Front Row To Front Bench Podcast

For this episode of the Front Row to Front Bench podcast, Tamara Cincik speaks with Lola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey, a crossbench peer in the House of Lords about the release of her memoir 'Eight Weeks', published by Penguin.

Eight Weeks is a deeply moving and inspiring memoir that tells the remarkable life story of Baroness Young of Hornsey, from her childhood in foster care, to becoming one of the first Black women in the House of Lords. Lola Young has been an actress, an academic, an activist and campaigner for social justice, and a crossbench peer. But from the age of eight weeks to eighteen years, she was moved between foster care placements and children's homes in North London. It would take many decades before she was able to begin the search for answers to the long-standing questions that would help her make sense of her childhood. In Eight Weeks, through her care records, fragments of memory, and her imagination where parts of her story are missing, Lola assembles the pieces of her past into a portrait of a childhood in a system that often made her feel invisible and unwanted. Alongside glimpses into her life as a peer, activist, and campaigner it tells the powerful story of her determination to defy the odds. Eight Weeks is a spirited, eye-opening and beautifully written account of being a child in care and a Black child in a white family and is a vital part of contemporary Black British history.

For this episode of the Front Row to Front Bench podcast, Tamara Cincik speaks with writer, fashion critic and curator Charlie Porter about his new book, ‘Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and the Philosophy of Fashion' published by Penguin Random House.

Charlie is one of the most influential fashion journalists of his time, and has written for the likes of the Guardian and iD magazine, as well as co-running the London queer rave Chapter 10.

The book, rather wonderfully, uses clothing as a way to look at six iconic Bloomsbury figures, while seamlessly addressing the evolution of how we dress today. This leads on to the fact that clothing can be an intellectual and sexual liberation, or conversely an instrument for patriarchal power.

The book came about after Charlie was asked to curate an exhibition called ‘Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and Fashion,’ at Charleston in Lewes. Through the inaugural exhibition Charlie explored the dynamic relationship between the Bloomsbury group. Here, clothing provided a route into learning more about the key figures in the Bloomsbury group and how, for some, fashion provided a language with which to explore their break away from tradition. This ultimately fed into the process of researching and writing his book.

The conversation centres around the beginnings of the Bloomsbury group, who were at the vanguard of a social and sartorial revolution. Virgina Woolfe and her sister Vanessa Bell escaped to Bloomsbury from an oppressive and abusive upbringing, rejecting the fashions of the time for something new and this is unpicked.

Homosocialism comes into the conversation where Charlie discusses his own experience of being gay from a working class background, and connecting this to E. M Forster and his struggle to be gay. The connection between Isabella Blow and Lady Ottoline Morrell is also explored by Tamara and the similarities of how they hosted and nurtured talent, but were mocked relentlessly.

Finally, Charlie and Tamara talk about Vanessa Bell and the way she made her own clothes and how this has played out in a life-changing way for Charlie where he now makes his own clothes with a new philosophy of living and consuming fashion.

To learn more about Charlie’s amazing work or to buy the book, click below:

Buy the book here

Follow Charlie Porter here

Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and Fashion: Exhibition details here

Book tickets to visit Charleston House here

Fashion Roundtable's Tamara Cincik is in conversation with Karen Alexander, Zowie Broach, and Dr Rachel Payne - three of the most important names in creative education and research.

Karen Alexander is a London-based creative curator, writer and researcher. She is an associate lecturer at Central St Martins and, for over 15 years, has worked with and for BFI and the Royal College of Art. Alexander's research interests include artists' film and video, and the post-colonial visual politics of the African diaspora with specific reference to gender, race and representation.

Zowie Broach is the Head of Fashion at the Royal College of Art in London. Broach has previously served as a designer-in-residence and Senior Researcher in Creative Practice at London College of Fashion. Broach has also taught at Westminster University, Parsons The New School for Design in New York, SIAC in Chicago, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, before joining the Royal College of Art.

Tamara is also joined by Dr Rachel Payne, who teaches and researches visual methods, arts-based continuing professional development, art education policy and arts-based pedagogy. Payne is the subject co-ordinator for the Artist Teacher Practice MA in Education. This programme supports professionals working in visual arts education to examine their dual artist-teacher identity through participating in a community and reposition their professional practices as a result.

In this podcast, Alexander, Broach, Cincik and Payne talk about:

• The fundamental nature of art;
• Creative education in the UK;
• Access to the creative industries;
• The closure of youth clubs thanks to austerity measures;
• The importance of decolonising the curriculum.

In our final episode of 2020, Fashion Roundtable's Tamara Cincik is in conversation with the iconic Katharine E. Hamnett CBE - the First Lady of fashion activism and a loyal supporter of Fashion Roundtable.

A British-born designer, Hamnett has been leading the charge for activism in fashion since 1989, and is best known for her eye-catching political T-shirts that have printed bold slogans such as 'CANCEL BREXIT', 'STOP CLIMATE CHANGE' and 'WORLDWIDE NUCLEAR BAN NOW.'

As one BBC article in 2010, Hamnett's "statement slogans became a staple of 1980s fashion, catching the imagination of a disillusioned generation." This episode is a unique opportunity to hear more about Hamnett's thoughts on policy, politics and activism in fashion.

Hamnett previously studied at Central Saint Martins School of Art and began her journey of political protest in fashion once she learned of the atrocities occurring in garment factories around the globe and the devastating environmental impact of chemical use in textile production.

Since then, Hamnett has continued to use her activism to encourage greater ethics and sustainability in the sector and, at one point, even met with then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

In this podcast Katherine E. Hamnett CBE and our founder and CEO Tamara Cincik chat about:

• The impact of Brexit on the fashion industry;
• What leaving the EU means for fashion businesses;
• What 'good political leadership' looks like in the UK;
• Why the sector needs to make its voice heard by Government;
• When Hamnett met Prime Minister Thatcher and;
• Labour exploitation in the fashion industry.