On this episode of the Lead With Purpose podcast host, Tze Ching Yeung talks to Lydia Brearley, a sustainable fashion advocate, about fashion, legislation, and how we can make changes together as an industry.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• While I was living and working in Shanghai in 2016 the Chinese government was focussing on pollution levels and a lot of the factories had restrictions imposed on them in terms of their output. At the same time mills were closing down which meant that orders were going late, prices were going up and this started affecting my business. 
• Occasionally a siren would go off in the city, which was panicking for me having never had it explained. It was a pollution siren indicating that the pollution level was so high that school kids couldn’t play outside. In that moment my business didn’t fell aligned with my own personal values and I started to pivot my career toward sustainability.
• When was first consulting and speaking to directors it felt like they had intentions, but trying to move the dial and impact change was quite difficult. A lot of us in the industry need to almost unlearn all that we’ve learned in our careers because it’s not fit for the future.
• Whether your business is impacted or not you need to have an understanding of what these legislations are about and why they’re being introduced, what the challenges and risks are in the textile industry and why they’re being implemented in the first place. Even if you don’t need to officially comply, it’s important that you understand the principles behind it and start to adopt that in your business. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Enkel means ‘simple’ in Swedish, it’s all about simplifying sustainability.’

‘There’s so much happening in legislation, it’s really overwhelming. Everyone’s talking about it but there’s very few resources where you can identify what things mean, the differences between different acts and what acronyms mean.’

‘It can take seasons to implement change, when you look at the reports about where we’re going, we don’t have that much time.’

‘I appreciate how challenging it is for bigger brands to do a lot of this stuff, but I’m very much in the mindset of: You can’t just tick a box, it is a journey, start with the biggest impact and go from there and make sure that everybody in the business is aligned with that vision.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Lydia Brearley is a Fashion Buyer and sustainable fashion advocate, with over 20 years global experience, having lived and worked in London, Brussels, Shanghai and Sweden. She now specialises in Sustainability and Circularity @thisisenkel, and supports brands and businesses to drive meaningful change within the Fashion Industry.

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ABOUT THE HOST

Tze Ching started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2007 with the launch of a sustainable clothing & home furnishing ecommerce business. Next, she created a sustainable fashion brand.

In 2019, she launched a social enterprise to help raise awareness about the negative impact of fashion at schools & colleges. 

Through the 15-year journey, she learned so much, but easily the most meaningful lesson learned was about the importance of marketing. She now focuses on channelling those insights to help others succeed through We Disrupt Agency, a business coaching, mentoring & digital marketing company. 

Tze Ching’s mission is to create a community of global change makers and to contribute to positive change in both people & planet.

CONTACT DETAILS

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