Kering’s “Fashion Our Future” podcast returns with a fresh perspective from TikTok influencer Andrea Cheong.
Kering, the luxury fashion conglomerate behind labels including Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Creed, and Alexander McQueen, has teamed up with TikTok influencer and author Andrea Cheong for the second season of its podcast, “Fashion Our Future.” The partnership marks a shift in tone, focusing on critical and sustainable insights into the fashion industry. Cheong, known for her deep dives into garment quality and sustainability on TikTok, is at the forefront of this transformation.
This collaboration came on the heels of Cheong’s book release, “Why Don’t I Have Anything to Wear? Spend Less, Shop Smarter, Revolutionize Your Wardrobe,” published last summer. She was given creative freedom to select her guests, ensuring the podcast represents diverse voices across the fashion spectrum, from independent designers to activists and industry insiders.
A different take on fashion
Cheong’s unique approach to fashion earned her the attention of Kering. An assistant from the company first spotted her on TikTok, where she regularly dissects clothing, literally turning garments inside out to scrutinize seams, buttons, and material blends. Cheong’s mission is to uncover the real value behind clothes, focusing on sustainable quality over fleeting trends.
“When I started it, I was just so fed up with the industry and the lack of information,” she explained, highlighting her frustration with fast fashion and the superficiality of many brands. Cheong, whose grandmother was a tailor, leverages her understanding of garment construction to challenge mainstream narratives about fashion quality and pricing.
Cheong believes fast fashion brands will soon face increasing scrutiny. “Soon a lot of fast-fashion brands are not going to be able to hide. You can’t hide behind really cool e-commerce photos or celebrity campaigns when people are turning your clothes inside out,” she said, signaling a shift towards greater transparency in fashion production.
Cheong started her career as a fashion influencer and writer. But a growing disillusionment with the industry led her to reevaluate her role. She described a “mental health crisis” tied to her involvement in promoting brands, which prompted her to start asking difficult questions about the fashion industry’s environmental and emotional impact. “That’s when I started asking difficult questions internally, personally, and also when I was doing these meetings with brands, with PRs, with people behind the scenes,” she told WWD.
Her growing interest in sustainability led her to launch the “Mindful Monday Method” in 2019, a framework aimed at helping consumers make smarter decisions about their wardrobes. By 2021, she had expanded her reach through TikTok, where she began unraveling the hidden realities of fashion production, including factory visits and conversations with garment workers.
“I found so many people who were really, actually the backbone of the industry [but] were so invisible,” Cheong remarked. She emphasized that understanding the full scope of the fashion industry requires more than just speaking to creative directors or marketing executives.
Elevating underrepresented voices
For the “Fashion Our Future” podcast, Cheong invited a variety of guests who bring unique perspectives on fashion’s future. Independent designers like Emily Adams Bode Aujla, Marcelo Gaia, and Ksenia Schnaider join prominent voices such as Valerie Steele, director of the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Museum, and Orsola de Castro, founder of Fashion Revolution. Aujla and Schnaider are well-known for their upcycling efforts, while Gaia’s brand, Mirror Palais, is a favorite among celebrities like Bella Hadid and Dua Lipa.
One of Cheong’s primary goals is to make sustainable fashion accessible to everyone, particularly for those unfamiliar with the complexities of the industry. “When anyone enters the fashion conversation, it’s like at level ten and you are expected to catch up, so a lot of misinterpretation and confusion comes about. I think this breeds this culture of apathy or, at worst, mistrust,” she said. Cheong hopes to foster a more inclusive understanding of sustainable fashion. “It’s not as simple as ticking boxes, but it’s very much in the way that we understand how important it is that everything is interconnected,” she explained.
Cheong aims to equip listeners, particularly younger audiences, with the tools to think critically about fashion and consumption. She wants to make sustainability feel less intimidating and more accessible to all. “So many people exclude sustainability from the idea of fashion because it might look a certain way to them, or it might be so out of reach, but I really hope that the sort of everyday way that we’re presenting this makes others feel included,” Cheong said.
The second season of “Fashion Our Future” premieres on Monday, with the series offering five batches of three episodes each. Additionally, one video episode will be featured on YouTube each month, extending the reach of Cheong’s critical discussions on fashion’s evolving landscape.
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