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:

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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