In this episode, we hear from Rudo Nondo, a creative design practitioner and the acting Managing Director of Fashion Revolution. She tells us how her upbringing in Zimbabwe shaped her clothing philosophy.
In this episode, we hear from Rudo Nondo, a creative design practitioner and the acting Managing Director of Fashion Revolution. She tells us how her upbringing in Zimbabwe has shaped her clothing philosophy and explains why she’s passionate about circular design for fashion.
Learn more about Rudo Nondo in the Foundation’s Fashion Book
Watch our Circular Economy Show episode with Rudo Nondo
Pippa Shawley 00:03
Welcome to the Circular Economy Show, and to the final part of this series where we're circling back to conversations from our archives. I'm Pippa. Today we're hearing from Rudo Nondo, a creative design practitioner and the acting Managing Director of Fashion Revolution. She also contributed to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's book, Circular Design for Fashion. Rudo spoke to my colleague Laura, about how her upbringing in Zimbabwe inspired her to value circular design and fashion, the importance of collaboration, and why she put storytelling at the heart of her designs. The pair met at the launch of the book in January 2022. Laura began by asking Rudo, how she became interested in the circular economy.
Laura Franco Henao 00:44
Thank you, Rudo, for being here with me today in the circular economy show, I would like us to start by talking a little bit more about yourself and why you became interested in the circular economy in the first place. And why did you decide to apply it to your creative practice?
Rudo Nondo 01:05
Okay, thank you for having me. Okay, so I'm Rudo Nondo. I am a Creative Design Practitioner from Zimbabwe. And I'll say creative design practitioner because I started off in fashion, then continued to work or evolve to work with communities and artisans, within communities. But I actually looked into circularity, it was more around storytelling more about extending life cycles, right? So what I found when I actually entered the fashion industry, I'll say unofficially was around 2009, officially in 2013, was that we were losing a lot of our practice, trying to keep up with what was happening in the West, but slowly losing track of what we had grown up around. So my history is I actually studied law with business studies as a first degree. So fashion was more about passion, more about increasing, or providing a platform for designers in Zimbabwe to increase, you know, their skill to showcase what they were making. And I actually stumbled into fashion. Because I wanted to enter the space, I wanted to understand how it worked. I wanted to understand what design in Zimbabwe was like, this is in the year around 2009-2010. And I found this amazing group of designers that were designing, but were struggling, because the world is evolving. Circularity started coming about in practice for me when I started making clothes, so I didn't just go on to start with, you know, a fashion line. I started making my own clothes, through making my own clothes started working with seamstresses that would make my clothes and people would be like, Oh my gosh, where did this come from? How did you make it? And basically started making clothes, piece by piece for clients, right? But we'd always have off cuts. And I would sit in these rooms with the seamstresses and be like, okay, so what are we doing with these off cuts? Where are they going? And you know, the first thing I was told us is old man comes and picks them up. And I'm like, and then once you know, like, Where does he take them? So basically started getting those from the seamstresses started distributing, firstly, with, you know, my grade on some in town, some in the rural areas, and they would like patchwork and make duvets using these, then realise that someone actually making floor mats as well. That's how I started. I've been working with designers through my work with Fashion Revolution Zimbabwe. So I'd say that, as I've evolved as well, I've become less of a maker, and more of someone that is coordinating or providing a platform for other designers to follow within the circular process. A lot of it is around... yeah, awareness, educational awareness. And engaging. We engage with the community, with the makers, as in the seamstresses, with the designers, with the suppliers of the materials as well.
Laura Franco Henao 04:33
And how do you... let's say, apply a concept such circular design to the work that you do? You've talked you've spoken about making clothes, like designing them? Yeah. How do you apply it in your work?
Rudo Nondo 04:46
Um, so basically, for me, it started with reducing waste, right? So we went from the... I sit and observe, I sit and observe a lot of things. So I went from how many metres to make a pair of trousers, then I'd be told to metres, and I'm like, But why is there always a piece left? What are we doing with that? So my first thing started with if it's going to be 1.4, or five metres, that is what we are buying in the shop. And that is how we're making. I've incorporated more, like, even at times things like labels. I've used it when I've been working with artists, and sometimes you can use like, you know, the off cuts to, like, incorporate into designs. And I've just tried to eliminate waste from the very beginning. So I say I've tried because it's a journey. And I can never tell you that oh, yeah, we 100% Zero Waste. But that's how I've tried to do it. I've prolonged... I actively.... I'm not a throw away.... I don't throw things away. You know what I mean? I'm not wasteful in practice as well. So even the clothes that I wear, I have adopted circularity to be my lifestyle. So I will wear something until the very end, just half of my clothes are acquired like this jerseys acquired from you know, my mother when she used to work in the 90s. So I've incorporated circular design, in practice and in lifestyle and in teaching others.
Laura Franco Henao 06:20
Would you say that this kind of mindset in the in the context of Simbabwe, maybe for our audience who might not be familiar with it, would you say that these mindset is very much present on people's lives? I suppose to in some countries in the ways where fast fashion has kind of become the norm.
Rudo Nondo 06:40
So here we are, right, we're in the middle in Zimbabwe, because I believe we've been doing everything right. We don't have your high street shops, like we've got one or two fashion retailers. So when I was looking at that I was like everything we've been doing so far is correct. It's all made to measure most people buy their clothes made to measure, you're buying something for a specific occasion. But you'll keep wearing that. I grew up in a household where my grandmother used to make my mother's clothes and her siblings clothes, were when I would go to school, my mother would knit my jerseys. So this is how we have grown up. But we are now in the middle where we like need to keep up with the West. So I'm like kind of right there saying actually, no. Let's continue doing what we were doing. Let's continue to take care of our clothes, let's wash our clothes, we wash our clothes by hands, we lined dry our clothes. So we try. But overconsumption is literally knocking on our door. I'll give you an example. I was out here saying oh, we don't do Black Friday in Zimbabwe, like that never happens. And this year, as a result, possibly of the pressure post lockdown. A lot of young designers are having Black Friday sales. And I'm just like, why are we doing this? Like, let's wait a minute. So I would say we know what to do. We know the right thing. But there are economic pressures, right? They are pressures to please. So it's it's a learning problem. It's a learning process. It's all about again, education. And as I've been working with young designers, I believe that they then go and also speak to their, you know, their customers, or to they're in circles to like, you know, carry the message across. And
Laura Franco Henao 08:41
I guess, people like being able to make comfortable choices. So I guess in a way, being able to access more clothes, it's something that might appeal a lot to people. And if we could, let's say, imagine that a different future from overconsumption. How would you describe like a future that works for the fashion industry in Zimbabwe?
Rudo Nondo 09:07
For the fashion industry in Zimbabwe, so let's get back to the basics guys. Like let's do things the way we used to do them. Let's get back into sourcing we used to make beautiful, you know, cotton garments. And in Zimbabwe, cotton farming again, you know, it's not damaging to the environment they used to. So we used to provide jobs like literally from the ground all the way up. So I would say let's get back to old practice. Let's continue with our practice of making to measure. We never grew up with just wardrobes or you know, like a whole lot of pieces in our wardrobes. So let's get back to that. Let's get back to Designing with the consumer in mind. Let's get back to Designing for the consumer and when I say that, it's more how we grew up as well made to match John are mothers would get their outfits tailored, let's get back to that sort of practice, we are kind of in the middle as well, because we've got a lot of clothes that are ending up on our shores. And another way that I've been promoting, that we kind of deal with this problem is, instead of buying brand new, like zippers and buttons, and things like that, let's see what we can get from the bales, right? Let's pull products apart and start designing with that. So that's the future I see for now. Because we do have quite a lot of policy issues that we'll need dealing with, but we can work whilst those are being dealt with.
Laura Franco Henao 10:43
And do you think, is there a place in this kind of vision for big companies as well, to play a role?
Rudo Nondo 10:51
Definitely. And I would say, again, it's about the companies understanding the environment and the ecosystem. And we don't buy a lot of clothes. I get shocked, like, I got shocked the other day when I was on Twitter, and someone was like: Oh, so how long does it take for Shein to deliver? I was like: Why are we ordering from Shein right now? So I think there is a role that the companies can play in how they are producing and maybe designing with, it's all about designing with the client in mind. So in terms of reducing waste, I've worked with one company as well, that was a factory that was producing for a retailer, and they would give me all their off cuts. And then I would use those or distribute amongst designers that needed them as well. So for now, that's the role that they can play. And it's also about just making less, right, let's not make things that just for the sake of making, let's make things as they are needed.
Laura Franco Henao 12:00
So I guess it's just them realising the potential of also changing their business models, because they can still make money from this economic opportunity. But it's about how you can make money without actually maybe making more clothes or using more materials or resources.
Rudo Nondo 12:15
Exactly. It's about looking at what's in your warehouses. Looking at what's in your stock rooms, we have just adopted fabric from textile mill that shut down. And as we're going through these samples, like we just got a room full of fabric, right and psychotic. Find a home for it. And there are beautiful samples from the 80s. Like they still have the stamp that this was made in 1989 1990. So it's about using that that fabric. And that's what we've been using in the last three projects that I've been working in. The designers that I've been working with have been redesigning using the Yeah, the restored or the recaptured, recaptured material.
Laura Franco Henao 13:04
And you mentioned, I think in our new book that you design for stories, you don't design for volumes. Why do you place such an important focus on storytelling? And could you give us an example of a story, you know, that you have told through this one of your designs?
Rudo Nondo 13:29
So yeah, I designed for stories because again, I feel... as an African woman, right, we carry a lot, we we absorb, but there are times where I'm like why you don't know if I can help. So as an outlet, I literally just started designing like design for me is an outlet as well. And layers is a project I did in partnership with the British Council Allianz francais, and the Zimbabwe German society in 2018. And that was my first platform to tell stories of people that I've met in practice. So the book featured five women, and all of them had kind of I cross paths with them at different points in my journey. And I actually started designing the pieces based on the stories that they had shared with their consent, of course, based on the experiences that we had lived through. So it was a very poetic collection. But what I found so interesting about it was as I was designing the pieces before people had actually gotten hold of the book that followed. It was interesting to see how people were interacting with the clothes. So you know, someone would walk up to it and be like, this is my dress, and I'd be like, you need to meet like for example, Sharon. Like Sharon is all about love and that's how I feel when I'm in your presence. So storytelling is a way of allowing people to fall In love with clothes again. And it's finding that I'd say like attachment to something, when there's a story involved, you're less likely to just discard.
Laura Franco Henao 15:11
I think something, you're saying it's just making me think about how important it is and how maybe we've become really detached from our clothes, because we literally just buy them in the shop. And we don't know where the materials coming from, what is even made of, and I think, like this whole idea of circular design, and something that I'm figuring out in these conversations is that there are many ways of doing circular design. And it means different things for different people. But it's also about reconnecting with your clothes, with the materials with, like, where, where are they coming from? And what can you do afterwards, because it can become, you know, something else for another person, and it can be kept in use. And I think the younger generations are understanding this, we've mentioned in the book, that circular design is about designing with people and for people to really keep, as you said, the beginning keeping people at the centre of your decisions. What's your take on this?
Rudo Nondo 16:10
My take is when we're designing with people, it's bringing them into the design process. So in my early days, as a fashion designer, you know, someone would say, Oh, I just want to dress and I'd literally sit down and be like, Okay, where are you wearing it? How many times do you want to wear it? And I had started with like African print, which was very distinct. So you know, break it down and say, Okay, maybe instead of designing one dress, right, it's gonna take me the same materials. Why don't we design a skirt and a top, and it has the illusion of a dress. That is how I started designing with people. And they'll be like, oh, you know, that makes sense. I can break this piece up and down and wear it in many different places. When I started looking at the notion of designing for people, I'm living in a country right now, which is right in the middle of a climate crisis. And at this point in time, it's a very new notion as well, like, we understand that weather patterns are changing, we understand that we understand that farming seasons are changing. But we don't quite understand how and why. So when we bring designing for people into circularity, it's about preserving when we are recapturing those materials from landfill is because I know that we survive from what comes from the ground. So what we don't want is having unused clothes, just building up on that ground. So my designing for the people is not only designing for us, but then the generations to come as well. And it's almost like stopping the damage before it comes because the damage is there it is coming. But we are not understanding the science of it. So with people that's bring everyone along in the journey, it's why I've now gone from less of designing myself to what I call the boring Excel spreadsheets, concept nodes. And you know, the admin of it is because I believe in bringing as many designers on board as they can. And that way they can also make changes in their spaces.
Laura Franco Henao 18:23
So it's about really bringing people on board collaborating. And also what I'm hearing is that it's about just thinking about how we can design out that waste and that pollution before it even exists. And that's the power of design.
Rudo Nondo 18:39
That's it.
Laura Franco Henao 18:40
Thank you so much for being here with me today.
Pippa Shawley 18:46
I love Rudo's call to start designing for the individual, and thinking about how we can take traditional buying habits and apply circular design principles to what we wear. I hope you've enjoyed this episode, and our series circling back on conversations you might have missed the first time around. We've published over 100 episodes of this podcast. So take a look in our archives for some other gems. You can also find out more about circular design for fashion in our show notes. We'll be back soon with new stories from the circular economy. Until then we'd really appreciate it if you could share this with your friends and colleagues or why not leave us a review? Thanks for listening. See you next time.