Anna Cordell

Episode 8: Slow Fashion, Slow Music

As a small business owner, I’m constantly becoming more aware of how the choices I make inside my business affect the greater world around me. What am I spending my time on, what words am I putting out into the world, what products am I selling, how are they made, how long will they last? 

We vote with or dollars - what we choose to spend money on can be a reflection of our values… So what kind of business we choose to run is a reflection of our values too.  

Slow fashion champion (and label owner) Anna Cordell, brings her values of sustainability and high value to her work as a designer AND musician and we had such an interesting chat about how the two worlds - music and fashion - parallel each other in so many ways. 

We dove into social media, the drive to be seen as busy and productive, fast turnaround release cycles and fashion seasons, discarded fashion and how we’re constantly chasing our tails to get the next accolade or buck.

One of my favourite parts of this conversation as when we got into talking about how musicians can create conscious , sustainable and valuable merch. We all know that people aren’t buying music the same way they used to, and merch has become a really important income source for artists. We talk about designing merch that’s a beautiful piece of evergreen art. Something that goes beyond advertising the artists name for them. Something made with high quality materials, that will last for years. Something that your fans won’t want or need to get rid of.

Anna talks openly about her experience with anxiety and depression and how these two sides of the same coin were affected by expectations (internal and external) as a young mother. 

Now, parenting five kids, Anna works as a fashion designer and musician. Sometimes it feels as though things are running smoothly…. sometimes not. Either way, Anna’s advice is to slow down.