MAGPIES & PEACOCKS: REDEFINING FASHION'S FUTURE

AHSHIA BERRY & SARAH-JAYNE SMITH (FOUNDERS OF MAGPIES & PEACOCKS)

In a world where fashion often seems synonymous with excess and waste, a beacon of hope emerges in the form of MAGPIES AND PEACOCKS. This revolutionary nonprofit design house stands at the forefront of a movement dedicated to transforming the industry's approach to sustainability and social responsibility.

Founded by a dynamic duo with a vision as bold as it is altruistic, Magpies and Peacocks has become the nation's pioneering force in repurposing post-consumer clothing, scrap textiles, and accessories. Their mission? To disrupt the wasteful cycle that plagues the fashion landscape, while simultaneously addressing the profound environmental and social repercussions it engenders.

We had the privilege of sitting down with the visionary founders behind this remarkable initiative. Join me as we delve into their inspiring journey, innovative practices, and unwavering commitment to reshaping the future of fashion—one recycled thread at a time.

Can you provide us with an overview of Magpies & Peacocks' mission and how the company is making a difference in the fashion industry's sustainability landscape?

Magpies & Peacocks is the nation’s only 501(c)3 non-profit design house dedicated to the collection and sustainable reuse of post-consumer clothing, scrap textiles and accessories diverted from landfill – in order to disrupt the cycle of waste in the fashion industry and mitigate its enormous environmental and social impact. We work with an in-house team of designers, makers and artists to create unique up-cycled products, offer skill building and sustainability education, and incubate circular fashion innovation. Our model rests on four pillars: Collaborate, Create, Educate and Invest.

We strive to make a difference in the fashion industry with:

1. Resource conservation - reclaim reuse upcycle repair - circularity

2. Lower carbon footprint - curbing consumption, transportation, chemical use

3. Conservation - water, trees, petrochemicals

4. Mitigation - toxic production, chemicals, pollution, ethical treatment of workers

How does this structure support your sustainability goals?

It is a long road ahead to fix a systemic industry so riddled with environmental and social issues, but it can be done if we educate people on the ramifications of textile waste, the value of conscious consumption, and provide them with the creative knowledge and tools to be part of the solution. In direct response to Sustainable Development Goals 4, 5, 8 10,12, 14 & 15 - education, equality, fair wages and conditions, responsible consumption and production, and the ultimate regard for people and planet before profit, are all pillars of our ongoing mission.

The concept of upcycling is at the heart of your organization. How do you source post-consumer clothing and textiles, and what creative processes are involved in transforming these materials into unique products?

5. Waste reduction - diverting from landfill, extending lifespan

6. Building eco systems - regenerating the industry that is kinder to people and planet

Could you elaborate on the significance of being a 501(c)3 non-profit design house?

Tax deductible and gluten free was one of our original tag lines! When we started the organization 13 years ago we were looking for ways to engage the community without the weight and burden of all of the negative information about the industry. The non profit business model allows us to present an easy way for people to participate and it really caught on that by donating their post consumer textiles they could also receive a tax deduction, this is also a major benefit to big brands that donate to us and grantors that support our mission.

We have honed a unique non profit business model to facilitate diverting a targeted pollutant material from the waste stream; established how to work with city officials, sports authorities, convention districts, hotels, parks, event companies and colleges, alongside businesses and the community to keep that material out of landfill; and turned that material into a platform for manufacturing, quality employment and training - all of which could be applied to any city to improve their sustainability goals and meet the needs of their community. It is our long term goal to be able to effect change at scale with this model. The process of reworking that material has grown exponentially too - we employ zero waste techniques where possible (using the entirety of the piece we’re upcycling) as well as developing innovate techniques to working with nonconventional materials. Often it is the material that determines the end product so the team is always brainstorming the approach to a solution.

Magpies & Peacocks focuses on disrupting the cycle of waste in the fashion industry. How do you see your efforts contributing to reducing the industry's environmental impact on a broader scale?

Magpies & Peacocks has worked in environmental arts for 12 years – addressing the systemic social and environmental issues within the fashion and textiles industries. The demand for our service for textile recycling has grown exponentially, with intake from the community doubling, and from local businesses tripling in the last year alone. Support from local and national organizations that align themselves to community has meant we can steadily raise our capacity to meet that demand, while building a space for learning, creating, growing and gathering in the heart of an under-served neighborhood.

To date we have diverted 195+ tons of textile waste from landfill. We have transformed that waste material into over 12,000 up-cycled products and turned our production process into a training ground for over 45 members of the community including adding workforce experience tracks and apprenticeships for community college students/graduates. With $100 billion of usable textiles lost to landfill every year, human rights atrocities ruling the global fashion industry and an increasing available local workforce – it has never felt more relevant than to present economic opportunities to the underserved unemployed here in the US. Every small step in that journey has impact so we are constantly trying to leverage that progress!

Collaboration seems to be a key pillar of your organization. Could you share some examples of successful collaborations that have resulted in innovative upcycled products?

We are currently partnering with Southwest Airlines as part of their Repurpose with Purpose program, creating clothing collections and small goods upcycled form the aircraft leather. in addition to runway looks we are working on exhibits for airports as well as custom pieces for their executives. We are also partners with

Houston’s convention center which means we have a steady stream of banners and left over textiles from them, and have created many hundreds of products for Houston First (the city of Houston’s marketing arm) for VIP sporting events from material from the NFL, Rodeo, Women’s March, as wells our theater district and sports authority!

Your commitment to education is evident. How do you incorporate sustainability education into your initiatives, and what role does it play in promoting conscious consumer choices? and 14. What kind of skill-building opportunities do you offer to emerging designers, makers, and artists who are passionate.

In direct contrast to the global fashion industry and its demand for cheap and trafficked labor, we have an intentional approach to creating workforce pipelines, advancing inclusive entrepreneurship and building a framework for advancing racial, economic and social equity. It is essential that we center that equity to create a stronger more representative workforce pipeline for our community, and after decades of economic trends that wiped out local manufacturing, that we finally harness the opportunity to create a more ethical, sustainable, diverse and inclusive future for the industry.

Our products are a vehicle for our message so it is essential that each piece carry with it an origin, our process and the importance of their decision to purchase it! It is a shared responsibility and a shared benefit to do right by people and planet.

Magpies & Peacocks has over the last two years drilled down on our MAKR Collective training program, realizing that quality not quantity results in higher impact – tailoring our tracks to accommodate the growth of an individual to effect real change in their lives. Whether we are teaching a woman to sew to make clothes for her family, helping to build a small business for an underserved entrepreneur looking to redefine her own destiny, or employing someone to advance them to professional level with us – we are interested in redirecting the narrative for our survivors and trainees – establishing new stories, passions and opportunities for them, and most importantly building on their personal empowerment to act on them. Maker spaces, such as ours, inherently foster creative innovation, and we do so at a skill by skill level - meeting the demand for community-embedded urban manufacturing and other needs head on. This holistic approach to workforce opportunity means that we are able to tailor skills to the local demand in real time. We currently have tracks in sewing, warehouse management, retail and café. a closed-loop system, reducing waste and maximizing the lifespan of clothing and textiles. This is effectively the dictionary definitionand with that goes the need to pivot from one material to another, from one technique to another and to find the highest and best use of each material. Most graduating designers are not used to working that way, so there is a definitely a learning curve to that! Pretty much everything we make is a limited edition or small batch piece that doesn’t start with a conventional pattern and the material will often dictate the product and technique. As a team we are constantly learning from each other and from our materials.

94% of our MAKR Collective trainee participants are of color, all have multiple social vulnerabilities and are aged between 24-50yrs. Most clients identify as female or from the LGBTQIA+ communities. All were living below the poverty line. We have trained survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence and housing insecurities and are soon to be working with veterans and opening our doors to the community for workshops. Our current team is made up from people from all walks of life.

Circular fashion innovation is an intriguing aspect of your model. Can you give us insights into how you nurture and support such innovation within your organization? and 8. In-house design teams often work with a wide array of materials. How do your designers approach the challenge of working with diverse textiles to create cohesive and visually appealing products?

Circular fashion refers to an approach within the fashion industry that aims to create

Sustainability is now a buzzword in the fashion industry. How do you ensure that the products created by Magpies & Peacocks align with both ethical and aesthetic standards?

Sustainability is certainly a buzzword but the fashion industry hides behind many trends to keep the state of systemically ugly 1.7 billion dollar industry from view. Most of what appears to be sustainability is in fact marketing, resulting in a massive swathe of greenwashing that influences the consumer purchase. Creating a conscious consumer is the job of every organization in the sustainability sector and we take that job very seriously!

Ethics and aesthetics should never be mutually exclusive - good design is good design and just because a production team are paid a living wage and the material is sourced responsibly that should never be up for question. There has always been a trope about the ‘crafty’ aspect of upcycling as if it less than fashion, but transversely that sustainable fashion is expensive. The truth is that all fashion should be ethical and sustainable and anyone who thinks otherwise is happy with the appalling statistics of an exploitative industry that represents one of the planets worst polluters.

The fashion world is often associated with fast-paced trends. How do you balance the need for staying relevant with your long-term vision of sustainable, timeless fashion?

Fast fashion was born out of the globalization of the industry and with that came ways of hiding poor practices, pollution and depletion of resources. It was designed to herd consumers into thinking that clothing quickly becomes out-dated and designing multiple collections seasonally created the necessary volume of sales needed to accommodate the high yield production system synonymous with this exploitative labor model. Slow fashion addresses that in its entirety not just because it is right but because it is necessary - re-shoring production, creating jobs and a consciously sourced supply chain. Long-term fashion will have to compete in this arena to stay transparent and accountable. Staying relevant is about doing what is required above and beyond the call of duty, while still delivering exceptional design. It is the responsibility of all design houses to lead and not follow trends.

Could you provide examples of the social impact your organization has had within local communities? How do your efforts extend beyond environmental conservation?

As as organization we measure our success in many different ways, but our impact is always measured from the perspective of People, Planet, Purpose and Profit. Through an Environmental lens - success for us is measured by the tons of textiles we can divert from landfill and up-cycle; Though a Social lens - how many lives we can reach and impact through our programming, focusing on small classes to maximize quality over quantity learning; Through an Arts and Culture lens - how many students, designers, artists and makers can we educate, engage, collaborate and work with as a creative hub, and; Through an

Economic lens - how do our products succeed as a vehicle for our message of sustainability and what support have we been able to garner for the work that we do in the community.

Magpies & Peacocks is a proud committee member for The Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA) – a national coalition of manufacturing practitioners working together to grow more equitable and prosperous economies by building robust, sustainable, and inclusive urban manufacturing sectors. We are also part of the 2023 international NEST Artisan Accelerator – supporting the responsible growth and creative engagement of the artisan & maker economy to build a world of greater gender equity and economic inclusion, bringing radical transparency and opportunity to the informal hand-worker economy. Additionally we are active advisory board members of Houston Community College, and MendIt App and GAP Inc are our partners in training for our Alternations and Repairs track. Magpies & Peacocks were named Gucci Changemakers in 2021 (Gucci team members now serve on our advisory board) and we one of two spotlight brands that Afterpay choose as their environmental non-profits during Earth Month.

Magpies & Peacocks has four core pillars: Collaborate, Create, Educate, and Invest. How do these pillars work together to achieve your overarching goals?

Collaborate: Connecting local businesses, artists, designers, and educators

Create: Producing up-cycled high quality, socially responsible products and solutions

Educate: Providing training, and sustainability mentorship

Invest: Supporting under served community workforce development

Our Vision and Values

Through collaboration we can:

• Build a sustainable future for local makers & designers

• Promote social responsibility, ethics and circular innovation

• Raise essential funding for creative community development

Non-profit organizations often face unique challenges. How do you navigate the business side of things while maintaining your focus on sustainability and social impact?

Balancing a non profit model with design house practices has certainly been a challenge. Creating multiple income streams has been essential for survival on a nonprofit budget but more importantly creating a manual for how to work with your city, schools, businesses, sports teams, theaters, conventions and your community has been essential in being replicable and scaleable. In truth it has been a 12 year struggle to get where we are today and it will be a struggle to get where we will be tomorrow, but the journey is as important as the arrival and in order to have impact you have to be in it for the long run. We are so grateful for all the support we’ve received, the opportunities we have ahead of us and hope that social responsibility continues to drive forward-thinking industries to champion circular innovation!

Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for the future of Magpies & Peacocks? How do you envision your organization's role in shaping the future of the fashion industry?

Replicable

Scalable

National & international

Funded by the city/state

Fully integrated

Leading by example and collaborative

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AHSHIA BERRY & SARAH-JAYNE SMITH FOUNDERS OF MAGPIES & PEACOCKS

AHSHIA BERRY & SARAH-JAYNE SMITH FOUNDERS OF MAGPIES & PEACOCKS

AHSHIA BERRY & SARAH-JAYNE SMITH FOUNDERS OF MAGPIES & PEACOCKS

AHSHIA BERRY & SARAH-JAYNE SMITH FOUNDERS OF MAGPIES & PEACOCKS