The Canvas Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Canvas by Querencia
The story behind fashion brands, artists and entrepreneurs, working alongside the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to strive for a better, fairer and more mindful world.
Kairi Lentsius of Lentsius Design in conversation with The Canvas Co-CEO Devin Gilmartin. They discuss Kairi's journey and design philosophy, the implications of COVID-19 on the global fashion industry and the role of independent designers in advancing sustainability initiatives.
Mentioned links:
- TELK Collection
- Lentsius' Sustainability Principles
A roundtable discussion between Lucie Brigham, Chief of Office, United Nations Office for Partnerships, Tricia Carey, Director Global Business Development, Lenzing, and Kerry Bannigan, founder of the Conscious Fashion Campaign on the Sustainable Development Goals and how to apply them to your business
The Conscious Fashion Campaign,in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Partnerships, engages leading global fashion industry events to accelerate collective action in support of the Sustainable Development Goals. The campaign facilitates high-impact partnerships that advocate sustainable solutions and innovations for the fashion sector to address the world’s most pressing social, economic and environmental issues.
The Canvas community welcomes the Co-Founders of The Island School, Pam Maxey and Chris Maxey, and the current Dean of Students Liz Slingsby. A truly inspiring talk about alternative ways of education, finding passion and solving problems for ourselves, the community and the world.
The Island School offers a transformative educational semester and summer term in Eleuthera, The Bahamas. High school sophomores and juniors from around the world join their community to learn outside the walls of a classroom. With the campus and surrounding ocean as their laboratory and with help from their partners at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, The Island School teach students how to live sustainably in the twenty-first century.
A weekly community driven conversation that focuses on The Canvas' community of companies, brands and partners working towards a more mindful and transparent world.
Anna Cañadell is one of two co-founders of BCOME, a platform for supply chain transparency of fashion brands. Anna founded the company together with her business partner Alba Garcia.
BCOME is the sustainability platform that empowers textile and apparel businesses to build responsible supply chains, guarantee transparency and bring it to the final customer Sustainability intelligence and 360º solutions for the eco-design and transparency transformation. Founded in 2019, BCOME is a pioneer in the application of intelligent methodologies for systemic sustainability management and has more than 1 million guaranteed products on the market.
A weekly community driven conversation that focuses on The Canvas' community of companies, brands and partners working towards a more mindful and transparent world.
This week The Canvas' Town Hall focuses on community brands that have build their business around upcycling denim, and thus tapping into one of the largest up/recyclable fabric supplies in the fashion industry.
NOORISM
Noor Bchara is a New York based Fashion Designer, sustainability consultant and educator, specializing in the scalability of upcycling and repurposing. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and Polimoda in Florence, Italy. Noor got her start in Fashion by interning at Marc Jacobs and has since designed for Zac Posen, TAHARI ASL, Ellen Tracy and Kate Spade. She founded NOORISM in 2015 after being disheartened by the volume of poorly-made, practically disposable clothes produced by the Fashion industry every year. NOORISM is a Brooklyn based women’s wear brand that produces clothing and accessories using repurposed jeans, all made in New York.
She is a former Venture Fellow at the Brooklyn Fashion Design Accelerator, a Pratt initiative. Noor is also an Alumni of the Arts Envoy Program where she travels through the US Embassy and teaches about upcycling in other countries. She most recently founded Upcycle Design School where she offers on-demand video classes as well as group coaching all about upcycled design and is available for speaking engagements.
The Untrend Shop
The Untrend Shop is an upcycled vintage denim brand that creates one of a kind wearable art from unwanted thrifted denim garments and recycled texile scraps. The goal is to re-imagine what ordinary denim garments can look like, all while avoiding harmful production practices or using any new materials. This brand is currently a one women show, created entirely by Aly Reinert from her Studio in Brooklyn, NY. Aly has a degree in textile and apparel design, and decided to start The Untrend Shop after working in corporate fashion and seeing first hand all the waste that is created by the industry. She also saw how much clothing was being discarded each year by consumers and became passionate about upcycling these unwanted garments into something new and unique.
Tove by Design
Over the years, Tove worked at the drawing table and the glass studio while representing her glass company Egenart, located outside of Oslo, and AO Glass in Vermont, at markets, stores, and shows. Tove felt that she was missing out on that great garment that would make her feel put together and look “the part” of her trade. A few years ago, Tove with Annika Axelson and Amanda Nordin’s help, developed their garment she had always wanted—a wrap-skirt that folds in the back with front pockets. It became The Maker Skirt, for folks at work and play.
A weekly community driven conversation that focuses on The Canvas' community of companies, brands and partners working towards a more mindful and transparent world.
The Canvas team is presenting its newest location in Bowery, Manhattan, to the community of brands and partners. The Bowery space used to be a museum for photography and is now being turned into a tech infused retail experience where brand story telling is central for the customer. Combining new technologies in the space, will allow brands to tell their own unique stories in a more elaborate way and connect customers to the piece of clothing they are buying on a whole other level. Next to the retail space, The Canvas Bowery will serve as a community hotspot for emerging sustainable fashion brands, offering co-working space and ateliers.
The Canvas Bowery is set to open somewhere from mid to end of September.
A weekly community driven conversation that focuses on The Canvas' community of companies, brands and partners working towards a more mindful and transparent world.
Ali Nourbakhsh
Ali is a serial digital product developer, designing and producing software and apps for the past 20 years in London for a variety of industries, from public transportation to financial services.
Rootip was born in 2019 to address transparency of the supply chain. Ali was immensely frustrated by not knowing where the products he buys come from. For Ali
and his team, the unknown supply chains are black boxes which create opportunities for the exploitation of people and the environment. So they set out to change the world for the better by creating a platform that enables product storytelling for businesses and also enables customers to share their appreciation by sending messages and tips to the people who helped make the product we consume.‘
The Canvas by Querencia acquires PAUSE Fashion Hub
The Canvas by Querencia, the Brooklyn-based ethical fashion retail platform, has acquired Amsterdam-based conscious art and fashion production company PAUSE Fashion Hub, which will be ending and transferring its operations after five years of successful global pop-ups and collaborations, propelling ethical fashion opportunities for sustainable fashion brands and designers around the world.
The Canvas will be utilizing the acquired digital assets for the purpose of increased transparency and story telling in collaboration with their growing community, now at over one hundred and sixty brands and partners from six continents.
About Leticia, Romina and PAUSE
Leticia Bordoni graduated in international business and has a diverse background, as well as years of experience in developing and implementing communication strategies for engaging, promoting, creating and maintaining long-lasting relationships.
At the beginning of her career, Leticia worked in export and import for big multinationals companies based in Argentina. Later, she focused more on marketing and commercial aspects, being the Commercial Manager of an Argentinian franchise of luxury cosmetics such as, amongst others, Christian Dior, Chanel, Lancôme, Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent.
During her time in the Netherlands, she worked for an international eco-friendly Leather company based in Paris, as head of branding and communication. At PAUSE Fashion Hub, Leticia is in charge of the implementation of brand strategies, brand activation, marketing, and communications.
Romina Pirani studied accountancy and business management, complementing her studies with a long journey in different art disciplines since her early years, which gives her an interesting perspective on the organization. Graduated in Performing Arts, she studied Art Direction for Fashion at Central Saint Martins-University of Arts London. Having increased her skills with different couches, like Ana Garmendia in Paris and Federica Dall’Orso in New York. From 2012 she has been working as a freelancer in art direction, styling, costume and set design for different projects, like TED, Fashion Revolution, Unicef, and for upcoming brands in Paris, Milan and New York. These experiences have encouraged her to combine creativity and business and to develop better skills in communication, aesthetics, and leadership.
As a trademark in her projects, as in her outfits, she utilizes with reused, recycled, and or her family member’s garments, a philosophy from her teenage years. At PAUSE Fashion Hub, Romina is in charge of the creative direction and the designers, Performances and events’ curation for each experience, the coordination with designers, set up of spaces, visual merchandising and logistics.
"PAUSE FASHION HUB is a global leading retail, activation, and consulting platform that specializes in showcasing, selling and promoting curated conscious fashion designers and brands collectively in the top cities of the world. The focus is on hosting multi-sensorial experiences to approach the audience and invite them to discover unique premium designed and ethically made pieces from every corner of the world.
Each edition is held in specially selected outstanding venues, together with fashion shows, art exhibitions and performances, and live music. PAUSE FASHION HUB experiences have been traveling the world, hosting editions in the most attractive and fashionable cities, from Amsterdam to New York, Paris, London, Barcelona, and Brussels. Throughout ten editions, we have worked with more than 300 brands with whom we nurture trusting and long-lasting relationships to this day.”
A weekly community driven conversation that focuses on The Canvas' community of companies, brands and partners working towards a more mindful and transparent world.
Patrick Duffy, Founder, Global Fashion Exchange
Patrick Duffy founded the Global Fashion Exchange (GFX) in 2013 with the mission to challenge the fashion industry to create a more sustainable world through inspiring forums, educational content and cultural events, including fashion swaps and consulting.
As an expert in developing networks and activating ideas, Patrick guides creative teams for GFX in 30+ countries where GFX has taken place at institutions like V&A inLondon, Federation Square Melbourne, Madison Square Garden in NYC and more. Patrick experience producing events and creating marketing campaigns for some of the world’s most recognized brands across the art and fashion space include HM, Moët Hennessy, Microsoft and spans 15 years, hundreds of events in 5 continents. In addition to his work with GFX, Patrick also manages global partnerships for Common Objective (CO), an intelligent business network for the fashion industry, has launched “Mr Duffy” a 100% circular and sustainably focused clothing collection with partner Fashion 4 Freedom in Vietnam and is a partner at Design Pavilion, NYC’s Largest public interfacing event with over 7 million visitors in partnership with Times Square and NYEDC during NYCx Design week each May.
ShihYun (Eliana) Kuo, COO and Co-Founder of Lablaco
Born in Taipei and living between Paris and Milan, ShihYun, Kuo is a Data and Digital Innovation Entrepreneur and Speaker with more than 8 years of experience in Luxury Retail Buying and Merchandising Management, Data Systems and Digital Media. After obtaining a luxury fashion MBA at SDA Bocconi School of Management, she entered the luxury industry as a Retail Business Analyst in Etro, following APAC Merchandising and then buying supervisor in Giorgio Armani HQ, in Milan.
Building a global platform to accelerate digitization of fashion industry has always been her personal goal since 2010. In 2016, ShihYun has finally founded Lablaco, the first Circular Fashion Platform with the mission to accelerate the digitalization and transition towards the Circular Economy of the Fashion Industry. By leveraging Blockchain within an open source platform, Lablaco aims to redesign a new ecosystem for fashion industry by introducing new sustainable business models and re-defining the relationships among retailers, brands, designers, influencers, content creators and consumers in a single system.
Lorenzo Albrighi, CEO & Co-Founder of Lablaco
Lorenzo was born in London on November 1987 by an Italian/American father and an English mother, growing up between Florence and Milan, grew a deep passion for the Italian fashion scene, which brought him to start sewing as an apprentice tailor at 20 years old in the historical sartoria A. Caraceni in Milan, serving clients from Karl Lagerfeld, Gianfranco Ferrè, Calvin Klein and many other high profile individuals.
Having worked for almost ten years in the fashion industry and launching his ready to wear line, he met ShihYun Kuo, working at Giorgio Armani as. Buying and Merchandising Manager for Asia Pacific and realized the current fashion system is broken as it is now one of the largest polluting industries in the world. So they Founded Lablaco in 2016, the first Circular Fashion platform with mission to tackle fashion’s biggest challenge of redesigning a new digital and circular fashion system for a transparent and sustainable future for brands and consumers worldwide.
A weekly community driven conversation that focuses on The Canvas' community of companies, brands and partners working towards a more mindful and transparent world.
Lorenzo Corazza, Founder of Change2
Change2 is a group of web and mobile app developers, marketers, communication specialists, and project managers. They build on each other’s expertise, working together in teams to generate great outcomes. Change2 believes in a “customer first” approach which is coupled with low risk and high quality returns. Change2 is aims to create software for companies in different mechanical, medical, engineering, and other professionals sectors, using the most advanced technologies available. Various applications are currently being developed with the aim of digitizing and innovating todays ways of graphical representation of company products with augmented, Virtual Reality and 3D configurators.
Change 2’s Founder, Lorenzo, has always been a “nomad”. He started his working career working as Marketing Manager for Panini that allowed him to travel and understand the Chinese market and the different culture. After, almost a year he decided to go back to school and start an International master in London that pushed him to start his first business of rideshare advertisement, a still new and unknown concept. They entered a partnership with Apple, Vodafone and Uber and in just 2 weeks on the market had 800 drivers.
Lorenzo says: “However, discounting trips for the passengers on Uber cars wasn’t really appreciated by the government which shut us down by making a law on our business model. Sad and hit, I came back to Italy and started working for many companies as employee... But I felt I wasn’t made for that, so after 2 years I decided to co-found Change2 with my business partner. In almost two year time we are leading the market of 3D’s and innovations as the quality of what we do has not been reached “yet”.”
A weekly community driven conversation that focuses on The Canvas' community of companies, brands and partners working towards a more mindful and transparent world.
In light of recent and current events, The Canvas highlights the work of the people behind two of its black-owned businesses to speak about their personal life, experiences and business.
Listen, learn and educate.
Johana Supreme and Kwaku Boateng Agyemang, BrownMill Company
BrownMill Company is an innovative lifestyle brand of luxury clothing touted as a combination of bespoke tailoring and street wear. All of BrownMill Company's clothes are produced using recycled textile material driven by a strategy called Urban Upcycling. Pieces of salvaged material are incorporated into every design, creating entirely new garments crafted to perfection. The style is further motivated by its ties to the community and to the urban backdrop in which it began, drawing heavily from the black and brown cultural experience in America. The clothing and accessories produced by this company range from hats and tops to outerwear and pants.
Each customer receives a custom product, individual in its own right, just as BrownMill Company stands as a unique clothing brand in an industry of imitators. By allowing their cultural background as Black Americans, in addition to familiar high-end brands like vintage Ralph Lauren, and Savile Row Tailoring, to inform their clothing style, BrownMill Company strives to bridge the gap between streetwear and high fashion. Sustainability is a pillar of BrownMill Company's business and life practices.
Marcus Hicks, Founder, SDN Brooklyn
SDN is a Brooklyn-based clothing company focusing on sustainability, forward design and a commitment to progressive causes. They strive to use organic and sustainable textiles as well as local and fair labor.
SDN works with Doctors Without Borders by donating a portion of the proceeds of our EXTRA SHADY baseball cap. They also donate to New Alternatives, an organization assisting homeless LGBTQ, from the sales of our Ona Judge Wrap Dresses. SDN aims to "do" fashion differently. To make a difference, be responsible and foster community.
A weekly community driven conversation that focuses on The Canvas' community of companies, brands and partners working towards a more mindful and transparent world.
Each week The Canvas gives a selection of companies and individuals the opportunity to present itself to the rest of the community. In this effort, The Canvas wants to create a space of inspiration and education, where expertise and experiences are shared amongst passionate people.
Alden Wicker, Founder and Editor of EcoCult
Alden is a freelance journalist and sustainable fashion expert who’s written for The Cut, Vox, Vogue Business, InStyle, Refinery29, Quartz, Inc. Magazine, and more, and has been interviewed on the topic of sustainability for the BBC, NPR, Reuters, Fortune, CBC, Al Jazeera, Harper’s Bazaar, and Teen Vogue.
She’s also the founder and editor of EcoCult, the leading international blog on sustainable and ethical fashion, with 1.4 million visitors in 2019, where she and contributors publish nerdy explainers on fashion materials and labor. She has a B.A. in Communications and a B.S. in Business Management from Washington and Lee University. Her current focus during the Pandemic is helping small brands and designers navigate through the crisis with both their business and morals intact.
Alejandra Ospina, Director of TRIB·ECO, and Ethical Boutique
Alejandra is a foreign affairs professional and sustainable enterprise consultant. She founded the TRIB·ECO educational and consultancy platform and Ethical Boutique in 2018 with the aim of developing an ecosystem where sustainable and ethical brands in Latin America could thrive. The Tribeco pop-up showcasing the best Latin American fashion has toured countries such as the U.S., Spain, Hungary, and more.
Jens Wittwer, Co-founder and CEO, Luxiders
Jens, MBA in Business Administration and Business Management, began his career as a management consultant at different agencies in Germany. Born in East Berlin, he started to be interested in fashion photography and design since 2008. He had long been fascinated by the industry, and its intriguing blend of creativity, aesthetics and the importance to care about resources and ethical demands.
LUXIDERS a modern media company which aspires to expand the responsible consumption worldwide. Headquartered in Berlin, the Luxiders Magazine spotlights the best of sustainability fashion and lifestyle and reaches more than 200.000 people per month through its online and print publication worldwide. It is written in three languages (English, German and Spanish).
Today, the Luxiders Team numbers more than 30 people in Berlin, New York, LA, London, Cape Town, Singapore and Milan, a network of savvy writers and creative insiders around the world that want to leave their sustainable mark on a time of unprecedented change. Luxiders also manages the Global Association of Sustainable Societies, a NGO which drives an educational change forward.
A weekly community driven conversation that focuses on The Canvas' community of companies, brands and partners working towards a more mindful and transparent world.
Each week The Canvas gives a selection of companies and individuals the opportunity to present itself to the rest of the community. In this effort, The Canvas wants to create a space of inspiration and education, where expertise and experiences are shared amongst passionate people.
Jesscia Schreiber, CEO, Fabscrap
Fabscrap is a New York City based non-profit created to meet New York City’s commercial textile recycling needs. Materials that traditionally would have gone to landfill are now being properly recycled and made available for reuse. Fabscrap also gives away fabric to students, artists, local designers, and crafters for reuse and hosts volunteer sessions at their warehouse in Brooklyn.
Leire Fernández and Idania Del Rio, the Cofounders of Clandestina
Clandestina is Cuba’s first independent clothing store and fashion brand. The Clandestina community is a collective of Cuban designers and artists, entrepreneurs and creators who believe in more sustainable fashion industry; fairer and more ethical.
Johann Aguire, Founder of Minus Us
Minus Us is a Brooklyn based brand and eco system for artists to showcase their work through fashion. The brand collaborates with new artists every month to design new and reworked styles. Ninety percent of Minus Us garments are up-cycled vintage or made from reusable fabric.
Amalya Meira, Founder of AMALYA:
AMALYA garments are designed using zero-waste patterns with natural fibers or up-cycled & deadstock textiles, down to the tags which are also made from scrap fabric. Amalya sources textiles from organizations such as Fab Scrap and Materials for the Arts as well Goodwill, Salvation Army and “the illusive yard sale”.
A weekly community driven conversation that focuses on The Canvas' community of companies, brands and partners working towards a more mindful and transparent world.
Each week The Canvas gives a selection of companies and individuals the opportunity to present itself to the rest of the community. In this effort, The Canvas wants to create a space of inspiration and education, where expertise and experiences are shared amongst passionate people.
Julia Barre, Director of Business Development at Sourcemap
Launched in 2008 at MIT, Sourcemap was an ambitious research project to develop software for supply chain transparency. Since 2011 they've been developing the tools and services needed to take companies to the transparent future. Today Sourcemap software runs many of the most powerful platforms for transparency and traceability on the market. We are thrilled to be introducing Sourcemap as a tool for the Canvas community
Bryan D'Alessandro, the Cofounder and CEO of Eaton Hemp
Eaton Hemp is an organic hemp wellness company born on the first farm licensed to grow hemp in New York in over 80 years. Eaton Hemp values are reverence, stewardship, and transparency, with them guiding all that they do. It's Eaton Hemp's goal is to inspire people to take control of their own health. Today, from the great plains of North Dakota, to the green fields where it started in New York, Eaton Hemp is proud to work with other organic farms all doing their part to restore hemp back to its rightful place in the American agricultural landscape.
Cofounders Zander Schultz and Zoë Pappis Schultz from When We Band Together
A non-profit supporting and operating community centers and safe spaces for refugees - so those living through the difficult experience of being displaced have places to find safety, happiness, and purpose.
A weekly community driven conversation that focuses on The Canvas' community of companies, brands and partners working towards a more mindful and transparent world.
Each week The Canvas gives a selection of companies and individuals the opportunity to present itself to the rest of the community. In this effort, The Canvas wants to create a space of inspiration and education, where expertise and experiences are shared amongst passionate people.
Cornelius Schmitt, CEO and Founder at Zellerfeld
Zellerfeld is a German company creating the future of footwear by 3D printing. Cornelius Schmitt gives the community an insight on the current possibilities in and future of the footwear industry.
Yurac Fiedler, Creative Director at Qaytu
Yurac provides a touching story on how the COVID-19 pandemic has hit Peru and lays out how Qaytu works with local communities in producing their garments.
Tove Ohlander, Owner and Founder of TovebyDesign
Tove gives The Canvas community an insight in her business focused on fair trade production of denim skirts.
Sandrine Valentine, Owner and Founder of Sandrine B. Jewelry
The often difficult world of gem stones is especially difficult if you want to enter it in a sustainable and ethical way. Sandrine explains how she navigates this world and keeps innovating her products whilst finding the right, ethical suppliers.
Frederick Van Grootel is a Belgian photographer that is most known for his work on inequality in Brazil. In this episode we take a look on how his upbringing and travels that spanned multiple years, were the lead up to his first photo book called "Dualidade". His work takes a look at the extremes, from the super rich to the very poor, in Brazilian society.