Fashion in a time of genocide

Episode 2 of the We Are LaCH podcast

Author

Chris Musei-Sequeira
October 22, 2024

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In a time of multiple genocides, let’s have a conversation about… fashion?!?

In Episode 2 of the We Are LaCH podcast, Heather Luna and I interview our podcast partner Lavinia Muth about all things fashion—from generic greenwashing to Global South Shaming. We recorded this episode on October 7th of 2024, one year into yet another phase of the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Lavinia spent years as an accredited auditor and consultant in the fashion industry before becoming disillusioned with the sector’s persistent greenwashing and White-saviorist approaches to “sustainability.”

We share our insights and perceptions on the global industrial fashion system and its many intersections with racism, colonialism, capitalism, and indeed genocide itself. Lavinia begins our discussion by reminding us that the Israel-occupied West Bank is just one of many places where clothes are manufactured under intolerable circumstances. During our conversation, the three of us discuss:

  • What are the hidden sides of greenwashing in fashion?

  • Where do discarded and donated clothes end-up?

  • How is clothing waste perceived?

  • What would it be like if clothing culture would not be influenced by Western clothing styles and production methods?

  • What is green whining?

Here’s an important correction that makes the conversation all the more relevant: At timestamp 22:25, Lavinia states there are enough clothes on the planet to dress humanity for the next six years, but the correct figure is six generations.

Episode 2: Sustainable fashion? with Lavinia Muth, 1 hour, 3 minutes, and 22 seconds in length

Coming up next

In the next episode, Lavinia and I will talk with Heather about the limitations and contradictions of “higher” education in a time of genocide, and what authentic education could look like in dark times.

Subscribe to our podcast, hit the “reply” button, and tell us what you think!

Previous recordings

Where to find the sustainability perspectives you’ve been missing

FIRST: Subscribe to the “We Are LaCH” podcast, where Heather and Lavinia and I host discussions on decolonization — particularly in the context of the sustainability industry.

SECOND: Follow these awesome folks on LinkedIn:

THIRD: Forward this issue to people you know in the sustainability industry.

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My name is Chris Musei-Sequeira, and I use he/him pronouns. My mother was born in Trinidad and Tobago as a descendant of African slaves brought to the islands during the time of European colonization. She came to the United States of America (USA) at the age of 10. My father is Goan and was born in India, in Mumbai, and raised Catholic and English-speaking. He came to the USA for his graduate studies, where he met my mother.

My sister and I were born in the USA and lived a middle-class life in the suburbs of multiple American cities. I studied aeronautical engineering and technology policy in university, then worked at the Federal Aviation Administration and as an aviation consultant. I've lived in cities up and down the USA East Coast since the age of 18; I now reside in Queens, New York with my wife.

I thank Heather Luna and Lavinia Muth for showing me the importance of publicly expressing our positions. Because of our positions, all of us are very familiar with some aspects of the world while having no idea of other aspects. Positionality expresses how our individual positions affect our relationships with other people and with the world as a whole.