Radical Mending: An Interview with Orsola de Castro

Orsola de Castro is a designer, activist, author and fashion pioneer. In 1997 (closed 2014) she founded From Somewhere, a label designing clothes made entirely from pre-consumer waste: disregarded materials such as surplus and production cutoffs. In 2006, she co-founded the British Fashion Council pioneering initiative Estethica, which she curated until 2014. Estethica was London Fashion Week’s showcase for labels designing sustainably: ethics and esthetics combined. It nurtured new generations of like-minded designers and supported more established brands who are mindful of their supply chain. After co-founding Fashion Revolution in 2013, she pioneered a global campaign in response to the Rana Plaza factory collapse and became an internationally recognized opinion leader in sustainable fashion. In 2021, in her book Loved Clothes Last, she explores the factors fueling the continual cycle of clothing overconsumption and discarding, and the resultant impacts on waste production, while drawing attention to the importance of mending and the delight of caring for our clothes. In this conversation we explore her views on our emotional relationship with clothing and how through caring, repairing and re-wearing our clothing we can challenge entrenched issues within the fashion system. De Castro, O. (2021). Loved clothes last: How the joy of rewearing and repairing your clothes can be a revolutionary act. Penguin UK.