The next interview for our #Otherfinds launch campaign is Georgia, a Responsibility Ambassador for Ganni, who is going to give us an insight on her experience within the streetwear community:
Image Source: Georgia Dochoda.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role around ethical fashion?
My name’s Georgia Dochoda, I’m currently living in South London and am working for the Danish fashion brand GANNI as a Client Advisor at one of their stores on Floral Street in Covent Garden as well as having been appointed as their Responsibility Ambassador for the UK. I’ve been working for GANNI since July last year and was initially drawn to the company for their beautiful colourful Scandinavian clothes but I really fell in love with the brand because of the core values based on responsibility tied to their four P’s: people, planet, product and prosperity.
As I had spent a year studying and living in Helsinki, Finland I could really understand and admire the more behind-the-scenes approach that GANNI have taken around ethical and responsible fashion as they really try to stay away from any sort of green-washing marketing that many brands seem to be pushing for at the moment. It is my role as Responsibility Ambassador to really communicate and educate in an engaging way about the work that GANNI are doing with each garment, whether that is their Software line which is made from 50% pre-consumer waste and 50% post-consumer waste or even the fact that every store runs on clean energy.
I am also about to work with the fashion rental app ByRotation as one of their first ambassadors which is really exciting because it’s changing the way that we see our wardrobes and bringing technology and sustainable fashion together in a really fun way.
When/where would you say you realised that you wanted to be involved in a brand that In some way moves towards more ethical involvement?
I think it was when I was studying for my degree in Human Geography (alongside Film Studies, German and the History of Art) because as much as I enjoyed the political side to it I always wanted to find my way into a more creative field after university. I wrote my dissertation based around the secondhand clothing in my friends’ wardrobes and the memories and emotions they attach to them. I found that if we attach more of a ‘bond’ with our clothing- which I think is easier when we know the process and people who made it- we are less likely to part with it and/ or buy other items. I was also studying a module ‘The Geographies of Material Culture’ and did some work with Fashion Revolution as well as organise clothes swaps to support various charities linked to Amnesty International.
Second Female yellow check jacket
Djerf Avenue grey trousers
Marimekko scarf (secondhand)
GANNI tech bag New Balances + Lexxola’s
Image Sources: Georgia Dochoda.
What is the most rewarding thing about ethical streetwear to you?
I really really love clothes and I love the excitement of finding or purchasing new clothes as much as the next person but I think the best feeling is knowing that what you’ve found or purchased doesn’t have to come with that typical feeling of guilt when you buy from certain brands. I love knowing that my GANNI tracksuit is made from waste because in reality you’d have no idea until you read the label or if I told you. I enjoy the fact that ethical streetwear can look no different from its unethical versions from a distance but it is really rewarding to know that the brand has put more thought into its production process and the people who have made it.
If you could see into the future of the ethical streetwear market, what would you like it to look like?
I would love for the future of ethical streetwear to just become the future of streetwear and for there to be no need for a distinction between the two camps because every brand big and small had found it in themselves to take time, effort and money to better the people, product and process that effectively runs their businesses. I think that in streetwear so much emphasis is placed on the final product and there is so much hype surrounding a shoe or a new collaboration so that people often forget or lose sight of the unethical decisions that have been made in the lead up to that product being in your wardrobe. I would love for both the brands and the consumers to care as much about the people who made the shoe, for instance, as they did trying to cop it.
Finally, the launch campaign of this brand is centred around ‘other finds’, which could be anything from a piece of streetwear purchased second hand, swapped with a friend, or even buying a new product that is focused around more ethical practises , what is your favourite ‘other find’?
Image Source: Georgia Dochoda.
I love this as a campaign concept! I’m actually working on a zine that’s going to have a section like this- a bit similar to my dissertation around wardrobes. After some thought- because I am a person of many things- I’d have to say a bag from the collaboration between Arc’teryx and Greater Goods (founded by the great Jaimus Tailor). I’d been following the work by GG for a while, whose tagline is ‘Nothing into Something’ and heard they were releasing this collab only in the London store so thought I had to go before work. The items were all made from damaged or unwearable Arc’teryx garments such as ski jackets and some had been kept for up to 15 years by the brand. I managed to get this khaki bag that still made use of some of the zip up pockets and had so much history and memory stored in it and is now being used in a totally different context. Definitely a bag for life!
Image Source: Georgia Dochoda.
Catch up with Georgia and her latest work on her IG: @__who__is__g__