owners, small brands, independent designers, it's really hard to compete in a landscape that there's efficiencies of scale and, like, you know, more of a centralized kind of economic model.
So working together is, like, critical. Like, you know, in order to be able to be included in this effort around working with these climate beneficial materials. Right? It's it's really important that that, you know, that we work together to create what I call efficiencies of interdependence rather than efficiencies of scale. which, you know right? So it's like a different way of meeting those MOQs Right? So that we can get things processed in May and still stay at a price point where we can sell them at the in the end. So that's, you know, that's really, really important for for designers.
And in terms of, where can they find material, well, we you know, for designers here who are in the northeast region of the United States, if designers are interested in our cooperative, I mean, we are looking to grow it. I mean, that's the idea. So, of course, we would love to do that. If there are people who are interested, we'd love to hear from you, and we could talk to you more about that.
Through Fibershed, you can also access climate beneficial through the climate-beneficial fiber pool and Imperial Yarn, I mentioned, those are some good resources for accessing yarn and textiles.
Stella Hertantyo
Amazing. And if designers do want to get in touch with you about joining the cooperative, should they just go to your website or yeah, what's the best way to get in touch?
Laura Sansone
Yes , they can go to my website.
Stella Hertantyo
That will also be linked. And I also wanna add the websites or platforms of the brands that you mentioned, the 3, so that people can also see what they're doing within your network.
So for people that are listening that maybe aren't designers and or bioproducers, do you have any ways that we, as everyday citizens, can also contribute to life building up and promoting these localized textile systems that you're speaking of?
Laura Sansone
That's such a great question. And that really has to do with, like, shifting how we value things. You know? And our relationship to our clothing and textiles and thinking about them not as throw away products and investing a little deeper, you know, like thinking about maybe having less, but making more meaningful purchases. Of course, buying used. Most of my closet are, you know, sourced from small designers or, like, or secondhand basically. So that's really important too.
So just being aware of, like, you know, the consumption that you have I mean there are statistics out there that are just, like, so alarming around, like, what each person spends on clothing and how many garments they buy a year and all of that. So I think that those are two things that we can do as citizens to help support. Try to always buy from designers who are operating in your community
Stella Hertantyo
Yeah, definitely. And I think even if you aren't a designer or a fiber producer to just be open to learning, like, looking at Fibershed’s website and NY Textile Lab’s website out of curiosity and just being able to better understand the processes and systems behind the things we wear. It just gives you a different lens as well. So, yeah, this is what this conversation has also reminded me of.
I think we've actually come to the last question. To end of the episode, I wanted to ask you the question that we ask every guest on the podcast, which is: what would a better future for fashion look like to you?
Laura Sansone
Oh, wow. So I mean, for me, it's really about creating or having, you know, this sort of collective embodiment for the stewardship of the land and the and the animals and the people in our clothing and textile systems.
And, you know, this can only happen when we change our relationship to what we value, you know, and we need to internalize the cost both as consumers and makers of things. You know? I mean, I think that's really critical to start to shift that mindset and really build a collective embodiment to change things.