In episode 157, the first show of Season 4, Kestrel welcomes Ayesha Barenblat, the founder of Remake, back to the show, along with Sajida Silva, a student at California College of the Arts, and one of the future designers who was chosen to join Remake for their Made In Mexico trip. A non-profit that believes that fashion can be a force for good, Remake makes the invisible women who power the fashion industry visible through firsthand documentary footage and stories.
On this week’s show, Kestrel reconnects with Sajida + Ayesha, who she joined last October on Remake’s trip to Mexico, as part of their documentary series.
Ayesha sheds light on how distinct this trip was for Remake, considering that so many of the students and influencers spoke Spanish, as well as how we had to meet with the women garment workers outside of a factory setting. Due to not being able to gain access, Remake brought the women from different parts of the country to Mexico City to a safe house to connect with us.
Sajida shares more on the layers of why this experience was so powerful to her, and how inspired she was by the fierceness of the women garment workers we connected with.
The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat:
“Our approach is so different [from auditing processes], and there’s something the industry can really learn from that. It’s not transactional and extraction in value. We were there to bear witness and really, to listen.”
“I think Reina said it best when she said, ‘the price of what you pay for a garment reflects the exploitation.’”
“The more we center this conversation on women on either end of the supply chain — shopper + maker — rising up to ask for dignity, living wages, protections; that’s a very different conversation than sweatshop workers far away that have nothing to do with my life struggles.”
