S06 Episode 269 | Ngozi Okaro of Custom Collaborative on fashion cooperatives & how they can shift power dynamics, counter overproduction, and support local economies

<p>In episode 269, Kestrel welcomes Ngozi Okaro, the founder and executive director of Custom Collaborative, to the show. <a href= "https://www.customcollaborative.org/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Custom Collaborative</a> trains, mentors, and advocates for and with no/low-income and immigrant women to build the skills necessary to achieve economic success in the sustainable fashion industry and broader society.</p> <p><strong>“I think that if workers owned the business, if the people who are actually putting in the labor are also owners, then they’re less inclined to overproduce, because it’s just their time and their resources that they’re wasting. So, I think that cooperative is important for both local economies, I think also for the environment and also for human rights.” -Ngozi</strong></p> <p class="">This week, we are talking about cooperatives, and the ways that worker-led fashion production can truly shake up the industry. </p> <p class="">Power dynamics are a topic that comes up a lot on the show – and something that was discussed in depth throughout <a href="https://consciouschatter.com/the-root" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Root, the 6-part series co-produced and hosted by Dominique Drakeford</a>. Conversations around the distribution of power within the fashion space are imperative, but in the mainstream space, they often lead back to this assumption that <em>well, we exist within a capitalistic system, and this is how the fashion system works, so we have to work within it.</em> </p> <p class="">Ok – yes, agreed that we must work within it to transform the way that big business is operating – through advocating for transformation and through regulation. But also – I’m super interested in the ways in which alternative business models can literally showcase in practice the ways in which other frameworks work.</p> <p class="">This week’s guest is the founder and executive director of an organization that is building alternative models – in her case, through a New York-based worker-led coopera