Episodes
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Khandiz is a registered Chartered Environmentalist and an accomplished international creative and sustainability strategist who helps businesses and individuals to transform their vision into one that stimulates social, environmental and economic cohesion.
Today, Khandiz runs her business, Vujà Dé (meaning: approaching old problems with a new perspective) Creative Solutions from her home in northwest London. Being a multidisciplinary artist gives her a distinctive way of seeing the world that enables her clients to see things through a different lens, and in turn, it helps them innovate, challenge, and lead.
Khandiz who describes herself as a ‘Creative Sustainableist’ has been instrumental in leading the beauty industry towards a more sustainable approach through the many businesses and projects she has created.
In this podcast we hear all about Khandiz’s journey from growing up in Cape Town, South Africa to what changed when she discovered mineral makeup in America and what it’s like to use creativity as a tool to challenge existing ways of thinking and doing. We also explore why she chose to become a Chartered Environmentalist and learn about her human-centric vision to communicate the nested model of sustainability.
In addition to Vujà Dé Creative Solutions Khandiz has created several businesses and projects with include:
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Founding Member & Managing Partner, Conscious Beauty Union: CBU was founded by five leading conscious beauty experts – Khandiz Joni, Lou Dartford, Nat Van Zee, Sjaniël Turrell and Tahira Herold – in late 2018. CBU supports beauty professionals to develop a sustainable practice through ongoing education in sustainability, ethics and health and wellbeing – for us, our clients and the Planet.
Founder of The I AM IMPACT Project; ongoing collaborative art project exploring the human impact on our fragile planetary boundaries.
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Co-founder, Managing Partner, Creative Director, Novel Beings: the first agency to exclusively represent stylists, hair and makeup artists, prop and food stylists who worked with a sustainable practice in the film, fashion and advertising industries. Plus, A Novel Approach: an award-winning boutique creative agency and sustainability think-tank that works with sustainable fashion brands and organisations like Birdsong and Fashion Revolution.
Founder Untainted Magazine: a directional beauty platform, pushing the boundaries of clean beauty.
www.vujadecreative.solutions
www.otherday.co.uk
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The realisation of motherhood could be described as the moment when everything falls away and is replaced by something that will change your life forever, in ways that you could never have imagined.
The awakening of motherhood and becoming climate aware feel incredibly similar and in fact are intrinsically linked. The desire to protect, love and ensure a healthy future after we are long gone is what we must do for both our planet and our children. This is the reason Jessie Brinton founded Mothership soon after becoming a mother.
Motherhood is a community-focused platform that offers tools, support and joy for mums to re-nurture the planet for the kids.
Before creating Mothership, Jessie worked for many years in fashion for well-known publications including Harper's Bazaar, Nylon, and The Sunday Times. But, after she became a mother, she was compelled to turn her focus to climate action.
In this podcast Jodi Muter-Hamilton talks to Jessie about how she is organizing an extremely powerful climate movement of mothers, Mums, with some dads, aunties, grandmas, step mums, god mums, and other people who love kids a lot.
Instagram @heymothership
www.otherday.co.uk
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If you’re longing to discover a beautifully curated selection of fashion by designers and artisans who are located in out-of-reach places, then Cult Mia is your destination.
How we feel and react when we discover something new to us can be extremely powerful. The feeling of surprise, anticipation, novelty and newness trigger the release of dopamine.
Which intern makes us want to go exploring in search of a reward. So, it’s no wonder that discovery is a big topic for the fashion industry. It’s what keeps us coming back to search for new editorial content, or the latest drops from our favourite brands. And it means big business for online retail. But, what if discovery wasn’t just about capitalising on that dopamine rush, and discovery actually became the key to unlocking a decent living as a creative for a female entrepreneur or unknown designer in a far-to-reach location? It puts a different perspective on why discovery is such a big part of Cult Mia.
Nina came up with the idea for Cult Mia during her time at luxury trunkshow and designer pre-order business Moda Operandi. Competing against more than 100 businesses, Nina later applied to London Business School's accelerator programme, Launchpad, and won with her idea for Cult Mia. In 2019, Cult Mia’s first year, they onboarded over 70 designers from 25 different countries, including Georgia, Nigeria and Ukraine.
Following on from the launchpad programme, Cult Mia joined London Business School's Incubator programme and received more than £200,000 of resources and office space for the first year of business. Cult Mia has recently raised its pre-seed investment, backed by strategic investors and family offices.
What intrigues us about Cult Mia, is how the brand’s core values; sustainability, empowerment of women, inclusivity, and lifting local communities, drive Cult Mia and their partner businesses forward.
All too often we see brands being ‘inspired by’ other cultures, platforms selling ‘authentic’ clothing without acknowledging they are ‘taking’ rather than celebrating, honouring and creating rightful remuneration for the clothing. Cult Mia is here to make that a thing of the past.
When we consider Nina’s family background - her grandparents moved from Spain, Poland and the Netherlands to Mexico, where her parents were born and raised - and her international education, across Switzerland, USA, and the UK, it’s not difficult to understand why she has such an international viewpoint on life.
Nina is the daughter of parents who both achieved great things. Her is father a successful businessman and her mother was one of the first women in Mexico to complete a computer science degree before moving on to set up the computer systems for some of the biggest banks in Latin America.
Though her early career Nina spent time as part of The United Nations Women and Trade team supporting female entrepreneurs in underdeveloped countries by growing their micro-enterprises and connecting them to an international market. She also worked at Goldman Sachs in Geneva, covering Latin America.
In this podcast, Jodi Muter-Hamilton finds out all about Nina, her vision for Cult Mia, and the biggest challenges and opportunities ahead for her business, female entrepreneurs and designers operating in a global economy.
https://cultmia.com
www.otherday.co.uk
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Faith, Claire and Florence have come together in a beautiful triangle formation to bring to life, creative ethics consultancy, CogDis.
Their mission is to ease cognitive dissonance. Which is the discomfort felt when we behave in contradiction to our beliefs. And in doing so it’s their aim to rewire the future.
Blending their unique talents and experiences, they guide brands, non-profits, talent and agencies towards solutions in communicating ethics and impact across the fashion industry.
CogDis recently released their Manifesting Utopia guide, which shares community insights on how to energise sustainability & ethics in fashion via spirituality.
In this podcast Jodi Muter-Hamilton finds out:
How Faith, Claire and Florence came together to form CogDis
What a creative ethics consultancy does
How we can create projects that operate in service to Earth as well as our energetic selves
What does it mean to really manifest something and how that relevant to business, life and our collective future
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Sara Sozzani Maino is a curious seeker of emerging creative talent. As head of Vogue Talents, deputy director of Vogue Italia and international brand ambassador at Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, Sara supports creativity to be recognised in an increasingly competitive fashion landscape.
Sara began her fashion career in 1991, alongside her mother, Carla Sozzani, founder of the legendary 10 Corso Como boutique in Milan. In 1994, at the age of 19, Sara began her internship at Vogue Italia, which at the time was under the guidance of her aunt, the iconic editor in chief Franca Sozzani.
In this podcast Jodi Muter-Hamilton and Sara Maino explore the less tangible subject of how to recognise and nurture creative potential. We also discuss:
What kind of support systems and tools we need to have in place to help nurture creativityHow culture and global influences shape creative visionWhy we all must support the new generation to create responsible brands -
I’m delighted to welcome you to our the first of our two special podcast episodes which accompanies our Defining Success report. For this first podcast we tackle a tricky subject for creatives: money.
In search of expert guidance around what makes a creative venture attractive to financial investors and how we should plan for our personal financial future, Jodi Muter-Hamilton speaks to three incredible women for this podcast:
Mehjabeen Patrick, chief financial and investment officer at Creative England and Creative Industries Federation
Anna Sofat, associate director of wealth at Progeny
Lottie Leefe, founder and director of DURA Private and The Dura Society
Mehjabeen Patrick is responsible for the implementation and running of all operating functions across Creative England and Creative Industries Federation. With extensive experience as a finance director, Mehjabeen oversees all investment activity for the company and has a keen interest in growing its commercial activities and diversifying its income stream. Previously Mehjabeen worked as Director of Finance for the United Nations Association and Stakeholder Forum.
Often referred to as “the voice of women’s wealth”, Anna Sofat, has been helping women invest their money for decades. Anna has changed the culture of wealth; by empowering women through advice & investment. As the pioneering founder of Addidi and now associate director of wealth at Progeny, we learn from Anna how to find your financial number. A number which creates a comfort point, been where what you need and want is sufficient.
Lottie Leefe is a qualified wealth planner that advises UHNW/HNW individuals, as well as Next-Gen wealth, on their global assets and investments including art, real estate, wine, luxury goods and philanthropy. Lottie Leefe, who is the founder of DURA Private, a private client wealth consultancy, and founder of financial wellbeing platform The Dura Society. Both of which champion another kind of wealth.
Each of these women has caved a path that is individual to them, but also one that supports others to gain an understanding of the many different ways in which we can create a more financially secure future for ourselves, our businesses and future generations.
As creatives, we tend to leave money matters at the bottom of the to-do list. Maybe that’s because to us creativity comes first and financial reward second. Or perhaps it’s because throughout our lives we have not been taught how to manage our personal and business finances. However, we have the ability to gain knowledge and meet money matters head-on.
“After all, as the saying goes, if you fail to plan, plan to fail.” Benjamin Franklin.
This podcast is part of our Defining Success report and two accompanying podcasts. In our second Defining Success podcast we explore the less tangible subject of how to recognise and nurture creative potential with Sara Maino, head of Vogue Talents, deputy director of Vogue Italia and international brand ambassador at Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana.
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Wilson Oryema is an Artist, Writer, and Entrepreneur. His endeavours are primarily concerned with “Human consumption and its effects on Human behaviour and the planet”.
As part of SHOWstudio x Fashion Roundtable takeover our founder Jodi Muter-Hamilton spoke with Wilson and Jamie Windust about Fashion Activism. This left us intrigued to find out more about the social change initiative Wilson Co-founded called Regenerative Futures.
Regenerative Futures is a four-year social change initiative which is working to bridge the intergenerational gap through collaboration and conversation. Working towards this goal they have created several realisations of their work including; The Regenerative List, is an open call to find 100 young pioneers from around the world whose innovative ideas will protect our people and our planet. This list is not like other kinds of lists we maybe familiar with that showcases certain people for arguably self-promotion of the organising body. The Regenerative List is not intended to rank people, but facilitate dialogue create innovative solutions between who want to design and live in a world built upon the principles of equity, fluidity, and sustainability.
In this podcast we talk about Regenerative Futures, explore human ingenuity, ideas around responsibility and vulnerability and discuss what markers of success could look like.
https://www.wilsonoryema.com
https://otherday.co.uk
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In order to turn an idea into a business, there are several exercises that entrepreneurs need to undertake to assess if their idea has the chance of success. A key element is to solidify the product-market fit by conducting competitor analysis.
Imagine if you found there’s currently little competition for your amazing business idea. Then seemingly overnight more and more ‘rivals’ came onto the market all deemed to be fashion’s answer to our sustainability issues.
Well, that’s precisely what happened in 2020 with fashion’s rental revolution. We pinned our hopes on rental as something that could fundamentally change fashion’s relationship with ownership. Of course, there were rental businesses who had previously launched and closed due to the fact that consumers weren’t quite ready to rent a few years ago. 2020 was the year that rental was beginning to take hold not only in our existing communities but in traditional retailers such as Selfridges with the Hurr pop-up and Liberty with My Wardrobe.
Sadly, last year our hope of seeing fashion rental become mainstream was crushed by the pandemic. After all, we need somewhere to wear our new rented outfits, but what has not changed is the potential of rental. Post-pandemic, we will have lots of places to go and people to see, and we will want to reflect how we now feel as we emerge into the world. This is where rental has a real opportunity to flourish. It can offer new without being costly and give us fun, short-term wardrobe options without leaving us feeling guilty about contributing to social or environmental issues.
Something that we feel is necessary to further action towards a more sustainable fashion industry is to collectively and openly discuss ideas, challenges and solutions. We feel a key part of our role at Black Neon Digital is to create a space that cultivates ideas, relationships and movements.
It’s quite rare that founders of direct rival businesses embrace being so open with one another, yet is the very thing we need to see more of within fashion. On a purely practical level, if you know what your competitors are doing you can make sure your business offers something different.
For our latest podcast, we invited the founders of three incredible rental businesses to come together and discuss where the rental market is heading and also what their business’s role is within the change. After all fashion rental is all about sharing, so let’s share our struggles and hopes too.
Join our founder Jodi Muter-Hamilton, Jade McSorely Co-founder Loanhood, Aisling Byrne Founder Nuw and Tamsin Chislett Co-founder Onloan to explore the biggest challenges and opportunities for fashion’s rental revolution.
www.blackneondigital.com
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Making diamonds from mum’s cake, recycling precious metal to forge new memories and turning discarded abattoir waste into something beautiful useful. Meet three contemporary designers who are exploring the concept of value by repurposing meaning.
What object do you value most?
Is it something that evokes a deep-rooted joyful memory?
Is it some we decide for ourselves, or are we led by narratives developed to sell a certain vision of luxury encapsulated?
What if you could form a diamond from anything and create a truly meaningful gift?
What if you could find ‘Hidden Beauty’ in discarded waste and lessen environmental impact at the same time, why wouldn’t you sit on a chair made from blood?
These are the questions and more we discuss as we explore our relationship with value and meaning together with Aniela Fidler, Ariana Chede and Clemence Grouin-Rigaux.
About our guestsANIELA FIDLERAniela Fidler is a London College of Fashion, MA Fashion Futures Graduate who was one of the four graduates who took part in the Radical Sustainabilities event as part of the Class of 2020 Graduate Showcase. Aniela’s work is concerned with fashion as an expression of emotion.
Aniela researches what humans wear to express collective and individual identities, as well as communicate and relate to each other. This is to better understand and map possibilities for more satisfactory futures. She investigates how environments, people, feelings, materials and products come together through storytelling by developing ideas gathered from multiple voices and uniting narratives. By employing an art and design aesthetic Aniela encourages us to reduce the fear of complexity and embrace its beauty.
Through her project Diamond Makers Aniela explores radical new future scenarios for fashion where, meaning, luxury and narratives take new forms. After spending more than a year finding out what people value the most, which objects are dear to them and why. Aniela has identified 100 things that her interviewees care about and would consider turning into a diamond. Which answers the intimate question; What diamond source would align with your values?
'Diamond Makers' is a hybrid between a lab and a tailor-made retail experience, creating custom diamonds composed of unexpected items which hold emotional significance for the customer.
Diamond Makers explores this area by exploiting the possibilities of already existing science, to fabricate lab-grown diamonds using a wide selection of surprising sources. Lab-grown diamonds grow under high temperature and pressure. They are formed from carbon which can be isolated from most types of organic ash. But maybe the diamond is in fact inconsequential or at least less significant than the meaning emerging from the source? What would be the value of the diamond made from the signature of the 'Diamonds Queen', Rihanna versus a diamond made from Notre Dame ash or your childhood teddy? What would those diamonds represent?' This focus on origin allows the customer of Diamond Makers to choose the meaning and emotional significance they want their diamond to have. The source is fully customisable and the selection process is designed to trigger personal reflection on values followed by desires.
ADRIANA CHEDEAdriana Chede is half Brazilian half Lebanese was born in São Paulo and grew up in Brazil. Adriana completed a Product Design degree and courses in photography, fashion and goldsmith, before moving to Europe to study Jewellery Design at Parsons Paris and complete her Masters at the European Institute of Design in Rome.
While developing her own aesthetic, Adriana worked with jewellery design houses in Copenhagen, Milan, Rome and Paris. She moved to London to set up her eponymous fine jewellery brand in 2018.
For Ariana, jewellery has always represented a celebration of life. She discovered her passion for the craft in childhood when her father would give her mother a piece to celebrate the birth of each of their five children and special anniversaries.
Through her modern, delicate collection pieces and her bespoke service, Adriana focuses on sustainability within her work, using recycled materials and responsibly sourced stones. Every piece of jewellery is handmade in her atelier, using natural Brazilian gemstones, diamonds, solid gold from recycled sources and sterling silver. The Sustainability Circle initiative offers customers credit for the price of the metal and discount on their next purchase.
CLEMENCE GROUIN-RIGAUXClemence Grouin-Rigaux is a French-born material designer based in London with an academic background in industrial design and graduated from Central Saint Martins with an MA Material Futures in June 2019.
Clemence aims to change our perception of raw materials, re-engineer their qualities and eventually relocate them into new worlds. As a material designer, she challenges typical craft techniques and exploiting innovative manufacturing processes.
By crafting everyday functional objects from a material of unusual origin, Clemence’s Hidden Beauty project aims to not only practically reduce the mountain of waste we generate every day, but also help to change our perception of it, both as a valuable commodity but also culturally as something that doesn’t need to be discarded.
Every year in the UK approximately 2.6 million cattle, 10 million pigs, 14.5 million sheep and lambs, 80 million fish and 950 million birds are slaughtered for human consumption.
Globally, the combined total of chickens (19 billion), cows (1.5 billion), sheep (1 billion) and pigs (1 billion) living at any one time is three times higher than the number of people, according to The Economist. It’s estimated 1 billion people are involved in the rearing, processing, distribution and sale of livestock, with half of those reliant on livestock for their livelihood. Agriculture as a whole makes up approximately 3% of global GDP, with livestock contributing 40% of that. The livestock economy is particularly important for poor rural populations in low- and middle-income countries.
Animal remains present a constant and significant waste stream. Abattoir waste consists of blood, bone, fat, skin, hair, animal trimmings and urine, all of which can be hugely problematic to the environment by overwhelming natural eco-systems on our land, in our rivers and in our oceans.
Although abattoir waste doesn’t yet have the same appeal as ocean plastic, it’s incredible to think of such huge volumes of potentially valuable materials go to unused. Interestingly, Clemence is vegetarian and has really pushed her own boundaries as well as challenging us to reassess our relationship with consumption and use on a fundamental level. After all, if we eat meat, why not make something beautifully useful from the by-products.
www.blackneondigital.com
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Making the switch from chemically straightened hair to natural curls, wasn’t as easy as Winnie Awa had hoped. This experience coupled with her expertise working at companies including LVMH, Net-a-Porter and ASOS, led to Winnie founding, Antidote Street. A digital destination for all things textured hair that not only offers a highly curated selection of products but has united some of the UK’s leading afro hair salons to create The Antidote Street Manifesto. The manifesto is an agreement to collaboratively set the standard that allows us to hold ourselves accountable for creating the best possible experience for our customers.
One of the standout things about Antidote Street is how customer experience, and supporting a community are placed at the heart of the company. Bringing this to life, Antidote Street toured a mint green airstream caravan ‘Hair Lab’ around London; Brixton to Covent Garden and offered services including their most popular, ‘root analysis’ hair follicle test. By analysing what kind of hair people have, from the root - not the strand, that have been affected by styling and products - Antidote Street could really understand what kind of care is right for each person.
This science and data-driven, analytical approach, in the words of Antidote street offers ‘the much-needed remedy to make 'hair' simple and easy’. This approach has since led to Winnie build Carra, an expert-led, tech optimised hair consulation and personalised recommendation platform.
With Carra, you get to set your hair goals and meet your coach, who will analyse your needs and create a personalised routine for you. The hard work of deciphering ingredients, navigating often confusing marketing messages, can now be a thing the past. Also, by streamlining the process, Carra helps you buy fewer products that tend to sit around unused in a cupboard. Which, is a win, win for your bank account, and the environment.
In this podcast our founder Jodi Muter-Hamilton and Winnie discuss:
What its been like building carra during the current pandemicWhy its so important to make the customer the heart of business Why its so difficult to understand product ingredients and information on packaginghttps://antidotestreet.com
https://meetcarra.com
https://www.blackneondigital.com
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Since his late teens, George MacPherson has worked hard to hone his communications craft. Starting out in public relations (PR) in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, George worked his way to London via Leeds University and later worked for world-renowned fashion brands and PR agencies including STARWORKS Group. George has made it his business to not only anticipate what’s relevant right now but, helps shape consumer-focused, impactful brands that continue to resonate with media and communities.
In 2016 George founded GWM Consulting, which today, based in New York works with well respected (thanks in part to George) fashion brands, particularly those with a sustainable focus, such as Maggie Marilyn. Alongside fashion brands who make physical products, GWM also works with companies who are challenging fashion’s status quo. ‘Think and do tank’ New Standard Institute are ‘using data and the power of citizens to turn the fashion industry into a force for good’, whilst climate action magazine Atmos are creating a new narrative between climate and culture.
GWM’s partnership-driven approach focuses on building long-lasting relationships between brands, consumers and media. Rather than keeping stakeholders separate, GWM facilitates knowledge exchange. This forms an ecosystem of connected, trusted individuals and companies with a deep understanding that can help each other.
Traditionally, PR would perhaps be used to launch a product or as an add on to gain media coverage in a bid to boost sales. Over the past few years, we have seen communications and marketing becoming more integrated early on in businesses. Often, we see comms experts working directly with founders and start-ups from day one. There are clear benefits to this approach including; a stronger product-market fit, an organic community can be built early on which leads to an already engaged and ready to buy customer base.
This movement has undoubtedly been accelerated by the need to work on digital campaigns even ahead making any product, due to the time it takes to produce digital content and also the increased pressure to make it look incredible and perform well. In addition, as a result of the climate crisis, the fashion industry needs to reassess if we should actually be making physical products at all. Moving from a product to service or experience-led industry is something that provides some exciting opportunities, yet will be hard for most of the industry to contemplate. As we contemplate what’s next for fashion and how we communicate with each other we invited George to share his thoughts on where the industry is heading.
In this podcast our founder Jodi Muter-Hamilton, talks to George about;
- His journey from working in public relations in Newcastle-upon-tyne (also our founders birth town!) to studying in Leeds, and moving to London and New York
- How the PR and communications landscape has changed over time
- Why trust is crucial to building long-lasting relationships between media, brands and consumers
- Some of the incredible brands that GWM is helping to shape and connect with consumers
www.georgemacpherson.com
www.blackneondigital.com
GWM Consulting Clients
Maggie Marilyn
New Standard Institute
Arje
Oshadi
TIDAL New York
Greg Lauren
Polite Worldwide
Satisfy Running
ATMOS
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Less than a week ago Charlotte Horler launched Nula Carbon, the climate action platform that aims to bring carbon offsetting into the mainstream.
Before founding Nula Carbon, Charlotte witnessed first-hand the positive impact that carbon offsetting can bring to the planet, people and wildlife. For the past 3 years, she has worked for the ethical manufacturer and community trust, SOKO Kenya and lived in Kenya on a forest protection site run by Wildlife Works.
Carbon offsetting has typically been something that we perhaps only think about in relation to flying or something a big business incorporates into their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy. Charlotte plans to change this by communicating with a growing carbon curious audience. By making the subject of carbon setting relatable, connecting on a human level and sharing the stories the people who directly benefit from carbon offsetting, Nula Carbon plans to make it easy to make a big difference.
In this podcast Charlotte and our founder Jodi Muter-Hamilton talk about:
The journey from Kenya to launching Nula Carbon
What carbon offsetting can do for communities, planet and wildlife
Why she has chosen to grow her start-up business from Lisbon rather than London Tips to reduce your individual and business carbon footprintIn our podcast, Charlotte mentioned some of her go-to carbon resources which are listed below. All links go to Instagram:
Future EarthChicks for Climate Climate ScienceEarth Rise Studiowww.blackneondigital.com
https://www.nulacarbon.com
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Ivana Bartoletti is a Technical Director at Deloitte, the Co-founder of Women Leading in AI network, an international lobby group of women advocating for responsible AI and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Fabian Society.
In 2019 Ivana was awarded ‘Woman of the Year’ 2019 in the Cyber Security Awards in recognition of her growing reputation as an advocate of equality, privacy and ethics at the heart of tech and AI. Ivana is also Co-editor of the Fintech Circle’s The AI Book; The Artificial Intelligence handbook for investors, entrepreneurs and fintech visionaries.
Through her recently published book, An Artificial Revolution, Ivana brings to light the reality of the exponential advances being made in artificial intelligence. From the low-paid workers who toil to train algorithms to recognise cancerous polyps to the symbiotic relationship between AI and right-wing populism, Ivana explores the urgent existential threat that artificial intelligence poses to international social justice.
An Artificial Revolution makes us aware that we cannot be bystanders in an increasingly digitally driven world. As individuals, we are amassing data that forms part of our own identity and digital footprint. As brands and businesses we are using data to find, communicate with and sell to customers. We are using algorithms to predict trends, manage clothing production and make decisions based on computer-generated patterns. These patterns are not created on their own, they are coded by people with a desired outcome in mind.
As Ivana states in her book; The power underpinning AI is data. Data, in its current form and scale, constitutes a new form of capital, and its extraction and exploitation lie at the heart of the rise of AI. Data is who we are; what constitutes our intimate being. It is our every online purchase, decision, opinion; every click of our keyboard; increasingly, every movement and sound we make in front of our computer is being turned into a commodity. The harvesting of us as data citizens through control, surveillance and constant monitoring is what makes data turn into capital and accumulation. But data has a huge flaw, a flaw that is widely ignored or wilfully disguised: data is not neutral.
Through our podcast interview, Ivana’s expert insight shows us how society can be altered by data and how we must ensure that gender or racial bias is not built into algorithms by the people and businesses creating them. We also discuss how data and technology can be used to create a positive impact on the planet and society.
www.blackneondigital.com
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Karinna Nobbs approaches her life in fashion with three guiding pillars; investigation, conscious innovation and education. Someone whom we may consider a Futurist, she has recently felt the need to turn her attention to the present rather than striving to create the future. So, it stands to reason that Karinna recently entitled herself a Nowist, rather than a Futurist. The current pandemic has made us consider all aspects of our lives and work out what’s essential and important to us. For Karinna, that has led to her making a conscious decision to move more into the present, and be more connected to nature, living in Ibiza where she moved just before lockdown.
Karinna started her career as a visual merchandiser and moved into fashion academia when she realised how addictive researching and teaching could be. During her 15 years full-time academic career she has taught in more than 25 institutions, spoken at 87 conferences, across 19 countries and currently lectures at London College of Fashion, the Antwerp School of Management, ESA, Istituto Marangoni, Hyper Island and was awarded an affiliate Professorship at ESCP Europe in 2018 where she teaches Innovation and Trends.
Since 2017 Karinna has also has worked alongside agencies including Holition, Sunshine and Wednesday, for media brands such as the Business of Fashion, Decoded Fashion and Frieze plus with luxury brands including La Prairie and The Vampire’s Wife.
We visited and featured Karinna’s self-funded project HOT:SECOND, which brought to life the world’s first circular economy concept store where she traded physical products for digital experiences. This project brought together various digital and sustainable applications, concepts and brand into one place for the public to play with and contemplate a different kind retail experience.
Turning her attention to what kind of support and inspiration creative professionals may need post-pandemic, Karinna has been working on creating a transformational experience designed to enable both personal and professional innovation. The Think (Re)treat offers a carefully constructed seven-phase programme delivered intensively over 48 hours in an exclusive environment on the island of Ibiza, due take place in October 2020.
In this podcast, Jodi Muter-Hamilton talks to Karinna about:
What it’s like to follow your instinct to a place that has yet to be defined
Her future plans for HOT:SECOND
Working on The Dematerialised with another incredible woman in innovation, Marjorie Hernandez, Co-founder LUKSO
Why she felt it’s time to help others develop both personal and professional innovation roadmaps
http://karinnanobbs.com
www.blackneondigital.com
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We first came across Steve Lidbury, Executive Principal at Eight Inc. on stage at FashionTech Berlin in 2018 where he shared ‘How luxury brands can remain relevant in a millennial world’ (available on YouTube), and for us, this was one of the standout sessions of the event. Since then, Steve joined us for our London Tech Week panel ‘Why human connection should be at the heart of all technology’ and we’ve had many interesting discussions over the last couple of years.
Eight Inc. are often referred to as Apples best-kept secret due to the fact they are responsible for the renowned Apple Store design. A multi-discipline experience design studio, with 200+ strategic designers and business creatives connected across 11 studios, 6 time zones and 3 continents, Eight.Inc design holistic, human-centric experiences for world-renowned brands including Tesla, Estee Lauder, Coach, Virgin and Nike.
Before joining Eight Inc. Steve, a Ravensbourne University architecture graduate, co-founded Postnormal, collective of like-minded international designers that established a creative presence through a series of both collaborative and individual interior, installation and exhibition projects in Tokyo. He went on to create, Steve Lidbury Design Studio and completed projects in Japan and China that earned him the recognition as a flagship for British design in Japan.
Returning to the UK, Steve took up the role as European Creative Director of the Luxury Automotive Group at Imagination, creating multichannel brand experiences for the likes of Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
Steve’s approach to life and work, is to make most of life by exploring the world, it’s different cultures and people which intern drives him to use design as a tool for creating better human outcomes and conditions for the greater good.
Just before lockdown, we sat down with Steve to record a podcast. Since then we’ve checked back to see if Covid-19 has shifted his thoughts around Monochannel, but he assured us that it’s even more important than ever to create a consistent and connected brand experience. An experience that is driven by emotions, sensations, and desires. In our podcast, we discuss what the future of brand and customer interaction could feel like, and how adopting a Monochannel strategy will change the way we do business.
Some brands, particularly small businesses, they may not feel the need to create a strategy to ensure customer records and interactions are unified. However, regardless of business size or ambition to grow, we all have to make sure we understand who our customers are and what they each want.
A relationship is a two-way thing, and if there’s an imbalance of that relationship the customer will move onto another brand who treats them well. It’s time to make sure that doesn’t happen because from a brands perspective it costs a lot more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one happy!
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Atmos Magazine is beautiful, eloquent and inspires action. The biannual publication delivers a culturally-led luxury fashion feel with the substance of the National Geographic. Atmos was founded by Jake Sargent, who previously managed Monocle’s retail and product collaboration development before taking up the position of joint Creative Director alongside Daniel Corrigan for the premium denim brand Simon Miller. In 2017 Jake founded Magic Hour, an early-stage venture capital fund with a portfolio of brands that spans wellness, social consciousness, environment, food and fashion with the common thread to inspire change and transform consumer behaviour.
Following a reconnection through a mutual friend, Jake and William Defebaugh began to bring Atmos to life. Will’s career in fashion publishing began after moving to New York to intern at Vogue Magazine. After working at GQ Magazine, Will moved to the distinctively cool, culture obsessed, V Magazine, where during 5 years there, rose from assistant to Editor.
Why would you leave a career that appears from the outside the perfect example of a focused and driven fashion professional? Well, after experiencing what Will calls ‘fashion fatigue’ ne hit a turning point around the time of the Trump election and decided to use nir voice as a writer and editor to make a difference in the world. As someone who leads a consciously connected life, and helps others to live in alignment, Will could no longer be part of a system perpetuating consumerism.
Now as Editor-In-Chief of Atmos, Will has created a new narrative between climate and culture to re-connect us with nature and ourselves. Recognising that we have become divorced from the very thing that sustains us - the Earth - Will opens up the channels of communication between an aesthetic that we desire and the insight that we crave.
After recently launching Atmos Magazine Volume 3 entitled Flourish / Collapse we caught up with Will to talk to about; life in the fashion industry, the concept behind the title of Atmos Magazine’s latest publication and the Future Earth Day project.
https://atmos.earth
www.blackneondigital.com
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Having left school at 15 to work in a chemist then later moving on to the Clinique beauty counter in Debenhams in Croydon at 18, to recently stepping down as CEO for Aromatherapy Associates, Tracey Woodward’s career to date has been a story of sheer determination and passion.
Rising above a challenging upbringing and being illiterate till almost 15 years old, Tracey’s approach to life and her career in the beauty and wellness industry is positive, uplifting and playful.
Contributing to the development and success of many brands including Estée Lauder, Donna Karan and Marks & Spencer Beauty, Tracey is one lady who means business. At the age of 26, Tracey was in charge of - what was at the time the largest beauty hall in the world - Travel Retail at Heathrow Terminal 1, later increased Aveda’s sales from 800,000 to 10.8million in less than 4 years and delivered double-digit growth for Urban Retreat in Harrods year-on-year for 9 years.
Turning her hand to a new opportunity alongside her ex-husband, Tracey opened East Dulwich Deli, then later put an East Dulwich Deli cafe in Harrods. She has also worked with the Prince’s Trust, Action for Children, Beanstalk Literacy Charity, Terrence Higgins Trust, CEW (Cosmetic Executive Women) and Eve Appeal to name but a few.
Tracey is incredibly inspiring and practical and believes ‘If I can do it, anyone can do it. You’ve just got to have a plan.’
In our podcast Tracey Woodward and Jodi Muter-Hamilton discuss:
Tracey’s prolific career and passion for learning and evolvingThe importance of building strong relationships with yourself and othersThe art of being vulnerable and asking for helpMindfulness, empathy and kindnessTracey’s go-to beauty productsRecently working on the UK’s first clean beauty store, Holland and Barrett in Birminghamwww.blackneondigital.com
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Towards the end of last year, we had the pleasure of working with a really great client, Puig (a third-generation family-owned fashion and fragrance business based in Barcelona and Paris, that owns brands including Dries Van Noten, Paco Rabanne and Christian Louboutin (beauty), to explore lots of topics close to our heart. It also gave us the opportunity to invite global fashion guru, Jessica Michault, to be part of our trip to Paris and Barcelona.
Having studied political science - not your typical route into an incredible career in fashion - Jessica’s first job at 23 was as a research assistant at the International Herald Tribune.
After about a year, ‘not knowing anything about fashion, nor who Suzy Menkes was’, Jessica applied for a job to be Suzy Menkes’ assistant. Her naivety was actually a blessing, as without it Jessica may never have had the courage to apply for and subsequently win the much-coveted job as assistant to the world respected fashion critic.
Working side-by-side Suzy Menkes for 16 years has given Jessica the best training a fashion journalist could have, which has led to her working with brands such as Miu Miu, Boucheron and Mulberry, plus having articles published in The New York Times, Business of Fashion and throughout multiple Vogue magazines worldwide.
Jessica is editor-at-large of the biannual fashion bible ODDA Magazine, SVP Industry Relations for Launchmetrics (the ultimate marketing platform & analytics solution for fashion and beauty), writer at L'Officiel Paris and Vogue Japan, and ignited digital fashion journalism with her 60 Second Fashion Reviews and Fashion Your Seatbelt podcast.
In our short and sweet interview, our founder, Jodi Muter-Hamilton and Jessica discuss:
What it’s like to work with Suzy Menkes for 16 years
The pace of fashion from 60 second fashion show reviews to collectable fashion publications
How data can support sustainability
If we still travel around the world to see for fashion shows in the future
How Jessica’s love of horse riding keeps her grounded
www.jessicamichault.com
www.blackneondigital.com
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It’s now hard to imagine luxury fashion without online retail. However, it was not that long ago that we started to see the names of founders and companies emerging that would change the fashion landscape forever.
In June 2000 Natalie Massenet launched NET-A-PORTER. Matchesfashion launched its e-commerce website in 2006 to complement to its offline presence and in June 2007 José Neves launched Farfetch. Not forgetting - naturally not on the same scale, but still significant to our story - that Black Neon swimwear launched e-commerce in June 2011, which according to our founder, was certainly not as easy or cheap as you make it happen for today.
Considering today 97% of Matchesfashion’s sales come from online shopping according to Forbes we can see the power of online. But, how did we get from no online presence to being leaders in luxury fashion e-commerce?
Well, thanks in part to people like Pia Stanchina. Having launched her own sustainable luxury fashion label focused on fusing innovative design with biodegradable materials in 2009, Pia became UK Co-founder at Glossybox UK, a Rocket Internet start-up aimed at becoming the premier direct marketing tool for high-end, niche and professional Beauty brands where she was CMO/Creative Director. This was the beginning of Pia’s career as a fashion innovator. With her sights set high, Pia contacted Google and ended up landing a role as Google Industry Manager for Fashion, Beauty and Luxury. She later helped to set up a new Digital Acceleration Fashion & Luxury Retail team to help medium-sized British brands grow. In parallel, she was Digital & Innovation Board Advisor for the British Fashion Council. During this time, Pia became known for her big picture thinking combined with a focus on actionable insight. Pia’s talent has benefited many companies and female founders including, Semaine Founders Michelle Lu and Georgina Harding and also Sharmadean Reid MBE of WAH London, Beautystack and Future Girl Corp, the latter of which Pia had significant involvement in.
After a period of time out, rebuilding herself and taking time to focus on what she wanted her own future to look like, Pia trained in transformational coaching. Now as an empowerment speaker and coach Pia inspires companies and individuals ‘to tap into all our innate creativity, brilliance and wisdom’ to enable us to ‘fully become the person you were born to be and live the life you dream of.’
With Pia’s infectious positive energy and optimism, it’s easy to see how we can turn dreams into reality with her help. We hope you enjoy listening to Pia’s story and perhaps you may find yourself reaching out to her too!
https://piastanchina.com
www.blackneondigital.com
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With the year and decade coming to a close we open the way for a new time and new ideas. Aiming to take the best of the past with us and move forward in a positive way. For our last podcast of 2019 we wanted to gather all our previous guests together in one place.
I also wanted to use this opportunity to ask you,
How can we help you find what you are looking for. Do you want more interviews with sustainability and fashion pioneers
Have you got your sustainability knowledge on lock down or are you finding it harder to navigate than ever?Do you want practical business tips on how to embed sustainability and into your product and business?
Want us to explore street culture or other areas of the country and overseas for different viewpoints on business, sustainability and innovation?
Would love us to do more events and workshops?
Please do let us know via email [email protected] or head to our instagram @blackneondigital and drop us a message.
Looking ahead to 2020 we have already recorded some wonderful guests and we’re very much looking forward to sharing more about our own projects that we have been working hard on behind the scenes.
We’re also excited to help our wonderful clients grow and reach their dreams. I feel we have set the foundations and can how flourish. I’m feeling very positive and can’t wait to get stuck into 2020! Hope you are too!
www.blackneondigital.com
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