Wear Abouts

The fashion industry generates a gargantuan amount of waste year-on-year, with billions of garments going straight to landfill. Manchester-based start-up CircKit wants to help solve that problem and in the process, help brands to make money rather than waste it. Founder Joe Darwen and Brand and Communications Manager Annabel Lindsay (an MFI grad) join us this week to discuss their plans to "unf*ck fashion" through their AI-powered circular toolkit. They claim that there's a $700 billion opportunity across the sector through the development of truly circular products, so let's hear them out!Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk

This week, we welcome two of our recent graduates back on campus so they can catch us up on their game-changing project that's bringing garment production back to Manchester. Jess O'Riley (@j.o.studioo) and James Robinson (@coldonasunday) met for the first time on one of their last days on campus at MFI and realised how much they had in common, as well as how differently they were building their respective fashion brands. What unifies them is a passion for designing and making clothes, but that's hard to do as a small brand. Rather than tap out, they joined forces to establish Making Room (@making_roommcr), a micro-factory and open studio in Manchester, dedicated to ethical, onshore fashion manufacturing. It's about time that small brands can have their collections made in Cottonopolis again. In this episode, we discover the back story, the mission and what the future holds for the city's most accessible micro-manufacturer. Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk

We're buzzing with this week's guest as our first Manchester Fashion Institute alumnus of the season joins us just as his brand goes stratospheric. Ted Lloyd started the brand that would become MellowClo while studying BA Fashion Buying and Merchandising, but it was his experience working in the buying team at SEVENSTORE that really supercharged his understanding of how the industry works from a brand's POV. This episode is a must-listen for anyone who has dreams of starting their own brand. Ted has been steadily building MellowClo for years, and he shares lots of incredible advice with us. If you're not already familiar with MellowClo, find them on Instagram here: instagram.com/mellowclo. Major props to our producer Evie, who stepped in to host this week, as Cat couldn't make it. We think she absolutely smashed it. Be sure to comment and/or review if you agree. Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk

This week, we welcome Laura to the show. She's currently Senior Brand Marketing Manager at Adanola and before that was Marketing Director at Aries. Driving the narrative for two of the biggest contemporary fashion brands of the 2020s is no joke, so we're really excited to learn about Laura's career path and to get some of her insight on the industry. In this episode, we talk about that route into brand marketing, the brands that are moving North, building the Aries marketing strategy and how Adanola have risen to the top of their sector. You can follow Laura on Insta at: https://www.instagram.com/laura_wardy/I don't think we need to tell you where to find Adanola and Aries, so...Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk

Wear Abouts is back! This season, we're kicking things off with one of our favourite fashion photographers, Morgan Barfield. Her stunning work for brands like Hoka, Keen, Welter Experiment and Sums brilliantly captures outdoor and running culture. We discuss the state of play of female representation in the fashion industry's creative roles, switching specialisms, founding and running a creative studio (Gloaming Creative) and much more! Follow Morgan on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/morganbarfield/Check out Gloaming Creative on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gloamingcreative/We've launched our own dedicated Instagram account as well, so make sure you're following us at: @wearabouts_pod for lots of bonus content. We'll be spending more time with our guests, keeping tabs on the fashion industry and finding out why fashion matters and how it fits into everyone's lives. Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk

Your favourite show about why fashion matters and how it fits into everyone's lives is back for a new season, with a new team just in time for Spring. Our hosts, Cat and May, are here to introduce themselves and the new crew to you. Make sure you're subscribed in time for our first episode of the new season, which drops on Monday! While you're at it, follow our brand new, shiny, dedicated Insta: @wearabouts_pod so that you can get stuck into the amazing content that Mia and Alice have created for your viewing pleasure. Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk

As the Global Vice President of Product Innovation and Customer Creation at Nike, Jalaj Hora sat at the cutting edge of digital technologies in fashion design and manufacturing. From that perspective, he worked on and witnessed many positive moves towards sustainable practices, but also identified areas where things weren't joining up. In this episode, we find out how he's looking to fix some of those issues to help brands design in ways that move the needle when it comes to sustainability. We discuss fashion manufacturing challenges, how brands typically calculate their carbon footprint, AI as a design tool and much, much more. This is our sixth and final episode of series one, so it's a goodbye from Miriam, Laura and the crew. Wear Abouts will be back next year with a new team. We hope you've enjoyed the series. Thank you so much for your support, reviews, comments and feedback. We have loved making this show and seeing it start conversations around the world. 🫶🌍Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk

University is often a journey of ups and downs and plenty of us get in some scrapes along the way. When Ellie Louise Brown fell over the "tiniest step" and badly broke her ankle during her time at Manchester Fashion Institute, she found herself feeling pretty frustrated. The experience of losing her mobility sparked an interest in designing for those whose disability makes finding usable, stylish clothes a huge challenge. Fast forward three years and Recondition is an award-winning fashion start-up based in Manchester, that's just shown at London Fashion Week. With the UK Government proposing sweeping cuts to a huge range of disability benefits last week, businesses like Ellie's go a long way to acknowledging the needs of the disability community. Everyone deserves to feel empowered through their clothes and we're delighted to welcome Ellie to the show this week to learn more about her journey as a fashion entrepreneur and disability ally. Follow Ellie on Instagram here. Follow Recondition here. Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk

Luxury shoes have long been resoleable and considered an investment piece that,  properly cared for, can last a lifetime. Trainers (or sneakers if you prefer) have been the dominant segment in the footwear sector for a while now and look set to hit almost £70 billion in revenue in 2025. Luxury sneakers are established as a go-to fashion item and the re-sale market pushes lots of models into a luxury price range. So, why aren't we taking care of them like they're major investments? Sneaker Pharm* founder Vinnie Tao launched his business in 2019, offering a cleaning service to restore his customers' prized kicks to their former glory, but over the years his offer has expanded. Now, he repairs, resoles, adapts and creates, bringing a new generation of consumers round to the idea that their trainers can go the distance. In this episode we learn about Vinnie's journey into fashion, how he thinks brands could extend the life of their products and pick up some great tips on how to get our favourite trabs looking mint again. If you don't already, follow Sneaker Pharm* on Instagram here. Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk

The fashion industry can seem hard to gauge from the outside in terms of diversity. In some respects, it seems one of the most inclusive, open, creative industries, with intersectional representation throughout. On the other hand, it's often considered a closed-off space, with power and influence truly held by a select few. Many regard that routes into a career in fashion are far easier if you have the contacts and means, but what does an expert on the situation think? Daniel Peters founded the Fashion Minority Report in 2020 and his mission is to create inclusive workplace cultures where people of all backgrounds have equal opportunities to thrive. In this episode, we learn about his journey so far, get a real temperature check of how inclusive the industry is and learn what the crucial next steps are for an industry which seems to thrive when it truly embraces diversity. Follow Daniel and Fashion Minority Report on Instagram and check out FMRs website here. Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk

Susan Postlethwaite is Professor of Fashion Technologies at Manchester Fashion Institute and the Director of the Robotics Living Lab a £3.9million AHRC-funded project that has brought cutting-edge robotic technology to the campus. In this episode, we learn about Susan's career in the industry as a designer for the likes of Giorgio Armani, her time in academia and her focus on robotic tech as a means of helping fashion brands to reshore their production. The Robotics Living Lab is working towards a "factory in a box" model to provide a feasible and sustainable alternative to producing garments overseas. It's such an exciting project to have in the heart of our buildings and it officially launches this week, so we're thrilled to share this episode with you. Follow the Robotics Living Lab on Instagram here. 🤖Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk

In our first episode, we're joined by Manchester-based menswear influencer Jordan Bunker. His mission is to make his audience think more consciously about their relationship with clothing. Fast fashion and Instagram have gone hand-in-hand for years, but some "creators" are avoiding deals with those brands in a bid to share a more sustainable lifestyle, Jordan is a key proponent of this movement, so we're delighted that he's joined us to explain why.  Follow Jordan on Instagram at: instagram.com/jordanbunker Keep an eye on our Instagram where Miriam will be inviting us to count the number of clothes in her wardrobe. If you want to drop your "number" in the comments section or tell us via Fan Mail, we'd love to see it.Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk

Fashion is an enduring part of our lives. Whether you live for it, or just dress yourself in the morning as a practical necessity, it's woven into our every day. In this new podcast from students at Manchester Fashion Institute, we'll explore how the choices we make as consumers shape the industry that accounts for 2% of global GDP and consequently, shapes the world we live in.  Starting next week, this six-episode fortnightly series will feature some of the fashion industry's leading and emerging voices from Manchester to San Francisco, all of whom join us in our studio at Manchester Metropolitan University to lend their insight. Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods.Follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteCheck out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.ukDid you enjoy the episode? Send us a text. 💬Subscribe now for new episodes every other Monday. Please take the time to rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. We cherish every rating and review. They help to ensure this project continues.Join Wear Abouts over on Instagram for bonus video content: instagram.com/wearabouts_podYou can also follow Manchester Fashion Institute on Instagram: instagram.com/mcrfashioninstituteAnd check out our courses here: fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk