Walking the walk –
HB: This is really interesting. Have I told you about my friend Guy? He runs Dempstah. So he’s just won a prize with Ebay and is recycling fibres into yarns. You should look it up actually! But anyway, him and his partner are doing a tour of Europe to try and find this machine, they are either going to buy a shiny new one, or find a second hand one and they’ll take it back and put it on his parents’ property in Tasmania. He’s like ‘you can just send me all of your textile waste and I’ll recycle it'. He’s stocked in Maker Maker for his yarns.
AW: Wow. I’m always keeping an eye out for stuff like that, we’ve got someone we point everyone towards. There’s one in Australia and there’s one in New Zealand, they are slightly different companies but they recycle textiles. Basically anything that’s salvageable obviously op shop and stuff. For example when I moved house there were old sheets, old towels, things that are not good enough for the op shop.
HB: I need to just get rid of my old sock collection.
AW: They turn it into mattress stuffing and it gets used, which I think is so good. We all know to go to the op shop but there’s this problem -
HB: So much goes into the op shop and they have too much and they have to dispose of it.
AW: Yeah, it just goes to landfill. You need to take responsibility for the stuff. It’s the whole cycle isn’t it. It’s about taking responsibility, not just about buying the right thing. Maintaining it, repairing it, and when you do have to get rid of it being really thoughtful about where that’s going to end up.
But yeah, to circle back to what you said about not being preachy. I totally agree and I feel like it’s tricky because obviously this is something that we feel passionate about and people do ask me about these things and then they’ll sheepishly say oh I bought this from Kmart or –
HB: Yeah they always do that to me too!
AW: I’m like oh it’s okay, anything worth doing is worth doing imperfectly. If we’re all doing as much as we can and we’re improving, that’s a lot.
HB: If they have that thought process when they’re buying it, ‘oh Holly’s not gonna be happy with me’ - which [some of] my friends are like, they tell me that and I’m stoked, because they’ve thought about it before they’ve bought it… They always wear it for a long time, they’re not wearing it for one wear and not thinking about the cycle. That’s the best that I can do. I don’t want them to be spending all of their money on something that’s not gonna serve them.
AW: The other thing, you think about [is]; this is something I care about - how do I share this with people I care about, that I know would also care about this without being preachy?
HB: It’s literally just wearing -
AW: Yeah! My friend Mel from Cecilia Fox - she said the approach that she heard that really resonated with her, and has resonated with me as well was to do it with joy, and do it with ease. So bring your keep cup and know that it’s nice drinking out of a keep cup.
HB: Ah, it tastes so much better.
AW: Shout out James if you’re reading this - James took his Spice Girls mug every morning going to All Press.
HB: Oh my god a Spice Girls mug. That’s so iconic!
AW: There’s no guilt tripping required! If you are wearing some amazing piece and someone notices that you are wearing it every second day -
HB: YES.
AW: You’re normalising it. You haven’t guilt tripped them about fast fashion.
HB: It gets easier each time you do it as well. It’s like getting a new haircut or wearing a new item of clothing. I don’t think everyone does this but - If I wear something new, sometimes it takes a few goes to feel really comfy in it. Because I wear my own clothes every single day - cuuuute!
*** Holly is distracted by the dog we drive past, and a nice jacket’ ***
HB: But that lilac t-shirt [I just got] I have literally worn it every single day since I bought it and I haven't felt the need to get used to it.
AW: Well the whole ‘everyone needing to bring bags to the supermarket’ thing. We all got it. But in terms of clothes, which is obviously our passion, I do always feel like it’s - this sounds really tacky but I do mean it - like people are all on a different path of that journey. Of getting to know their own personal style to be able to invest in something. Because the reality is investing in a pair of boots, or investing in whatever, it is a lot of money and you have to be really sure about the piece.
HB: Also a lot of the time it’s just online now, because we’re so tiny we can’t afford a shop-front *laughs*
AW: Yes, often if people are like ‘oh I don’t have the funds right now’ or, ‘I do have the funds but I’m saving up for something but I’m not really sure if it’s something I want to wear for five years’, I get that. That’s so fine. It might be in ten years time [when], you’re in a different spot.
HB: And still thinking about that garment.
This conversation was recorded on Holly's second last day in Auckland, driving into Anna's studio. One week after HB Archive x Francie Pop Up. 9th of May, 2024.
