The Ethical Stitch with Michelle Alleyne

What if fashion’s next luxury has less to do with what you wear and more to do with what you know?

In this episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with Deborah Metts, a fashion industry professional, educator, and co-founder of Beyond the Runway, for a candid conversation about technology, sustainability, and who gets to shape what comes next.

From corporate fashion to startup pitches and the graduate classroom at LIM College, Deborah has experienced the industry from several seats. Along the way, she’s learned that a great idea still needs an audience, innovation comes with uncomfortable questions, and getting into the room is only part of the story.

Together, Michelle and Deborah explore what happens when fashion’s promises meet real shopping habits, real budgets, and real people. Can virtual try-on help us make more thoughtful purchases? Where does AI support creativity, and where does it deserve a little side-eye? And how do you challenge an industry while finding your place within it?

Expect honest reflections, professor-to-professor banter, and a few moments that have Michelle reaching for a mic-drop sound effect.

In this episode, we explore:
✨ What buying two sizes reveals about the online shopping experience
✨ The possibilities and growing complications of AI in fashion
✨ Why understanding the customer matters more than falling in love with your idea
✨ Where sustainability, affordability, and the business model meet
✨ Finding your voice when you’re ready to challenge how things are done
✨ Education, mentorship, and access to fashion’s decision-making tables
✨ What the next generation is questioning about fashion’s workplace culture

Deborah’s guiding philosophy, “Learning is the new luxury. Education is the currency of access,” gives this conversation its thread. There’s room to be ambitious, curious, and still figuring things out.

Plus, our Stitch Mob MVP segment gives some love to the people opening doors and doing influential work behind the scenes.

Connect with Deborah:
💼 Find Deborah Metts on LinkedIn
🎓 Explore graduate studies at LIM College

Join the conversation:
What’s one fashion habit you’re ready to get curious about? Ordering multiple sizes? Buying pieces you never wear? Wondering whether the next new tool actually solves your problem? Send us a message and tell us what you’re questioning.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

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🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay curious. Stay conscious. Stay open to what’s evolving.
And always, stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

What if making a more sustainable choice started with something as ordinary as your next phone case?

In this episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne goes solo for a conversation about conscious cool, unexpected discoveries, and making sustainable alternatives more accessible in everyday life.

As the zeitgeist evolves, so do our expectations of the things we buy. We want thoughtful materials, useful products, and beautiful design—but affordability, convenience, and clear information have to be part of the conversation.

From emerging material innovators to familiar shopping destinations, Michelle explores who is creating new possibilities and what it takes to bring those ideas within reach. She also shares the next chapter of House of Zeitgeist, her evolving collection on Etsy, shaped by years of sourcing, curiosity, and a love of pieces with personality.

In this episode, we explore:
✨ How the search for an everyday item can open up a bigger sustainability conversation
✨ Why accessibility and affordability matter alongside innovation
✨ The designers and businesses making Michelle look twice
✨ What to ask about materials, product claims, and what happens after use
✨ How familiar retailers can help us discover alternatives
✨ The evolution of House of Zeitgeist and Michelle’s vision for conscious cool
✨ How sharing, connecting, and supporting thoughtful work can help good ideas move forward

Michelle reminds us that participation has to leave room for our circumstances. Using what we own, asking a useful question, or introducing someone to an innovator can all be meaningful places to begin.

Sometimes a new possibility starts with one person getting curious—and helping someone else discover it.

Explore the innovators featured:
🌿 FEVVERS — Co-founded by Nicola Woollon and James West; exploring plant-based alternatives to feathers.
🌊 MarinaTex — Discover Lucy Hughes’ work and the company’s approach to alternative materials.
♻️ Debrand — Explore next-life logistics and the systems behind what happens to products after their first chapter.

Designers and brands mentioned:
✨ Stella McCartney
✨ lululemon
✨ Everlane
✨ Canada Goose

Discover everyday alternatives:
🛍️ Target Zero
🛍️ Walmart’s Built for Better initiative
🛍️ Etsy

Explore House of Zeitgeist:
💚 Discover Michelle’s collection, including the Mother Earth tote, bamboo-fiber blend phone case, and “Serving Looks, Not Landfills” candle.
🛍️ Shop: House of Zeitgeist on Etsy

What everyday product would you like to find a more sustainable alternative to—and what price would make it realistic for you? Send Michelle a message through the shop or on Instagram.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
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🌍 Website: https://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

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What if the future of fashion isn’t about making more, but creating greater value from what already exists?

In this thought-provoking episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with Carmen Gama, Circular Design Lead at EILEEN FISHER, for a conversation about circularity, design, systems thinking, and what it actually takes to move sustainable fashion from intention into action.

From her early creative life in Mexico to studying at Parsons and eventually joining EILEEN FISHER through the CFDA Social Innovator Fellowship, Carmen shares how resourcefulness, curiosity, and a desire to rethink waste helped shape her path as a designer.

Together, Michelle and Carmen explore what circular fashion looks like beyond the buzzwords, from designing with a garment’s next life in mind to the infrastructure, leadership, collaboration, and investment required to make circular systems work at scale.

In this episode, we explore:
✨ What circular design really means when put into practice
✨ How Carmen’s upbringing and design journey shaped her approach to waste and value
✨ Why innovation alone cannot transform the fashion system
✨ The role leadership and collaboration play in scaling circularity
✨ How EILEEN FISHER is rethinking the life of garments through take-back, resale, remanufacturing, and recycling
✨ Why the relationship between brands, designers, and consumers matters
✨ What it could mean for fashion to move beyond sustainability toward regenerative design

Carmen reminds us that changing fashion requires more than good intentions. It requires designing differently, understanding the systems around the product, and thinking about value long before something is considered waste.

Sometimes the next chapter of a garment has to be imagined before the first one is even finished.

Follow Carmen and her work:
📱 Instagram: @gamma.carmen
💼 LinkedIn: Carmen Gama
🌿 Follow EILEEN FISHER on Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn for more on its circularity and design work.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
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🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.

Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

What stays with you after the panels end, the badges come off, and New York starts returning to normal?

In this special solo episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne takes listeners inside her own experience of Climate Week NYC, sharing the conversations, people, and ideas that continued to resonate long after the week wrapped.

This is not a play-by-play of Climate Week. It is Michelle’s edit.

From having the honor of speaking at the Fusion Fashion Tech Summit at LIM College to attending the Regenerative Textiles Forum, Michelle reflects on what she heard firsthand from people working across fashion, agriculture, materials, technology, finance, and climate.

And one idea kept surfacing: we are not short on innovation. The harder work is figuring out how to build the systems, infrastructure, financing, and demand that allow the best ideas to actually scale.

Michelle connects regenerative cotton back to soil and farmers, explores why purchase orders may matter more than promises, and looks beyond fashion to the larger conversations around energy, water, infrastructure, resilience, and the increasingly interconnected nature of climate action.

It is smart, personal, curious, and very much from inside the room.

In this episode, we explore:

✨ Michelle’s firsthand experience speaking at the Fusion Fashion Tech Summit
✨ What she took away from the Regenerative Textiles Forum
✨ Regenerative cotton, soil health, farmers, and the systems behind the fiber
✨ Why fashion may not have an innovation problem, but a scale problem
✨ The gap between a promising prototype and a functioning supply chain
✨ Why infrastructure, financing, and real demand matter
✨ The Climate Pledge Fashion Coalition and the importance of moving from promises to purchase orders
✨ How conversations around AI, energy, water, and resilience connect back to fashion
✨ Why sustainability needs honesty, transparency, and better questions
✨ Michelle’s personal invitation to get curious about the systems behind the things we use every day

🌎 Climate Week NYC:
https://climateweeknyc.org

📱 Follow Climate Week NYC:
@climateweeknyc

📱 Michelle’s DMs are open:
@michellealleyneofficial | @theethicalstitch

🌍 michellealleyne.com

Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌎 Climate Week NYC: @climateweeknyc
🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

What happens when a global conversation about climate, materials, and responsibility becomes personal?

In this special solo episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne welcomes listeners to Climate Week NYC, or what she affectionately calls The Green Apple, and shares her perspective on the conversations shaping fashion, materials, supply chains, and sustainability.

Michelle also celebrates her participation in the Fusion Fashion Tech Summit and introduces the next chapter of House of Zeitgeist, an extension of the ideas explored on The Ethical Stitch.

Built around Style. Sustainability. Substance., House of Zeitgeist brings Michelle’s point of view on thoughtful consumption, overproduction, sourcing, and everyday objects into a curated collection designed to have something to say.

In this episode, we explore:

✨ Climate Week NYC and this year’s theme, Energy. Impact. Action.
✨ Fashion, materials, and supply-chain innovation
✨ Why accessibility matters in sustainability
✨ The evolution of House of Zeitgeist
✨ Why print-on-demand and reducing overproduction matter
✨ Michelle’s biodegradable bamboo-fiber phone case

🌎 Climate Week NYC:
https://climateweeknyc.org

🏠 Shop House of Zeitgeist:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/HouseofZeitgeist

Use code CLIMATEWEEK10 for 10% off through the end of Climate Week.

📱 @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 michellealleyne.com

Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
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🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
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What if the materials we are ready to discard are simply waiting to be seen differently?

In this warm episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with longtime friend and visionary designer Tunji Dada for a conversation about creativity, culture, craftsmanship, and responsible fashion.

From his West African upbringing to his experiences in Japan and New York, Tunji shares how deconstruction, reconstruction, and the Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi have shaped his approach to design. He also offers a glimpse into his process of transforming vintage military tents into distinctive garments and accessories that honor the history of each material.

Together, Michelle and Tunji reflect on beauty in imperfection, the value of craftsmanship, and what the fashion industry must reconsider as it moves toward a more responsible future.

In this episode, we explore:

✨ The cultural influences behind Tunji’s creative journey
✨ How Wabi Sabi informs his approach to beauty and design
✨ Giving vintage materials an entirely new purpose
✨ The connection between craftsmanship and sustainability
✨ Why responsible fashion begins with looking at value differently
✨ Tunji’s hopes for the future of fashion

As Tunji reminds us, material is a canvas for imagination. Sometimes meaningful change begins by looking again at what we are prepared to discard.

Follow Tunji and explore his work:

📱 Instagram: @tunji.dada
🛍️ Shop: @tunji.dada.shop

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

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🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.

Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
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What if the clothes we wear are telling a much bigger story about health, labor, identity, and the world we are leaving behind?

In this intimate episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with Clementina Martinez-Masarweh known as The Sustainable Latina, for a deeply personal conversation about her journey from fashion industry insider to advocate for a more sustainable, ethical, and inclusive future.

Drawing from her own family history, her years inside the fashion world, and the experiences that changed the way she understood clothing, Clementina explores what happens when we begin looking beyond style and start asking harder questions about what our garments are made from, who makes them, and what their true impact may be.

Michelle and Clementina touch on the growing conversation around synthetic fibers and microplastics, the often invisible people working throughout fashion's supply chain, and why sustainability cannot be separated from human dignity, environmental justice, and labor rights.

Their conversation also explores the power of storytelling and upcycling as tools for change, including Clementina's work in film and her belief that transforming fashion requires more than changing materials. It requires changing the stories we tell about value, consumption, and the people behind our clothes.

At its heart, this is a conversation about awareness. About questioning what we have been taught to accept, recognizing the human stories hidden inside the fashion system, and discovering how each of us can participate in something better.

In this episode, we explore:

✨ Clementina's journey from the fashion industry into sustainability advocacy
✨ How family history shaped her understanding of environmental and social justice
✨ The growing concerns surrounding synthetic fibers and microplastics
✨ Why garment workers and labor rights must remain central to sustainable fashion
✨ The complicated world of greenwashing and consumer confusion
✨ Upcycling and new ways of thinking about textile waste
✨ The connection between clothing, plastic pollution, and the environment
✨ Why transparency and accountability matter throughout the fashion industry
✨ The role storytelling can play in creating cultural change
✨ Practical ways consumers can begin making more intentional fashion choices

As Clementina reminds us, fashion is political, and it is all about the message. Sometimes changing the industry begins simply by becoming more conscious of the stories our clothes carry and deciding which ones we want to support.

You can follow Clementina's work by using the links below

📱 Instagram: @dnathreds

🌍 Website: dnathreds.com

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

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Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

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What if preserving the future of fashion means protecting the hands, histories, and communities that have shaped it for generations?

In this episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with Neha Rai Singh, founder of Naintaara, for a conversation about Indian textile traditions, artisan-first business, and what sustainability looks like when the people behind the craft are placed at the center.

Rooted in a deep appreciation for India’s textile heritage, Neha shares how her journey from the corporate world led her toward traditional practices including Chanderi weaving, Kota Doria, and hand block printing, and eventually toward building a business designed around the artisans themselves.

But preserving craft takes more than celebrating something as “handmade.” Neha and Michelle dig into the realities of ethical sourcing, fair wages, traceability, cultural heritage, and the difficult question of how artisan-led brands can grow without sacrificing the values that made them meaningful in the first place.

This is a conversation about slowing down, understanding where our clothing comes from, and recognizing that when a traditional craft disappears, we lose more than a technique. We lose a piece of culture, history, and identity.

In this episode, we explore:

✨ Neha’s journey from the corporate world into artisan textiles
✨ The traditions behind Chanderi weaving, Kota Doria, and hand block printing
✨ What an artisan-first business model actually looks like
✨ Why preserving traditional craft is also about preserving cultural identity
✨ The pressure fast fashion places on artisans and heritage techniques
✨ Scaling an ethical business without compromising its integrity
✨ Fair wages, transparency, and traceability in textile sourcing
✨ How storytelling can connect consumers more deeply to the people behind a garment
✨ How to recognize meaningful sustainability beyond marketing language
✨ Why conscious purchasing can help protect generations of craftsmanship

As Neha reminds us, losing our craft is losing our identity, and every purchase gives us an opportunity to decide what kind of fashion system we want to help preserve.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

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🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.

Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

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🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
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What if the people shaping what fashion makes us want could also change what fashion learns to value?

In this episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with New York-based stylist, designer, and creative consultant Ela Erdogan, whose journey through fashion has been anything but conventional.

After studying at Parsons and apprenticing with Iris van Herpen, Ela launched DOBS New York, transforming scraps, discarded textiles, landfill-bound fabrics, and even food waste into deeply personal collections. What began as resourcefulness became a much bigger awakening about waste, creativity, and the true cost of fashion.

Today, Ela brings that perspective into styling and editorial work — championing emerging and local designers, questioning fashion’s obsession with excess, and exploring the power stylists have to influence not only what we see, but what we desire.

This is a conversation about turning rejection into creative fuel, making more with less, and recognizing that sustainability does not stop with the garment. It extends into the images, stories, choices, and culture we build around fashion.

In this episode, we explore:

✨ How a cold email led Ela to Iris van Herpen
✨ The unconventional beginnings of DOBS New York
✨ Turning “garbage” into an experimental fashion collection
✨ Working with landfill textiles, food waste, and natural dyes
✨ Why DOBS eventually gave way to a career in styling
✨ Supporting emerging and locally based designers
✨ How styling can make sustainability desirable
✨ Why fashion needs less production — and a stronger edit
✨ The power consumers have to change the industry
✨ Ela’s desire to return to designing on her own terms

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
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🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.

Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
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🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
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What happens when you see possibility in what fashion has already thrown away?

In this intimate episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with sustainable fashion pioneer, educator, and entrepreneur Bridget Artise, founder of Born Again Vintage, House of BAV, and Sustainable Fashion Week US.

Bridget shares how discarded garments became the foundation of a career spanning more than two decades, and how reinvention, personal loss, teaching, and community shaped the work she continues to build.

The conversation explores the evolution of Born Again Vintage, the growth of Sustainable Fashion Week US, its expansion to Los Angeles, and the importance of creating access for emerging designers.

This is not simply a conversation about giving clothing a second life.

It is about believing in an idea before the industry understands it, staying connected to your purpose, and creating the room you once wished existed.

In this episode, we explore:

✨ How Bridget found possibility in discarded garments
✨ The personal journey behind Born Again Vintage
✨ What more than 20 years of entrepreneurship taught her
✨ The creation and growth of Sustainable Fashion Week US
✨ Why education, mentorship, and community matter
✨ Creating greater access for emerging designers
✨ Consumer responsibility and greenwashing
✨ Staying connected to purpose as the work grows

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

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🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
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🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

What if the story of America could be read through what we wore?

In this special July 4th episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne reflects on America’s 250th birthday by looking at fashion not just as style, but as history, memory, labor, resistance, survival, and responsibility.

This episode asks a deeper question:

What has America been wearing for the last 250 years?

From homespun cloth and cotton to slops, disguise, feed sack dresses, wartime restrictions, denim, department stores, fast fashion, textile waste, repair, and reinvention, Michelle unpacks the beautiful and complicated story of American fashion.

This is not an episode about shaming anyone for what they buy or wear.

It is a conversation about awareness, context, and learning how to look at clothing with more honesty. Because every garment carries more than fabric. It can hold labor. It can hold memory. It can hold survival. It can hold identity. And sometimes, it can hold the systems we would rather not see.

Michelle explores how American fashion has always been shaped by contradiction: creativity and extraction, resourcefulness and waste, access and excess, beauty and harm. She traces the story from Revolutionary-era homespun cloth to cotton’s painful history, from clothing used as strategy by freedom seekers to feed sack dresses born from necessity, from wartime restrictions to denim’s transformation from durable workwear into global style.

This is not an episode about one perfect version of American fashion.

It is a conversation about telling the fuller story, honoring what was made by hand, acknowledging what was built through harm, and asking what kind of fashion future we want to carry forward.

In this episode, we explore:

✨ What America’s clothing reveals about identity, labor, and culture
✨ Why homespun cloth became a political statement
✨ How cotton sits at the center of one of American fashion’s biggest contradictions
✨ What “slops” reveal about clothing, labor, hierarchy, and control
✨ How clothing could become strategy, camouflage, and survival on the path to freedom
✨ Why feed sack dresses represent circular thinking before sustainability had a name
✨ How wartime restrictions changed fashion, materials, and creativity
✨ Why denim’s original message was durability, not disposability
✨ What fast fashion reveals about speed, access, waste, and constant newness
✨ Why the future of American fashion must include repair, intention, labor, and care

As America marks 250 years, this episode invites us to look inside the real closet: the jeans we always reach for, the dress we still keep, the jacket waiting to be repaired, the shirt we wore when we needed to feel stronger, and the pieces that still carry some version of who we were, who we are, and who we are becoming.

Because ethical fashion was never about taking the beauty out of fashion.

It was about putting the humanity back in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

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🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay curious. Stay conscious. Stay ethical. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
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What if the future of sustainable design was not found in a lab, but washed ashore?

In this solo episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne reflects on a recent trip to the Dominican Republic, where seeing large amounts of seaweed along the coastline sparked a deeper conversation about fashion, climate, tourism, material innovation, and responsibility.

This episode explores sargassum, seaweed, kelp, algae, and the growing movement of designers, scientists, brands, and coastal communities asking a bigger question:

Is this waste, warning, resource, opportunity, or all of the above?

Michelle unpacks why seaweed is more than a sustainability trend. It can be a material. It can be a signal. It can be part of a circular future. But it also comes with real questions around sourcing, labor, ecosystems, scale, and who benefits when nature becomes a design story.

This is not an episode about one miracle fiber saving fashion.

It is a conversation about curiosity, complexity, and learning how to notice what the industry too often ignores.

In this episode, we explore:

✨ What sargassum reveals about climate, coastlines, and design
✨ Why seaweed is not the same as kelp, algae, or seagrass
✨ How fashion is beginning to explore seaweed-based materials
✨ Why sustainability requires more than a beautiful material story
✨ What designers should ask before turning nature into a trend
✨ How coastal communities, local knowledge, and ethical sourcing fit into the future of materials
✨ Why the future of design may be asking us to pay closer attention

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

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Stay curious. Stay conscious. Stay ethical. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
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What if artificial intelligence was not here to replace fashion creatives, but to give them a faster, clearer, and more powerful way to bring their ideas to life?

In this episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with Mandisa Foster, Head of User Enablement and Solutions Engineering at Raspberry AI, for a timely conversation about fashion, creativity, technology, sustainability, and the future of design.

Mandisa is a fashion industry veteran turned technology leader with more than 15 years of experience in design and digital transformation. Through her work at Raspberry AI, she helps fashion brands and creative teams explore how artificial intelligence can support the design process, improve collaboration, reduce waste, and help ideas move from concept to visual reality faster than ever before.

At the center of this conversation is one of the biggest questions creatives are facing right now:

If the tool is becoming more powerful, what makes the talent even more essential?

Mandisa brings a grounded and deeply human perspective to that question. She explains that AI is not the designer. It is a tool. Just like the sewing machine, Adobe Illustrator, 3D software, and digital photography before it, AI is changing the creative process, but it still requires human taste, judgment, ethics, point of view, and imagination.

Together, Michelle and Mandisa explore how Raspberry AI helps fashion teams visualize garments on body, test fabrics and colorways, create photorealistic design concepts, collaborate across departments, and make more confident decisions before physical samples are ever produced.

This conversation also digs into one of fashion’s biggest sustainability challenges: sampling waste. Mandisa explains how AI can help teams reduce unnecessary sample rounds, shorten development timelines, and create a shared visual language between design, merchandising, production, and marketing.

But this episode is not just about speed.

It is about protecting creativity while evolving with technology. It is about helping designers use AI without losing their voice. It is about making room for emerging brands, independent designers, and smaller teams to access tools that were once only available to larger companies with major budgets.

This is not a conversation about replacing the human hand.

It is a conversation about what happens when technology supports human imagination.

In this episode, we explore:

✨ How Raspberry AI is changing fashion design and product development
✨ Why creatives are afraid of AI and why that fear is not new
✨ How AI can help reduce sampling waste before production begins
✨ Why human taste, judgment, ethics, and point of view still matter most
✨ How designers can use AI to test fabrics, colorways, silhouettes, and styling
✨ Why AI can help teams collaborate earlier across design, merchandising, production, and marketing
✨ How emerging designers and smaller brands can benefit from fashion technology
✨ Why generic prompts create generic outputs
✨ What makes a brand feel human in an AI-driven world
✨ How the fashion workflow may change over the next five years
✨ Why handcraft, tailoring, embroidery, and artistry still matter

Stitch Mob MVP of the Week:
✨ The creative users Mandisa trained in the UK, whose curiosity, innovation, and willingness to experiment with new workflows continue to inspire her.

Connect with Mandisa Foster & Raspberry AI:
🌍 Website: raspberry.ai

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay curious. Stay adaptable. Stay human. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

What if the biggest question about artificial intelligence is not whether it will replace us, but whether it can help us become more responsible humans?

In this episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with Mikaela Ringquist, Director of Partnerships at Climate Change AI and New York Chapter Chair for Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, for a timely conversation about climate, technology, ethics, accountability, and the future we are building.

Mikaela brings a rare perspective shaped by diplomacy, corporate sustainability, grassroots organizing, sustainable fashion, and climate-focused artificial intelligence. Together, Michelle and Mikaela explore how AI is already being used in climate solutions, from monitoring rainforests and detecting illegal logging to improving energy grids and supporting renewable energy systems.

But this conversation does not treat technology as a magic fix.

At the center of the episode is a deeper question: if technology helped accelerate some of the systems that created our climate crisis, can technology also help us repair them?

Michelle and Mikaela unpack the environmental footprint of AI, including data centers, energy use, water demand, and the difference between large language models and smaller, more purpose-built systems. Mikaela also breaks down why the “move fast and break things” mindset may be especially dangerous in this new era of artificial intelligence.

This episode also explores convenience culture, climate anxiety, corporate accountability, greenwashing, circular systems, community, and why physical spaces still matter in an increasingly digital world.

This is not just a conversation about AI.

It is a conversation about power, responsibility, imagination, and whether progress still has a conscience.

In this episode, we explore:

✨ How AI is being used in climate solutions
✨ The environmental impact of data centers and large AI models
✨ Why small, purpose-built AI systems may be more sustainable
✨ The connection between technology, power, and accountability
✨ Why convenience culture makes sustainability harder
✨ How companies are evolving beyond performative sustainability
✨ Why climate anxiety is real, especially for younger generations
✨ The importance of community in a digital-first world
✨ Why the future needs world-building, not just innovation
✨ How we can stay human while the world accelerates around us

Stitch Mob MVP of the Week:
✨ Climate Change AI, with a special shoutout to Mikaela’s colleagues Maria, Joao Souza, and Priya Donti for their work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, climate solutions, research, and public education.

Connect with Mikaela Ringquist & Climate Change AI:
🌍 Website: climatechange.ai

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay curious. Stay conscious. Stay human.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

What if the future of fashion wasn’t about buying more, but buying smarter?

In this episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with Kate Sanner, co-founder and CEO of Beni, the platform transforming how consumers discover secondhand fashion online in real time.

At the center of the conversation is a question quietly reshaping the entire industry:
If technology helped accelerate overconsumption, can technology also help us consume more consciously?

Kate breaks down how Beni is using AI and real-time fashion discovery to bring secondhand options directly into the online shopping experience, helping consumers find resale alternatives while they browse brand-new products. But this conversation goes far beyond resale.

Together, Michelle and Kate unpack the psychology of shopping, the emotional pull of convenience culture, the rise of circular fashion, and the invisible systems shaping modern consumer behavior. They explore how algorithms, advertising, and digital culture have fueled fast fashion habits, while also asking what it would look like to build technology that supports intention instead of impulse.

But this conversation goes deeper.

This episode dives into the growing tension between sustainability and consumerism, and whether the fashion industry is truly ready to rethink its dependence on endless production and rapid consumption. Kate shares why she believes the future of fashion is not about owning more things, but about helping people develop stronger personal style, deeper intentionality, and more meaningful relationships with what they wear.

This isn’t just a conversation about resale.
It’s a conversation about behavior, identity, technology, and the future of fashion culture itself.

In this episode, we explore:

✨ How Beni is reshaping secondhand fashion discovery using AI
✨ Why convenience often overrides sustainable intentions
✨ The psychology behind overconsumption and impulse shopping
✨ How resale culture became a form of personal style and cultural currency
✨ Why AI could either worsen or improve fashion waste
✨ The tension between fast fashion, resale, and overproduction
✨ Why the future of fashion may shift from ownership to access
✨ How younger generations are redefining shopping, rental, and identity
✨ What brands still avoid discussing about sustainability and waste
✨ Why personal style may become the next frontier of conscious fashion

Stitch Mob MVP of the Week:
✨ Pickle — the fashion rental platform redefining community-based closets and shared style culture in New York and beyond.

Connect with Kate Sanner & Beni:
Follow Beni on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Substack at @join_beni
🌍 Website: shopbeni.com

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay curious. Stay conscious. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

This episode is a little different.

Instead of a traditional interview, Michelle Alleyne takes you inside the room at the U.S. Leaders Forum in Washington, D.C., part of the U.S. Climate Action Summit hosted by the Climate Group. This is where policymakers, industry leaders, and decision-makers are not just discussing sustainability, but actively shaping what happens next.

What unfolds is a clear and urgent shift in perspective.

We are no longer facing a technology problem. The tools exist. Renewable energy is advancing. Infrastructure is evolving. The real challenge is execution.

Why are critical clean energy projects taking years, even decades, to move forward
What happens when energy demand is accelerating faster than our systems can respond
And how are industries like fashion and design connected to decisions being made far beyond their immediate scope

Through firsthand observations and conversations both on and off stage, Michelle breaks down what this moment actually feels like and what it reveals about where we are right now.

This episode also introduces a new segment, One Stitch at a Time, where complex systems are unpacked step by step to better understand how they shape the world we create and live in.

Because sustainability is no longer about innovation. It is about alignment. It is about action. And it is about closing the gap between what we know and what we do.

Listen in for a grounded, real-time perspective on climate, infrastructure, and the systems that connect us all.

Stay inquisitive. Stay bold. Stay stitched in.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

On this special Earth Day anniversary episode, host Michelle Alleyne celebrates one year of The Ethical Stitch and the global movement it has become. Over the past year, the podcast has featured 36 conversations with disruptors, farmers, designers, innovators, and changemakers from around the world, expanding the conversation far beyond fashion into design, agriculture, energy, materials, and sustainability at large. This episode is a reflection on growth, a heartfelt thank you to the guests and supporters who made this first year possible, and an exciting look ahead at what is still to come, including new formats, deeper engagement, and the launch of a Global Sustainability Summit.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

What if your clothes could talk?

In this episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with Donatela Bellone, founder and CEO of Alu, to explore how fashion is evolving from something we simply wear into something we experience.

At the center of the conversation is the rise of digital product passports, a technology that has the potential to transform every garment into a living, breathing story. Not just where it was made, but who made it, how it impacts the planet, and what happens next after you wear it.

Donatela breaks down how these passports go beyond compliance and into connection. Think styling guidance, resale pathways, exclusive experiences, and personalized interactions that extend far beyond the moment of purchase.

But this conversation goes deeper.

Together, they unpack the uncomfortable truth about fashion’s current model of overproduction and waste, and why the industry is still stuck there. Then they shift into what’s actually changing. A new consumer mindset. A growing appetite for circularity. A cultural move away from owning more, toward experiencing more.

This isn’t just about sustainability. It’s about behavior.

It’s about how technology, especially AI, is reshaping how we shop, style, resell, and relate to what’s in our closet. And more importantly, how brands have an opportunity to build real relationships with their customers long after the sale is made.

If fashion has always been about desire, this episode asks a bigger question.
What happens when fashion starts building connection instead?

In this episode, we explore:

• What digital product passports actually are and why they matter
• How fashion contributes to global emissions and waste at scale
• Why most sustainability efforts fail to engage consumers
• The future of circular fashion, resale, and rental economies
• How AI is transforming styling, shopping, and secondhand discovery
• What brands are getting wrong about transparency and engagement
• Why the next era of fashion is about experience, not ownership

Stitch Mob MVP of the Week:
Kate, founder of Benny — an app helping consumers find secondhand versions of the styles they love.

Connect with Donatela Bellone:
Follow her on LinkedIn and explore her Substack, Lab Positive Society, for insights on sustainability, consumer behavior, and the future of fashion.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

In this episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with Swati Argade, a creative entrepreneur, textile expert, and operational strategist whose work lives at the intersection of culture, craftsmanship, and conscious business.

This conversation moves beyond surface-level sustainability and into something deeper.

Michelle and Swati explore what it really means to grow a creative business without losing its soul. From global textile traditions and the stories embedded in fabric, to the systems and structures required to scale responsibly, this episode challenges the industry to rethink how fashion is built.

They dive into the tension between craft and commerce.
Between storytelling and systems.
Between intention and execution.

Swati shares her journey from building a globally recognized boutique rooted in ethical sourcing, to stepping into a new chapter focused on operations, interiors, and reimagining how we use what already exists.

This is a conversation about:

• Why making more isn’t always the answer
• How fashion connects to history, identity, and social justice
• The rise of secondhand, reuse, and resource-driven design
• Community as a powerful counter to isolation and overconsumption
• And what it looks like to build responsibly in a world that rewards speed

This episode asks a bigger question:

Can we scale creativity without losing its meaning?

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

This week, we’re joined by the powerhouse duo behind Our Fashion Fix, Jo Ingham and Jo Ward, two industry veterans with the insight, candor, and credibility to say what others won’t. Together, they unpack the realities of fashion’s sustainability crisis, the limits of performative progress, and the kind of bold, responsible thinking required to move the industry forward. It’s an honest, intelligent conversation about circular fashion, transparency, and what real change actually looks like.

🌿 The Ethical Stitch
Hosted by Michelle Alleyne

Follow us for more threads of truth:
📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial
🌍 Website: http://michellealleyne.com/

🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.
Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.