The Ethical Stitch with Michelle Alleyne

Michelle Alleyne
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Fashion & Beauty
  • Updated Weekly

The Ethical Stitch with Michelle Alleyne 🎙 Where fashion meets its conscience—and gets a glow-up. Welcome to The Ethical Stitch, the unapologetically bold podcast unraveling the truth behind what we wear—and how it's made. Hosted by fashion sustainability expert and industry insider Michelle Alleyne, this weekly series exposes the hidden cost of fast fashion while spotlighting the changemakers, designers, and disruptors who are reshaping style with purpose. From her front-row seat as a professor at Parsons and FIT to the factory floors of global production hubs, Michelle brings two decades of unfiltered insight, real talk, and solution-focused conversations. Whether you're a curious consumer or a fashion industry insider, this podcast is your go-to for smarter style choices, ethical design thinking, and jaw-dropping truths the labels won't tell you. 🔥 Expect hot takes like: — “No more polyester.”— “Stop calling it vegan leather.”— “Why aren’t your fave designers doing better?” Plus: actionable tips, behind-the-scenes stories, and interviews with the innovators making sustainability sexy. If you care about the planet and your closet, pull up a chair.New episodes drop every week. Follow @michellealleyneofficial and visit michellealleyne.com to learn more. Because in the future of fashion, ethics aren’t optional—they’re iconic.

  1. 6d ago

    Circular Fashion at EILEEN FISHER with Carmen Gama

    What if the future of fashion isn’t about making more, but creating greater value from what already exists? In this thought-provoking episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with Carmen Gama, Circular Design Lead at EILEEN FISHER, for a conversation about circularity, design, systems thinking, and what it actually takes to move sustainable fashion from intention into action. From her early creative life in Mexico to studying at Parsons and eventually joining EILEEN FISHER through the CFDA Social Innovator Fellowship, Carmen shares how resourcefulness, curiosity, and a desire to rethink waste helped shape her path as a designer. Together, Michelle and Carmen explore what circular fashion looks like beyond the buzzwords, from designing with a garment’s next life in mind to the infrastructure, leadership, collaboration, and investment required to make circular systems work at scale. In this episode, we explore: ✨ What circular design really means when put into practice ✨ How Carmen’s upbringing and design journey shaped her approach to waste and value ✨ Why innovation alone cannot transform the fashion system ✨ The role leadership and collaboration play in scaling circularity ✨ How EILEEN FISHER is rethinking the life of garments through take-back, resale, remanufacturing, and recycling ✨ Why the relationship between brands, designers, and consumers matters ✨ What it could mean for fashion to move beyond sustainability toward regenerative design Carmen reminds us that changing fashion requires more than good intentions. It requires designing differently, understanding the systems around the product, and thinking about value long before something is considered waste. Sometimes the next chapter of a garment has to be imagined before the first one is even finished. Follow Carmen and her work: 📱 Instagram: @gamma.carmen 💼 LinkedIn: Carmen Gama 🌿 Follow EILEEN FISHER on Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn for more on its circularity and design work. 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in. 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

    Circular Fashion at EILEEN FISHER with Carmen Gama

  2. Oct 1

    The Green Apple Afterglow: What Stayed With Me After NYC Climate Week

    What stays with you after the panels end, the badges come off, and New York starts returning to normal? In this special solo episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne takes listeners inside her own experience of Climate Week NYC, sharing the conversations, people, and ideas that continued to resonate long after the week wrapped. This is not a play-by-play of Climate Week. It is Michelle’s edit. From having the honor of speaking at the Fusion Fashion Tech Summit at LIM College to attending the Regenerative Textiles Forum, Michelle reflects on what she heard firsthand from people working across fashion, agriculture, materials, technology, finance, and climate. And one idea kept surfacing: we are not short on innovation. The harder work is figuring out how to build the systems, infrastructure, financing, and demand that allow the best ideas to actually scale. Michelle connects regenerative cotton back to soil and farmers, explores why purchase orders may matter more than promises, and looks beyond fashion to the larger conversations around energy, water, infrastructure, resilience, and the increasingly interconnected nature of climate action. It is smart, personal, curious, and very much from inside the room. In this episode, we explore: ✨ Michelle’s firsthand experience speaking at the Fusion Fashion Tech Summit ✨ What she took away from the Regenerative Textiles Forum ✨ Regenerative cotton, soil health, farmers, and the systems behind the fiber ✨ Why fashion may not have an innovation problem, but a scale problem ✨ The gap between a promising prototype and a functioning supply chain ✨ Why infrastructure, financing, and real demand matter ✨ The Climate Pledge Fashion Coalition and the importance of moving from promises to purchase orders ✨ How conversations around AI, energy, water, and resilience connect back to fashion ✨ Why sustainability needs honesty, transparency, and better questions ✨ Michelle’s personal invitation to get curious about the systems behind the things we use every day 🌎 Climate Week NYC: https://climateweeknyc.org 📱 Follow Climate Week NYC: @climateweeknyc 📱 Michelle’s DMs are open: @michellealleyneofficial | @theethicalstitch 🌍 michellealleyne.com Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in. 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌎 Climate Week NYC: @climateweeknyc 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in. 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

    The Green Apple Afterglow: What Stayed With Me After NYC Climate Week

  3. Sep 21

    The Green Apple Edit: Climate Week NYC + House of Zeitgeist

    What happens when a global conversation about climate, materials, and responsibility becomes personal? In this special solo episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne welcomes listeners to Climate Week NYC, or what she affectionately calls The Green Apple, and shares her perspective on the conversations shaping fashion, materials, supply chains, and sustainability. Michelle also celebrates her participation in the Fusion Fashion Tech Summit and introduces the next chapter of House of Zeitgeist, an extension of the ideas explored on The Ethical Stitch. Built around Style. Sustainability. Substance., House of Zeitgeist brings Michelle’s point of view on thoughtful consumption, overproduction, sourcing, and everyday objects into a curated collection designed to have something to say. In this episode, we explore: ✨ Climate Week NYC and this year’s theme, Energy. Impact. Action. ✨ Fashion, materials, and supply-chain innovation ✨ Why accessibility matters in sustainability ✨ The evolution of House of Zeitgeist ✨ Why print-on-demand and reducing overproduction matter ✨ Michelle’s biodegradable bamboo-fiber phone case 🌎 Climate Week NYC: https://climateweeknyc.org 🏠 Shop House of Zeitgeist: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HouseofZeitgeist Use code CLIMATEWEEK10 for 10% off through the end of Climate Week. 📱 @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 michellealleyne.com Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in. 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

    The Green Apple Edit: Climate Week NYC + House of Zeitgeist

  4. Sep 15

    Cut, Reworked, Reborn: Inside Tunji Dada’s Creative World

    What if the materials we are ready to discard are simply waiting to be seen differently? In this warm episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with longtime friend and visionary designer Tunji Dada for a conversation about creativity, culture, craftsmanship, and responsible fashion. From his West African upbringing to his experiences in Japan and New York, Tunji shares how deconstruction, reconstruction, and the Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi have shaped his approach to design. He also offers a glimpse into his process of transforming vintage military tents into distinctive garments and accessories that honor the history of each material. Together, Michelle and Tunji reflect on beauty in imperfection, the value of craftsmanship, and what the fashion industry must reconsider as it moves toward a more responsible future. In this episode, we explore: ✨ The cultural influences behind Tunji’s creative journey ✨ How Wabi Sabi informs his approach to beauty and design ✨ Giving vintage materials an entirely new purpose ✨ The connection between craftsmanship and sustainability ✨ Why responsible fashion begins with looking at value differently ✨ Tunji’s hopes for the future of fashion As Tunji reminds us, material is a canvas for imagination. Sometimes meaningful change begins by looking again at what we are prepared to discard. Follow Tunji and explore his work: 📱 Instagram: @tunji.dada 🛍️ Shop: @tunji.dada.shop 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in. 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

    Cut, Reworked, Reborn: Inside Tunji Dada’s Creative World

  5. Sep 1

    The Sustainable Latina: Fashion, Justice & the Stories We Wear

    What if the clothes we wear are telling a much bigger story about health, labor, identity, and the world we are leaving behind? In this intimate episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with Clementina Martinez-Masarweh known as The Sustainable Latina, for a deeply personal conversation about her journey from fashion industry insider to advocate for a more sustainable, ethical, and inclusive future. Drawing from her own family history, her years inside the fashion world, and the experiences that changed the way she understood clothing, Clementina explores what happens when we begin looking beyond style and start asking harder questions about what our garments are made from, who makes them, and what their true impact may be. Michelle and Clementina touch on the growing conversation around synthetic fibers and microplastics, the often invisible people working throughout fashion's supply chain, and why sustainability cannot be separated from human dignity, environmental justice, and labor rights. Their conversation also explores the power of storytelling and upcycling as tools for change, including Clementina's work in film and her belief that transforming fashion requires more than changing materials. It requires changing the stories we tell about value, consumption, and the people behind our clothes. At its heart, this is a conversation about awareness. About questioning what we have been taught to accept, recognizing the human stories hidden inside the fashion system, and discovering how each of us can participate in something better. In this episode, we explore: ✨ Clementina's journey from the fashion industry into sustainability advocacy ✨ How family history shaped her understanding of environmental and social justice ✨ The growing concerns surrounding synthetic fibers and microplastics ✨ Why garment workers and labor rights must remain central to sustainable fashion ✨ The complicated world of greenwashing and consumer confusion ✨ Upcycling and new ways of thinking about textile waste ✨ The connection between clothing, plastic pollution, and the environment ✨ Why transparency and accountability matter throughout the fashion industry ✨ The role storytelling can play in creating cultural change ✨ Practical ways consumers can begin making more intentional fashion choices As Clementina reminds us, fashion is political, and it is all about the message. Sometimes changing the industry begins simply by becoming more conscious of the stories our clothes carry and deciding which ones we want to support. You can follow Clementina's work by using the links below  📱 Instagram: @dnathreds 🌍 Website: dnathreds.com 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in. 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

    The Sustainable Latina: Fashion, Justice & the Stories We Wear

  6. Aug 25

    Neha Rai Singh on Preserving Indian Craft in a Fast Fashion World

    What if preserving the future of fashion means protecting the hands, histories, and communities that have shaped it for generations? In this episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with Neha Rai Singh, founder of Naintaara, for a conversation about Indian textile traditions, artisan-first business, and what sustainability looks like when the people behind the craft are placed at the center. Rooted in a deep appreciation for India’s textile heritage, Neha shares how her journey from the corporate world led her toward traditional practices including Chanderi weaving, Kota Doria, and hand block printing, and eventually toward building a business designed around the artisans themselves. But preserving craft takes more than celebrating something as “handmade.” Neha and Michelle dig into the realities of ethical sourcing, fair wages, traceability, cultural heritage, and the difficult question of how artisan-led brands can grow without sacrificing the values that made them meaningful in the first place. This is a conversation about slowing down, understanding where our clothing comes from, and recognizing that when a traditional craft disappears, we lose more than a technique. We lose a piece of culture, history, and identity. In this episode, we explore: ✨ Neha’s journey from the corporate world into artisan textiles ✨ The traditions behind Chanderi weaving, Kota Doria, and hand block printing ✨ What an artisan-first business model actually looks like ✨ Why preserving traditional craft is also about preserving cultural identity ✨ The pressure fast fashion places on artisans and heritage techniques ✨ Scaling an ethical business without compromising its integrity ✨ Fair wages, transparency, and traceability in textile sourcing ✨ How storytelling can connect consumers more deeply to the people behind a garment ✨ How to recognize meaningful sustainability beyond marketing language ✨ Why conscious purchasing can help protect generations of craftsmanship As Neha reminds us, losing our craft is losing our identity, and every purchase gives us an opportunity to decide what kind of fashion system we want to help preserve. 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in. 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

    Neha Rai Singh on Preserving Indian Craft in a Fast Fashion World

  7. Aug 11

    From Garbage to Desire: Rethinking Fashion Through Ela Erdogan’s Eyes

    What if the people shaping what fashion makes us want could also change what fashion learns to value? In this episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with New York-based stylist, designer, and creative consultant Ela Erdogan, whose journey through fashion has been anything but conventional. After studying at Parsons and apprenticing with Iris van Herpen, Ela launched DOBS New York, transforming scraps, discarded textiles, landfill-bound fabrics, and even food waste into deeply personal collections. What began as resourcefulness became a much bigger awakening about waste, creativity, and the true cost of fashion. Today, Ela brings that perspective into styling and editorial work — championing emerging and local designers, questioning fashion’s obsession with excess, and exploring the power stylists have to influence not only what we see, but what we desire. This is a conversation about turning rejection into creative fuel, making more with less, and recognizing that sustainability does not stop with the garment. It extends into the images, stories, choices, and culture we build around fashion. In this episode, we explore: ✨ How a cold email led Ela to Iris van Herpen ✨ The unconventional beginnings of DOBS New York ✨ Turning “garbage” into an experimental fashion collection ✨ Working with landfill textiles, food waste, and natural dyes ✨ Why DOBS eventually gave way to a career in styling ✨ Supporting emerging and locally based designers ✨ How styling can make sustainability desirable ✨ Why fashion needs less production — and a stronger edit ✨ The power consumers have to change the industry ✨ Ela’s desire to return to designing on her own terms 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in. 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

    From Garbage to Desire: Rethinking Fashion Through Ela Erdogan’s Eyes

  8. Jul 22

    Born Again: Bridget Artise on Fashion, Purpose, and Building a Movement

    What happens when you see possibility in what fashion has already thrown away? In this intimate episode of The Ethical Stitch, Michelle Alleyne sits down with sustainable fashion pioneer, educator, and entrepreneur Bridget Artise, founder of Born Again Vintage, House of BAV, and Sustainable Fashion Week US. Bridget shares how discarded garments became the foundation of a career spanning more than two decades, and how reinvention, personal loss, teaching, and community shaped the work she continues to build. The conversation explores the evolution of Born Again Vintage, the growth of Sustainable Fashion Week US, its expansion to Los Angeles, and the importance of creating access for emerging designers. This is not simply a conversation about giving clothing a second life. It is about believing in an idea before the industry understands it, staying connected to your purpose, and creating the room you once wished existed.  In this episode, we explore: ✨ How Bridget found possibility in discarded garments  ✨ The personal journey behind Born Again Vintage  ✨ What more than 20 years of entrepreneurship taught her  ✨ The creation and growth of Sustainable Fashion Week US  ✨ Why education, mentorship, and community matter  ✨ Creating greater access for emerging designers  ✨ Consumer responsibility and greenwashing  ✨ Staying connected to purpose as the work grows 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth:  📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly.  Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in. 🌿 The Ethical Stitch Hosted by Michelle Alleyne Follow us for more threads of truth: 📱 Instagram: @theethicalstitch | @michellealleyneofficial 🌍 Website: michellealleyne.com 🎙️ New episodes drop weekly. Stay smart. Stay stylish. Stay stitched in.

    Born Again: Bridget Artise on Fashion, Purpose, and Building a Movement
See All (50)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

The Ethical Stitch with Michelle Alleyne 🎙 Where fashion meets its conscience—and gets a glow-up. Welcome to The Ethical Stitch, the unapologetically bold podcast unraveling the truth behind what we wear—and how it's made. Hosted by fashion sustainability expert and industry insider Michelle Alleyne, this weekly series exposes the hidden cost of fast fashion while spotlighting the changemakers, designers, and disruptors who are reshaping style with purpose. From her front-row seat as a professor at Parsons and FIT to the factory floors of global production hubs, Michelle brings two decades of unfiltered insight, real talk, and solution-focused conversations. Whether you're a curious consumer or a fashion industry insider, this podcast is your go-to for smarter style choices, ethical design thinking, and jaw-dropping truths the labels won't tell you. 🔥 Expect hot takes like: — “No more polyester.”— “Stop calling it vegan leather.”— “Why aren’t your fave designers doing better?” Plus: actionable tips, behind-the-scenes stories, and interviews with the innovators making sustainability sexy. If you care about the planet and your closet, pull up a chair.New episodes drop every week. Follow @michellealleyneofficial and visit michellealleyne.com to learn more. Because in the future of fashion, ethics aren’t optional—they’re iconic.

Information