Joshua is a warrior! He is most
definitely not a dilettante nor one of those who gives lip service to the buzz
words du jour like sustainable, eco-friendly, green-designed, recycled, upcycled
and environmentally friendly… you get the idea... He is committed to the entire
universe, concept and development. He is also a published author on the
subject…. Fashion Animals.
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| CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE Joshua is a key player in the fight against the use of animal cruelty in fashion. I am always amazed at how much he knows, not only about the history of animals in fashion but also in terms of what innovations are being made in the use of new materials that are replacing things like leather, fur and exotic skins. He is definitely someone I look up to in this struggle to change the industry for the better. Alexi Lubomirski, photographer |
Mr. Katcher writes about it, lectures
about it, teaches on the subject and has dedicated his career to educating all
of us on so many of these topics. Don’t get the wrong idea in that he is this preachy holier than
thou soapbox orator as I have
personally met him and spent some time with him and despite his dedication, he
is certainly not lecturing while he is engaged with you.
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Personally, I am always awed by those
who possess such well-informed dedication and have done more than just talk
about it. His apparel collection, though abbreviated was rather wonderful and
appealing. My point with him was that all of these noble quests filter down to
an educated consumer which at this point in time seems less than plausible
given the state of our country BUT education and being informed takes time and
future generations will greatly benefit from his research and zeal on the
subject.
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As I explained to him, my issue is
that until this genre of fashion can be made accessible to the masses, pricewise
and appeal, then it might take longer than we might hope. It is a topic that
must be addressed and not only addressed but put in motion by more than just one
or two educated designers. We need a groundswell of support from the fashion industry
and only then can this mindset become a reality.
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All my opinions aside, here is Joshua
speaking on the so very topical subject of sustainability and all that comes
with it …
Jeffrey Felner: First
let’s talk about how you got to where you are today in your life … a sort of resume!
Joshua Katcher: I grew up in Poughkeepsie, two hours north of
New York City. My parents were teachers; my grandparents were all children of
immigrants who became glove-makers in Gloversville, NY. My mother’s mother was a fashion maven – I
have images of her dressed up like a vampy movie star. My father’s mother was
apparently a math genius but her husband wouldn’t allow her to work. I grew up
visiting my paternal grandparents at a federally funded housing project in
Brooklyn. New York City was a place I knew I wanted to be one day. I loved
comic books and alternative rock music. I would often stay home making art,
playing my guitar or reading X-Men. Comic books were important to me as I was
moved by the idea of heroes who would fight for truth and justice, who would
not compromise their ethics and wanted to make the world a better place. I was a closeted introvert who was bullied
for being effeminate and different, who loved art and counter-culture. All of
this has crafted who I am today.
From a professional standpoint, I’ve
taken a lot of risks. I’ve kept going when people have told me I should stop
and I have defied the safe and easy path. Fresh out of college, I worked for
one year in a corporate job that made me feel empty. I’ve been a lifeguard, an
EMT who drove an ambulance and an assistant to my parents who photographed
weddings on the weekends as a side-gig.
I freelanced as a camera operator at MTV; I edited videos and worked on
indie films. Eventually, I started a vegan lifestyle website in 2008 called The
Discerning Brute. Soon after I launched my brand, Brave GentleMan, which was the first vegan menswear
brand in the world. I began lecturing and teaching at universities like
Parsons, NYU and FIT as an expert in animals in the fashion industry.
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JF: You are a
writer, a teacher and an advocate ... please explain each of those to us and
why?
JK:
I began writing about fashion in 2008 with The
Discerning Brute. At the time, sustainable and ethical fashion concepts
were (and to a large extent, still are) perceived as feminine concerns, and
therefore considered trivial, silly and ultimately about surface and vanity.
So, I began writing to appeal to a more masculine audience. In writing about
fashion I realized that the intersection of fashion and animals hadn’t been
researched or taken seriously. There is
a real lack of meaningful data and legislation concerning animals in fashion.
What happens to animals in the fashion industry is unimaginable, and the scale
and history is staggering. We’re talking about billions of individuals
confined, trapped, processed and killed every year and a little-known history
of extinctions, extermination campaigns and socio-political scandals. And that
reality is intentionally hidden behind sleek marketing and PR designed to make
us think only about the aesthetics of the finished fashion objects. Beauty is seen
as good, therefore beautiful objects, even if they were made in a horribly ugly
way, are perceived as good. I spent
about 5 years, while an adjunct professor at Parsons the New School,
researching and writing my first book, Fashion Animals, which grapples
with how and why animals have been exploited in fashion, and the systems and
ideologies that allow otherwise kind and good people to continue participating
in and funding cruelty and violence that is out of sight.
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JF: If you could
invite any 5 people to dinner who would they be and why?
JK: I’d invite three amazing youth leaders, with
2 incredible wise elders:
Greta Thunberg - 16 year old Swedish teenage environmental activist. Genesis Butler - 12 year old animal rights activist.
Omari McQueen - 12 year old Omari McQueen is the youngest award winning vegan chef in the UK. Dr. Jane Goodall - English primatologist and anthropologist.
Dr. Margaret Robinson - Indigenous Mi’kmaw, professor of Indigenous Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax
Greta Thunberg - 16 year old Swedish teenage environmental activist. Genesis Butler - 12 year old animal rights activist.
Omari McQueen - 12 year old Omari McQueen is the youngest award winning vegan chef in the UK. Dr. Jane Goodall - English primatologist and anthropologist.
Dr. Margaret Robinson - Indigenous Mi’kmaw, professor of Indigenous Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax
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JF: Let’s talk
about vegan, vegetarian, sustainability and the environment... What brought you to become so involved with
any or all of them and why?
JK:
The first time I ever really considered where my food was coming from was in
high-school when my class purchased an acre of rainforest to protect. We later
found out that it had likely been illegally burned and cleared for
cattle-grazing. I remember being just baffled at the idea of invaluable
rainforests being destroyed to make cheap burgers. It’s a difficult question to
answer because so many things brought me to care about veganism and
sustainability and they’re connected. A broader idea of a more compassionate
world just makes sense to me and worth fighting for by any means possible. Another thing that compels me is having been
bullied myself and being open to considering the suffering of others, whether
that’s a factory worker, a cotton harvester, or a fox in a cage. Animals want
to live just like you and me. We continue to underestimate their capacities to
have complex inner and social lives and we underestimate their ability to
suffer. I see sustainable fashion as a means by which to create and express a
visual identity that aligns the beauty of a fashion with the beauty of how it
was made. Fashion is a wonderful and
perfect place for transformation.
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JF: Lastly let’s
speak of your clothing and accessory collections ... How would you like to see
them evolve and if you could choose any collaboration at all, who would you
choose and why?
JK:
I want to make a large-scale change in the fashion industry. That requires
scaling up. I am not content just having Brave
GentleMan staying a small brand. I envision Brave GentleMan expanding sustainable, vegan menswear into major
retailers with more product categories like basics, underwear, grooming and athletic
wear. I also want to work with the most cutting edge innovations – from
mycelium and lab-grown leather to bio-printed fur and algal biopolymers. I
think people need to see an articulation of future-fashion that is exciting,
hopeful, inspiring, aspirational and still grounded in classic aesthetics. If I
could do collaboration right now, it would probably be with a team of
scientists and engineers to make lab-grown keratin fiber that would be
biologically identical to vicuña and chiru. If I were to do more practical
design collaboration right now, I’d like to work with Tom Ford on a sustainable
and vegan capsule collection.
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