Episode 210: Slow Fashion Is Art, with Corinne Loperfido

Welcome to Clotheshorse, the podcast that has not taken a break or gotten some rest after the Jamboree, so please stop asking. Fortunately I’m still riding high on a few things:

1. Getting to spend time IRL with rad members of our community. Seriously, I’m still a little tired (and kinda catching up on every aspect of my life right now), but my heart and my brain are exploding with joy after spending two days with members of the slow fashion community from all over the US
2. Feeling super proud that I nailed the introduction to the live episode without looking at my note cards.
3. Just what a cool group of people the Jamboree was: so many different kinds of people of all ages with uniquely different style and life experiences.  I kept looking around and thinking “YES!!! This is what slow fashion is!”

I’m your host, Amanda and this is episode 210.  This week you are going to meet Corinne Loperfido, a social practice artist based in Texas.  We are going to talk about so many things slow fashion related, including:

• Why the merch industrial complex is a problem, and what a better future for merch could look like,
• Advice for starting your own journey into slow fashion,
• And the Slow Fashion Center for Degrowth.  Don’t know what that is? Don’t worry, you’re going to learn all about it…and hopefully be inspired to start your own Slow Fashion Center for Degrowth in YOUR community!

Before that, I thought we could take a few minutes to sort of recap the Clotheshorse Jamboree, which happened just two weeks ago here in Lancaster, PA. For two days, we hung out, did fun activities, learned a lot of new stuff, and made some new friends.  And guess what? It was FUCKING AMAZING!!!

We did so much stuff!

•  Learned about how to be a better thrifter and how to talk to others about slow fashion in two presentations I led with snazzy graphics and lots of great conversations.
• Played BRENDA (slow fashion trivia bingo–a game I invented and I hope to play again some time soon) and won fabulous thrifted PA souvenirs. Btw, I don’t know who won the horseshoes with the horse photos, but they were made by my 10 year-old Amish neighbor!
• Made cool stuff in the Ultimate Secondhand Craft Supply Challenge. Casey did such an amazing job organizing the supplies and helping people find their “medium.” I still can’t believe how amazing everybody’s projects were! The prizes were thrifted vintage craft kits.
• We Ate incredible local food put together by Cori, including a lot of stuff cooked with love by her. And some pickles grown and made by me!
• Watched an episode of Star Trek DS9 about unionization and labor rights, followed by a conversation led by Christine of Lady Hogg Vintage.
• Talked about how understanding our own personal style (and embracing it) is a key part of the slow fashion way of life. Followed by a very relaxing collage session.
• Dustin and Brad helped everyone make their own one-of-a-kind merch with CH iron-on transfers and our rack of secondhand tees and other garments.
• Ended it all with the first ever live-before-a-studio-audience episode of Clotheshorse. PEOPLE FREAKING APPLAUDED FOR ME AND IT WAS WILD!! I literally started tearing up when I walked out on stage to that applause and I ugly cried when I heard it while I was editing that episode. Seriously, what a life changing moment for me, as someone who has always felt not-good-enough and still feels like most people on the internet hate me. 
• What else? Well, there was the fruit wall, that took about six months to assemble (including tracking down all of that thrifted fruit).  Speaking of thrifted, just about everything we used–from dishes to utensils to craft supplies to the game pieces for BRENDA–was secondhand.  It was important to me that I don’t know, we “proved” that events could be less wasteful. I will tell you more about all of that in the next episode of Clotheshorse, which will be about THRIFTING in honor of Secondhand September!

Let’s listen to some attendees share their experience at the Jamboree.  I recorded these using my portable recording device while everyone was crafting.  There is some background noise, which by now, hopefully Dustin has minimized with the magic of technology, but if background noise is a sensory no-no for you, go ahead and fast forward about five minutes.  The last little part of this round up of attendee comments is from Itohan, who was kind enough to send her thoughts afterward!

Just hearing those messages two weeks later reminds me of what a life changing, energizing experience the Jamboree was for me. And I’m so proud that it happened.  There were several times where I considered calling it off.  To be honest,  I did not sell that many tickets. I lost a few thousand dollars of my own money to pull it off.  Events are expensive and risky. And apparently you are supposed to lose money the first time you have an event?  Fortunately I was able to pick up extra work to offset that.  And it was definitely money well spent!  And while I woke up before dawn on the first day of the Jamboree thinking “how am I going to pull this off? Why did I do this?” That feeling disappeared within five minutes of arriving at the Candy Factory and got to hug so many people that I was excited to meet IRL for the first time!

THANK YOU to the amazing volunteers who helped make this happen:  Casey, Stacie, Christine, Alex, Jessi, and Cori. This could not have happened without all of their help and support.  And something kinda magical began to help on the second day:  Everyone just kinda started pitching in:  loading stuff up, picking up trash, making chalkboard signs, setting up chairs, moving furniture, and so on.  There’s so much of that involved in an event like this and I’m just so grateful for everyone’s help!

For the past six months, putting together the Jamboree has eaten every moment of time that I wasn’t actively working or doing housework or sleeping, so it feels kinda weird to have that time back now.  Imagine how many books I can read! Mending I can tackle! I can finally finish the massive latch hook project that I began during the winter!

HERE’S THE BIG NEWS: We are going to do this again late spring 2025 in PORTLAND, OR!!! I don’t have many more details for you yet, but I am excited to do this on the west coast and hopefully reach a lot more people! So stay tuned as the plan develops!

Okay, that’s enough about the Jamboree (for now).  Let’s get down to the main event of this episode: meeting Corinne!

Transcript unavailable

Thanks to Corinne for spending some time with me.  You have no idea how much work guests put into these episodes some times. Corinne and I spent two hours sweating our butts off (literally) only to have to come back and do another hour of recording a week later thanks to some massive technical difficulties! Fortunately I had such an awesome time talking with Corinne, that it felt perfectly fun and great to spend that much time together!  I will be sharing all of the ways you can find Corinne in the show notes, including her upcoming event at Shop Slow in Austin, TX.

The last thing I will say to round out this episode: community is everything. It’s where I find my  motivation, my energy, my strength, and my hope.. And whether it’s by having conversations like this with Corinne or you know, hosting a two day event in my town, or chatting with y’all in the comments section on a social media post, it all matters. Connecting with other people who are passionate about our planet and its people…it’s magical! My favorite thing about slow fashion is the other people involved in it.  And while “sustainable fashion” is the domain of brands and big organizations, “slow fashion” feels like our own thing. It’s support, care, mutual aid, encouragement, people, and creativity.  It’s fun and warm and so unique. And everyone is welcome. The gatekeeping of “fashion” is not a part of slow fashion.  It’s for everyone, no matter where they live, the size or age of their bodies, how much money they have or any other criteria that is often used to keep people out of fashion.  Moreover, yes, it makes us feel good…but it also actually creates social change. And social change leads to global change. And global change leads to…a better future and life for all us on this planet.  So let’s keep this going. Let’s make slow fashion something that everyone understands, that brings everyone together in a world where everyone feels increasingly isolated.  I know that we can do it…because we already are!