Episode 203: Why clothes fit worse in the fast fashion era, with Dr. Colleen Pokorny

Clotheshorse with Amanda Lee McCarty

Amanda is joined by Dr. Colleen Pokorny, Assistant Professor of Apparel Design at Oregon State University. Before making the shift to education, Colleen was a technical designer in the world of fast fashion. And there is so much to cover in this episode:

• What is a technical designer?
• How has the speed of fast fashion made clothing fit even worse?
• Why aren't clothing sizes standardized here in the US?
• Why do your product reviews matter?
• How do we set students up for a better transition from school to the fashion industry? And how can schools prepare designers for a more sustainable future?
• What does a more sustainable future for the fashion industry look like?
• Why and how did Colleen leave the fashion industry? And does she have any advice to share with us?

And somehow, we will also talk about Trader Joe’s and how it has been caught behaving like fast fashion. Also, Amanda shares her own experience escaping the fashion industry.

About Colleen:
Dr. Colleen Gelhaus Pokorny is an Assistant Professor of Apparel Design at the Oregon State University. Her research interests include sustainability trends impacting apparel product design and development; how cultural and technical innovations influence craft and design processes; and how design technologies can address gaps in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her current research examines how designers revalue material culture through sustainable design processes when upcycling quilt materials into fashion garments. Before pursuing her Ph.D., Colleen was a Technical Designer for seven years at Thirty-one Gifts and Abercrombie & Fitch. She specialized in men's knitwear, thermal and home soft goods, and handbags. You can read more about Colleen’s research at https://hdl.handle.net/11299/258647 and https://business.oregonstate.edu/users/colleen-pokorny. Or follow along on her various quiltmaking adventures @Cpokorny

Additional reading:
"We need to talk about Trader Joe's," Adam Reiner, Taste.
"Trader Joe’s Threatened Workers Ahead Of Union Vote, Feds Allege," Dave Jamieson, HuffPost.
"‘Just lie after lie’: Inside the fight to unionize at Trader Joe’s," Gabriel Thompson, Capital + Main.

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