S8 Ep31 FREE ARTS NYC: upcycling designer, Anne Whiting and recent FIT grad, Nashalae Martin - on how high school and college-aged young people learn about sustainable fashion.

Pre-Loved Podcast with Emily Stochl

On today’s show, we’re chatting with Anne and Nashalae. Anne Whiting is an upcycled fashion designer, sustainable fashion activist, and writer. She is also a longtime volunteer and mentor for young people with Free Arts NYC, an organization that provides arts programming for youth – including arts internship placements. Through Free Arts NYC and her upcycled brand, Anne James New York, Anne has worked with several high school and college-aged interns teaching them about the pillars of sustainable fashion and upcycling. She loves helping her interns create their own capsule collections using NYC secondhand shops like Goodwill and BigReuse as their source materials.

So, she reached out to do an episode with one of her former interns, Nashalae Martin, and suggested we could chat about how Gen-Z and the next generations learn about sustainable fashion. Nashalae is a recent graduate of FIT, and has held several fashion-related internships, including with Anne and Anne James New York. I loved hearing how she thinks about thrifting, where she learned about sustainable fashion in the first place, and how she thinks we need to expand the definition of sustainable fashion education.

This is such an interesting chat about how this movement connects with younger audiences – so, let’s dive right into it!

DISCUSSED IN THE EPISODE:

• [4:01] While Anne grew up during the fast fashion boom, she also loved thrifting with her grandmother.
• [7:57] Nashalae found an eventual love of fashion design through a love of art.
• [10:38] Anne works with Free Arts NYC, an organization that provides arts programming for youth – including arts internship placements.
• [20:23] How young people like Nashalae get their sustainable fashion education.
• [23:48] The two truths that young people love to thrift and they also love fast fashion.
• [27:18] Expanding the idea of sustainable fashion education.
• [35:33] Personal style and favorite pre-loved pieces.

EPISODE MENTIONS:

• Anne Whiting
• Anne James New York
• Free Arts NYC
• Threads of Habit
• Recylpt
• @brianna.who
• Pre-Loved Podcast with Alissa Westervelt
• Andrea Reyes of NYC Fair Trade Coalition

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