Meet Dio Kurazawa @diokurazawa, he is at the forefront of the war against waste in the fashion industry and is on a mission to minimize excess stock and implement sustainable practices within all areas of clothing production. Co-founder of The Bear Scouts, an agency designed to help brands implement sustainable practices, Dio spends an incredible amount of his time researching and developing new processes and his eye for innovation is like no other. He is extremely passionate and, having worked in the fashion industry all his life, has devoted his time to advocating and implementing a responsible production line. In addition to his work at The Bear Scouts, Dio is an advisor to the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, The Copenhagen Fashion Week, Sustainable Board Member at GANNI, a member of the Institute of Digital Fashion and a Charter Member at Schedule One Concepts (S1C.LA). While he is a staunch advocate for change, it is always approached with kindness. His overall objective in life is to be kind and tackle sustainability in the fashion industry by educating us all on how we can do better. As an industry, we have learned so much from him already and acknowledge that there will always be more we can do to improve.

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IRK: Tell us your “Why”?

At a young age, I was exposed to the massive inequality gap that exists between those who make our products and those who sell them. I began to realize that the capitalist system that promotes this disparity inspires inequality and is rooted in racism. The global south, which is where I come from has always been seen as less deserving and needed to be so in order to justify the narrative promoted by those who promote and capitalize from such a system.

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IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet? 

I consider myself an Earthling, which I define by one who shows love and compassion for all beings. As such, I consider every being on this planet to be vital to its existence. I don’t consume or harm people, animals or nature. I live and look after a 17 hectare farm in the south of Portugal where I’m able to look after more than 1000+ carob, olive, and almond trees and an array of animals and plant life. This farm has existed well before my time on earth and I’m honored for the opportunity to look after them as they will be here long after I’ve turned to dust. It’s important to realize your place in the world, noting it’s not always about you.

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IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?

I do my best to show those creating products how to do so without having a negative impact on our planet. Personally, I promote innovations that help reduce carbon emissions and assist others to do the same.

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IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet? ​

Although I’m not likely to see this in my lifetime, I’d love to see humanity optimize how we consume so that whatever we take from the planet is done so in harmony with its ability to replenish it. I believe the cure for all the earths challenges can be found in nature if we would only stop taking without consider long term ramifications. Treating everyone with love and kindness could help a lot too.

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What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? (https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

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Goal: 12 Responsible Production and Consumption.

Meet Adebayo Okelawal @orangecultureng, “I own an androgynous brand called Orange culture based in Lagos Nigeria and I run a mentorship program called Orange mentorship for aspiring designers.”

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IRK: Tell us your “Why”?

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I have always loved fashion, ever since I was a kid! I loved watching the joy in people’s eyes when they wore a shirt they loved or when they purchased a piece of clothing that accentuated who they were. I noticed the power and importance of fashion at a very young age and I wanted to be a part of it. The mentorship I started because when I was younger I didn’t have access to information about starting a brand and we don’t have certified fashion schools here, so I created this platform to assist aspiring designers in gaining access to experienced practitioners so they do not make the same mistakes I’ve made.

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IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet? 

I believe in community and working to build the community. Orange culture is where we are today because of the beautiful hands that have stitched each piece, the stories that have inspired and the people who make us a part of their story. So I believe in working to build the community – whether its creating platforms that support development, local production techniques, slow fashion and finding ways to be circular- for us its about working with the environment and not against it. Love.

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IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?

We work to reduce waste within our production unit, we use leftover fabrics to create linings, masks and all sorts rather than waste. We create pieces out of second-hand items, we practice slow fashion.I love second-hand items and I like to donate or give or even exchange with fellow designers – I don’t remember the last time I dumped anything – it is not a practice I was ever taught even growing up. I volunteer and have been doing that for a long time – for knowledge transfer, mentorship, charity work and more. Recycling, reducing shopping, vegan food. 

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IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet? 

That it will still be habitable for the next generation and so we need to keep working to ensure she is here and she Is improving and not deteriorating. 

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What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? (https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

Goal 4: Quality and accessible education for all – education will help alleviate a lot of our issues.

Meet @alancmak, Founder and CEO of Version Tomorrow. Having spent 20+ years in the fashion industry making goods for other luxury brands as well as his own brands, Alan understands the impacts of the fashion industry on our planet. About 5 years ago, he decided that it was important to utilize our knowhow to innovate on new materials and new methods of production. “Our responsibility was greater than just innovating and keeping it to ourselves; we had to use our voice to tell the world about it and open up these innovations to allow other brands and creators to hop on board in order to create massive impact at scale.” As a result, Version Tomorrow was created.

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IRK:Tell is your “Why” 

Version Tomorrow sits at the intersection of luxury and sustainability. Version Tomorrow is a lower impact luxury apparel production platform where we’ve designed and created our own unique materials and lower impact supply chain. We are brand agnostic and allow brands and creators of all kinds to take advantage of our 20+ years of luxury apparel manufacturing expertise and over 3+ years of materials and supply chain innovation to create the highest quality sustainable apparel without any compromise and without any of the heavy lifting and R&D that would normally be required to do this. The goal is to level the playing field for small to medium sized brands and creators to make luxury sustainable apparel without any compromises to quality; as individual small to medium sized brands, our impact is limited, but if we operate as collectives, we can achieve massive scale and hence massive impact.

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IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and planet? 

I’m most passionate about promoting the ideas of conscious consumption. I’m fully cognizant that as humans, we love nice things and consumption. But that doesn’t mean that we can continue to consume at the pace that we are currently at. In recognizing this, it’s my thought that we can still consume, but we must be more mindful of what we are consuming, how we are consuming and at what pace. What this means is that we can still have nice things, but we need to start slowing down our consumption and changing our habits from buying throw away pieces to those that have higher quality, that last and that you will continue to covet as time passes. We need to consume better, slower and more ethically.

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IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life? 

In my everyday life, I strive to be minimal and have my consumption be as considered as possible. This means walking or taking public transportation whenever possible, eliminating or reducing the use of single use plastics, conserving water and building communities and coalitions to help one another achieve these goals. Within the fashion industry, we’ve operated in silos for too long. My vision is for us to create communities where we can share our knowhow rather than gatekeeping and not sharing so that we can truly create impact at scale.

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IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet? 

My hope is that people will become educated enough to identify and make the necessary changes to their consumption and habits to alter and reverse the harm that has been done to our planet.

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IRK:What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most?

Our main SDG that Version Tomorrow is aligned with is #12 Responsible Consumption and Production. However, we align closely with Goal 6, Clean Water and Sanitation and Goal 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth.

Meet @pialindsaystudio, creative director and founder of Pia Lindsay studio. Pia is determined to build an elevated ready to wear brand defined by style, bold femininity and sustainability. Pia began creating her first collections utilizing dead stock fabric and hardware accents.  This innate sense of experimentation shaped my design process and made her more aware of what goes into creating beautiful wearable pieces while considering her brand’s values. 

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IRK: Tell is your “Why”

I have been a designer for almost 13 years now and there was a point in my career when I changed my thought process and values on the fashion industry. I am now dedicated to creating a new idea for the future of fashion through thoughtful designs and the elimination of fast fashion trends and ideas. For me it’s about making something that lasts. Designs that I can stand behind a decade down the line. Choosing to be a fashion designer as a career is very difficult and at times very lonely. It’s filled with very long hours work hours as well. Honestly I am so lucky to friends and family that support me and see so much talent and value in what I do and continue to lift me up even when Ive hit that wall. They are always there to help me keep pushing towards my goals.

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IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and planet? 

I believe in small batch production and conscious designs first and for most. Putting aside my love for creating fashion, the planet , and people. I have loved animals for as long as I can remember. It’s has shaped my dietary restrictions, health, lifestyle, and even the way I design. One of my core values for my brand its that I will not use any kind of animal product to create my collections.

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IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life? 

I am very conscious about how I live my everyday life. I am defiantly a creature of habit. I make sure I use reusable containers of my water and meals when I have to gigs or event heading to my work studio. During the spring and summer I volunteer with New York cares to help plant and grown vegetables.

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IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet? 

My hope for the future as it may seem very simple is for people to be more aware and take more responsibility on what our actions are as a whole is doing to our planet. I believe that acknowledgment is keep for change.

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IRK:What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production.

Kristýna Holubová and Lucie Poubová @swap_prague are sustainability advocates who organize interactive events promoting responsible habits and the circular economy. Their events feature big swaps, upcycling workshops, and talks on sustainability, attracting thousands of visitors and creating a community of like-minded individuals.

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IRK: Tell us your “Why” 

There is so much work to be done to change the structures that are not functional, harming others and damaging our planet. we wish one day there would be no work for us! Lately we go even further and becoming obssesed with the idea of degrowth as we have a great degrowth presenters in Czech as Tadeas Zdarsky.

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IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet? 

Changing values. We are not afraid of daring ideas as degrowth, let’s go wild – there is no time to keep going the old way. We are addressing people that marketing renamed and reduced to consumers and sold them consumerism as the only lifestyle. It sucks. We can change it, everyone can start with themselves. We remind people that they have the power to make themselves happier without material abundance, we remind them they have this superpower to be just fine, we just have to be creative and dare to change values towards livable future.

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IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?

We make the most of what we already have while nurturing our relationships with our communities, favourite t-shirt or persons.

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IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet? 

Less exploitation of all natural resources, including human ones, and turning towards a fairer life on earth, a change in values is inevitable if we are to survive well.

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What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? https://sdgs.un.org/goals 

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13: Climate Action

Meet Marci Zaroff @marcizaroff, a pioneer in the eco-lifestyle industry with over 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and film producer. Through her newest company, ecofashionCORP, she offers a “Greenhouse” of sustainable fashion brands, including METAwear and YesAnd.style, as well as organic and regenerative lifestyle brands. Marci is also actively involved with numerous organizations and initiatives, including serving as Board Chair/co-founder of the Textile Exchange and supporting groups like GOTS, Lenzing, Fashion Revolution, and more.

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IRK: Tell us your “Why”?

Having co-founded the world’s largest holistic health nutrition school (IIN) in 1990, while connecting with the founder of AVEDA (clean beauty) as my dear friend and mentor of 25+ years, I discovered the missing link in human & planetary wellness and coined/trademarked the term “eco-fashion” in 1995. For over three decades, my mission has been to style the world of change, while changing the world of style—proving that modern design and social/environmental accountability are not mutually exclusive. Thru inspiration, education, innovation, and collaboration, I have always been driven to revolutionize the connection from agriculture to popular culture—bridging the Treehugger with the fashionista, and the tribe with the Boardroom.

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IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet? 

I am a soil junkie and recognize that soil is the skin of the earth, and is meant to nurture and protect us. We must rebuild soil health through regenerative organic practices, restoring vital living breathing ecosystems to 1) grow food/fiber without toxic carcinogenic chemicals that destroy our air and water, while polluting our land, rivers, and oceans; (“healthy soil=healthy plants=healthy people”~Rodale); 2) sequester carbon from the atmosphere to mitigate climate change and improve water retention—making plants more resilient to severe weather events; 3) support farmer livelihoods (physical and financial), as social justice is inextricably tied to climate and environmental justice; 4) drive circular, cradle to cradle systems—what we take from the earth, we must return to the earth. As Native Americans once said, “we don’t inherit this land from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” As a mother and citizen of this planet, I feel a deep sense of responsibility to protect human and environmental wellness, farmer and worker welfare, and future generations.

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IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?

As a serial entrepreneur, my personal and professional values are aligned around “yoga off the mat.” A Yogini living a vegetarian/plant-based organic lifestyle for nearly 40 years, I am very conscious and subscribe to the 5 P’s of GOOD business: people, planet, prosperity, passion, and purpose. I minimize plastic, drive a bike or electric car, and support clean beauty, organic whole foods, and regenerative/circular fashion.

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IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet?

I hope we can elevate our collective consciousness to (e)co-create a green, chic, and healthy future—for all species to thrive together. We need to shift the “norm” to the “alternative” and the “alternative” to the “norm”—whereby every choice we make, instead of destroying, degrading, and depleting our necessary ecosystems, can nurture, heal, protect, and serve ourselves and our Mother Earth—for generations to come.

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What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? (https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

SDG 15: Life on Land; SDG 13: Climate Action; SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being; SDG 12: Responsible Consumption & Production; SDG 5: Gender Equality.

Brendan Cannon @thecannonmediagroup is not only a prominent celebrity and fashion stylist, but he is also a champion for sustainability and ethical practices in the fashion industry. Through his advertising agency, he creates strategic opportunities for brand awareness that promote the well-being of our planet and encourages others to follow in his footsteps.

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IRK: Tell us your “Why” 

Always look for the helpers, has been a very strong idea I have held since I’ve heard it. I have always had a very strong sense of caring and love for animals and have been a vegetarian since I was 11. My most beautiful days have always been the ones spent in nature, so we must protect her at all costs.

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IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet? 

Global warming, Animal Advocacy, Pollution, Littering, etc.

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IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?

Volunteering, research and working on plastic solutions on photo shoots and for the styling industry, second hand shopping and limiting purchases of clothing, housewares etc. Gifting charities with additional clothing from Photo shoots.

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IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet? 

That everybody sees the need for a greener more sustainable Earth, and we foster the education in future generations to instill this dream.

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What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? (https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 2: Zero Hunger, SDG 5: Gender Equality, SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

As editor-in-chief, Mia Macfarlane @french_cowboy defines the visual and editorial lines of IRK Magazine to make the strongest positive impact possible. Her goal is to inspire creatives to push their limits to make something new and mind-blowing. The IRK team is made up of amazing caring individuals who make a difference in this world.  She is also involved in 3 foundations (FLARE, FORE, and LDS) that support children in need. We provide educational resources, help impoverished families, support children with addiction, and much more. Finally, she is a fashion and art photographer with Julien Crouigneau under the name French Cowboy.

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IRK: Tell us your “Why” 

My driving force is creativity! I believe that artists make a difference in this world and that through art we can inspire change, happiness, and a better world. I started IRK with my husband Julien to provide an outlet for artists to be seen and heard. IRK has grown with every contributing editor so our charter has grown to encompass each editor’s goals and vision. I love seeing where my team is leading IRK and thanks to them we are doing so much good.

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IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet? 

I believe in hope! I think that we need to keep believing that our actions can make a real difference. I am not ready to give up and just enjoy life or live in fear either. I want to wake up every day thinking my children and their children have a future worth living on a planet that will still be healthy and beautiful for hundreds of years.

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IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?

I make conscious efforts every day. When I am in the grocery store I try to buy products using less plastic, I recycle, I love vintage clothing and furniture, and use public transport more and more. I used to go to Paris from the suburbs by car 90% of the time now it’s more like 10% of the time. I volunteer every day! It’s a part of my life to give back to the world. I also smile at strangers and try to be kind to everyone. Kindness is very important to me.

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IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet? 

We will clean her up, cherish her and be good to her. I hope that scientists will find ways to prevent global warming and that we will even reverse CO2 emissions. Through education and example, I hope that all people will take responsibility for her well-being. I am not giving up on humanity or the planet.

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What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? (https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

That is a very hard decision as all 17 goals are important! Maybe I would choose SDG 4 quality education: as our youth is our hope but without prosperity then how can we ask people to recycle or be sustainable so #8; decent work and economic growth are also important. However, without sustainable goals improving the economy will lead us to destruction so #7 affordable and clean energy or #11 sustainable cities and communities is needed too. If I had to choose one that inspires me at this moment in time it would be #7 as it would help the planet, global warming, the economy, and quality of life.

Maki J Obara @madame_murasaki is a Japanese-American Regenerative Design researcher and practitioner with a strong background in luxury fashion. With a focus on the potential of the hemp/cannabis plant, she seeks ways to regenerate the earth and humans alike. Maki is also an advocate for BIPOC community-led organizations and educational entities centered on environmental and social justice, and is currently based in NYC while academically based in London at Central Saint Martins MA Regenerative Design.

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IRK: Tell us your “Why” 

One of my values of doing the work has been “I don’t want other people to go through what I go through.” After experiencing the toxicity of the fashion industry and learning about the impacts of it on this very planet that we live on, I had an existential crisis. That made me open up my eyes to a whole new view of the world and where I stand as a human.

Truthfully, I work hard because I sincerely want this world to be a little better when I leave it. And I mean it.

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IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet? 

I am most passionate about making the relationship between humans and earth closer. Us humans damaged the environment on this planet. There needs to be a mindset change towards an understanding that we are part of the biodiversity on earth. Let’s care for the humans as well as earth, at the same time. We need to heal all together in order to regenerate on this planet at the speed that we need it to.

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IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?

Besides dedicating my life to it?! Haha Yes, there are some small actions that I take. Which is a proven way to reduce eco-anxiety. I mainly wear vintage or thrifted, mindful of what I purchase, I love re-using any packaging material, staying mentally healthy, and most of all educate myself daily. There are a lot of negative news when it comes to the environment, but there are a lot of positive ones as well. The “knowing” part is important to be balanced so you can take correct actions, however small that maybe.

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IRK: What’s your hope for the future of the planet? 

At one point soon, I hope everyone can come to a collective realization that this earth needs rapid regeneration a.k.a recovery. So our future generations can carry on a more humane civilization that has learnt to live in symbiosis with this planet.

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What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? https://sdgs.un.org/goals 

SDG 15: Life on Land. My current work is in regenerating the land through hemp-cannabis plants in NY, which I hope will have a positive effect on our biggest problem in NYS: coastline erosion and sea level rise.