On Trend / Off Balanced: A Panel on Fashion and Sustainability

Can fashion meet trending demands and operate sustainably? Delving into the contradictions with fashion and sustainability, this conversation brings together individuals working in community organizing, education, retail, and environmental justice. The discussion will bring to light efforts taking place locally to interrupt and reduce waste, while offering ways to inspire thoughtful consumption.

Panelists include Miranda Bennett, Christa Marie Clark, Emily Fenves, Jimmy Gallo, with moderator Allison Miller.

The event is presented in conjunction with HOST: Tenant of Culture and follows an earlier programmed screening of the documentary Brandy Hellvile and the Cult of Fast Fashion.

Learn more about HOST: Tenant of Culture.

Event is included with the price of general admission. Members, log in with your Member ID for free admission.

About the Panelists

 
ALLISON MILLER

Allison Miller is a meteorologist for CBS Austin and weekday morning news anchor. Passionate about sustainability, she has partnered with Goodwill to create stylish, secondhand outfits to wear on air, showcasing how fashion can be both trendy and eco-friendly.

Beyond the newsroom, Allison loves engaging with the community and sharing impactful stories. She encourages anyone with story ideas or a passion for sustainability to connect with her at [email protected] or on social media @allisonmillertv.

 
MIRANDA BENNETT

Miranda Bennett is the writer of the Creativity in the Time of Capitalism (CITTOC) Substack and host of the Creativity in the Time of Capitalism Podcast. Prior to launching CITTOC, Bennett, a veteran entrepreneur, was most recently the Founder & Creative Director of Miranda Bennett Studio (MBS). A pioneer of ethical manufacturing, local and transparent production models, commercial scale plant dye application, and sustainability in materials and design, Miranda's work in the Slow Fashion space has informed her new role documenting the experience of other creatives navigating late stage capitalism. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, Forbes, New York Mag, and The Wall Street Journal, among other local and national publications.

 
CHRISTA CLARK

Christa Marie Clark is a designer with a decade of experience crafting software solutions for Fortune 500s, social impact NGOs, and climate startups. After recognizing that technology alone isn’t enough, in 2024, Christa founded Material Union, a textile recycling cooperative in Austin, Texas. Once the worker-owned facility is operational, Material Union aims to intercept millions of pounds of discarded clothing, transforming textile waste into eco-friendly products like furniture stuffing and LEED-certified insulation.

A self-taught seamstress, Christa upcycles garments into bespoke fashion and fosters community through workshops, events, and a free food fridge she hosts in partnership with ATX Free Fridge.

 
EMILY FENVES

Emily Fenves created lander line in September 2021 after becoming burnt out with her own consumption habits. As a regular shopper, she found herself spending an exhaustive amount of time browsing, buying, returning, and purging. She embarked on a journey to learn more about the “why” behind her overconsumption, and decided to help others do the same. Upon her research, she discovered how environmentally damaging the fashion waste crisis is, and became an advocate for change.

Through sharing her personal research with her audience, as well as partnering with ethical brands, change-makers, and non-profit organizations, lander line brings insight and hope to those who are inspired to reduce their carbon footprint through their personal consumption.

 
JIMMY GALLO

Jimmy Gallo is the creative director and founder of Electric Honey. This Austin-based design house specializes in developing and manufacturing contemporary fashion using almost exclusively upcycled or deadstock materials. Although formally trained as a chemical engineer, Jimmy has carried on his family's tradition of garment making. His grandmother was a very prolific seamstress. Growing up in a Spanish home and later moving to Texas 20 yrs ago, he has developed an eclectic design vocabulary. Most of his work makes use of very diverse fabrics from European brocades to local vintage fabrics, however, his biggest design guiding principle is music. Grunge and punk rock themes are heavily infused in his work. He has been part of the design scene in Austin since 2018, participating in Austin Fashion Week in 2019 & 2023, Austin Studio Tour 2021 & 2024, and SXSW 2024. The house has been consistently releasing 2 collections per year. The focus of the brand is quality, wearable garments that embody the unique fashion vocabulary of Austin's indie music scene.

About the Exhibitions

 
Jiab Prachakul: Sweet Solitude comprises a selection of paintings from the past five years, presented in a sequence that loosely mirrors Prachakul’s own journey as an artist. Having lived in Europe for much of her adult life, her paintings are often inflected with her desire for connection amidst a feeling of displacement, a sense of romantic longing pervading throughout. 

 
 
Raven Halfmoon: Flags of Our Mothers. Raven Halfmoon’s (b. 1991, Caddo Nation; lives and works in Norman, Oklahoma) touring solo exhibition will span both of The Contemporary Austin’s sites with an indoor exhibition at the Jones Center and an outdoor sculpture, Flagbearer, which will be installed at the museum’s Laguna Gloria location in mid-February. 

 
 
HOST: Tenant of Culture presents newly commissioned works by Hendrickje Schimmel alongside a selection of recent works in an installation that explores the tension between seductive, consumer-facing displays and spaces less visible in the fashion industry, such as production factories and fulfillment centers.