How I Got Here: Sustainable fashion expert Clare Press on being driven by positive change
WORDS BY CAIT EMMA BURKE
“The older you get, the more confident you become in going after what makes you happy/what matters to you. For me, it’s community, big ideas and activism.”
Have you ever stalked someone on LinkedIn and wondered how on earth they managed to land that wildly impressive job? While the internet and social media might have us believe that our ideal job is a mere pipe dream, the individuals who have these jobs were, believe it or not, in the same position once, fantasising over someone else’s seemingly unattainable job.
But behind the awe-inspiring titles and the fancy work events lies a heck of a lot of hard work. So what lessons have been learnt and what skills have proved invaluable in getting them from daydreaming about success to actually being at the top of their industry?
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Welcome to How I Got Here, where we talk to women who are killing it in their respective fields about how they landed their awe-inspiring jobs, exploring the peaks and pits, the failures and the wins, and most importantly the knowledge, advice and practical tips they’ve gleaned along the way.
This week, we’re speaking to sustainability advocate, author and podcast host, Clare Press. Clare spent fifteen years as a fashion journalist until, in her own words, she started to feel like “my job was just to sell consumer goods, which wasn’t what I wanted to be doing with my life”.
After dabbling in fashion design and owning a vintage store, she wrote a book, Wardrobe Crisis, and launched an accompanying podcast which recently celebrated its seventh birthday. More books followed, as well as landing a dream gig as the first-ever Sustainability Editor for Vogue. Her fourth book, Wear Next: Fashioning the Future has just been released, and introduces readers to the people who are changing the face and future of fashion as we know it. Here’s what she’s learned along the way.
What do you do and what’s your official job title?
I’m the founder of Wardrobe Crisis, a sustainable fashion podcast and education platform. And I’m an author. My new book, Wear Next: Fashioning the Future, has just come out in Australia.
Take us back to when you were first starting out. Did you study to get into your chosen field, or did you start out with an internship/entry-level role and climb the ladder? Tell us the story.
I studied politics in the UK (where I’m from), and thought vaguely of being a political journalist but never actively pursued it. If I’m honest, I would say, at 20, I had no idea how! I’ve always been interested in social and environmental issues though. Anyway, I went travelling around the world instead and ended up in Australia because of a boy. While I was here working at a pub, I pitched a story to Rolling Stone about a hot band and somehow managed to talk my way into a regular gig as a Senior Writer with the magazine. I absolutely loved it.
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I then moved into fashion, with a Copy Editor role at an indie publication, where I learned a lot because it was a small team. I wrote freelance for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar for a while, then, aged 27, got a job at Vogue as a Features Director. A few years later, I fancied doing something totally new and opened a shop selling vintage fashion and my own reworked and vintage-inspired designs. I had to keep writing for magazines to pay the rent though.
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Eventually, I went back to journalism, worked on some newspaper things and then at Marie Claire before returning to Vogue as the first-ever Sustainability Editor. Meanwhile, I’d started my podcast, which really took off. I began doing live interviews, and hosting panel discussions on the back of it. The podcast just turned seven. It’s been the most fascinating, enriching way to learn about sustainability and connect with incredible changemakers.
So I basically bounced around as a fashion journalist for 15 years, and tried a few different things, until I found my calling, which is using my storytelling and interviewing skills to help shift the dial on sustainability. Finally, I am where I am meant to be with my work.
What challenges/hurdles have you faced getting to where you are now? Can you tell us about one in particular?
Isn’t the big challenge always finding purpose and aligning that with your day-to-day? On a practical level, I think it comes down to learning where you shine and where you suck and then daring to get behind the shine part. Sometimes, it can feel like you’re relentlessly pushing a ball uphill – that’s the universe trying to tell you something! Like when I had my shop. I loved clothes, enjoyed the freedom of being my own boss, and felt like I had something to say creatively. But I had no idea how to run a retail business. I gave it my best shot, but I never made enough money to keep it steady.
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Closing the shop felt like a failure but in hindsight, it was a valuable experience – my work today is better informed for having worked with local pattern cutters and makers, and seeing how the (small) business of fashion operates behind the scenes. Also towards the end of my time working in magazines, I started to feel like my job was just to sell consumer goods, which wasn’t what I wanted to be doing with my life.
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These days I can tell brands that pitch to the podcast that commercial stuff is not our focus, that we look for “nothing to sell but ideas”. But it’s taken years to get to this point. Along the way you do have to fail a lot – failing is actually good. It’s a teaching experience. The older you get, the more confident you become in going after what makes you happy/what matters to you. For me, it’s community, big ideas and activism.
What’s the best part about your role?
Writing books is pretty cool! As a child, I dreamed of being a writer. Wear Next is my fourth non-fiction book, and it felt essential to get it down because Wardrobe Crisis, (which the podcast is based on) is quite old now. When I wrote that in 2015, the sustainability conversation was very different – focused on Rana Plaza and what we were just starting to understand was very wrong with the fashion industry.
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Wear Next is a book of beautiful solutions – ideas for how we can better shape this world into the future, so that it’s more delightful and regenerative, as well as fair, just and equitable. I talked to scores of people around the world who are doing things differently, from inventors of new materials to designers and academics, economists and philosophers through to the makers, wearers and sharers of clothes. I’m proud of it, and can’t wait to hear from readers what they think.
What would surprise people about your role?
Many people are surprised by the deep and layered connections between the fashion industry, environmental degradation and social injustice. Maybe they’ve heard about garment workers’ wages, but it’s another step to think about fashion in terms of government policy, for example, or climate action. All this stuff is linked.
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People tell me they were (pleasantly) surprised that a fashion podcast features stories on bushfires or interviews with post-growth economists. In fact, we once had a lovely review in the Guardian to that effect. So I’m guessing people might be surprised when they read Wear Next to find that the 16 different future scenarios I explore include things like creating a fashion commons as an alternative to a capitalist market or tapping into spiritual ecology.
What skills have served you well in your industry?
Curiosity is number one. Being open to learning new things and enjoying that process. I know this sounds daft, but can I say being a Gemini!? I’m chatty and love meeting new people. Also, weirdly adaptable – if you change your plans on me last minute I can usually find a way to get excited and see it as an opportunity to go in a different direction.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to be in a role like yours one day?
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First, care. You have to be passionate about some aspect of sustainability to do what I do. If you’re driven by wanting to make positive change, you’ll find a way. Now, dare! You have to actually do it, rather than just dream about it. If you want to write books, there’s that classic advice to would-be authors – just write: show up, put words on the page, you can finesse it later. I know it’s hard, but try not to let your inner critic get in the way.
What about a practical tip?
Network. One of the hardest things when you’re starting out is feeling like you don’t know anyone. Make a list, you’ll likely be surprised who you do know or have met. Next, dare to ask people who are where you want to be for a leg up. What’s the worst that can happen? They say no? So what! Don’t take it personally. Be specific about what you’d love help with, rather than asking for a generic brain pick. I always try to help people who are interested in sustainability if they have a clear ask and I can see a way.
Read the rest of the How I Got Here series here.
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