🎙️ Burak Cakmak
Burak Cakmak, the Dean of Fashion at Parsons School of Design in New York is a man with a mission. His entire career has been in the pursuit of making the fashion world more streamlined, socially responsible, and sustainable.
Burak Cakmak, the Dean of Fashion at Parsons School of Design in New York is a man with a mission. His entire career has been in the pursuit of making the fashion world more streamlined, socially responsible, and sustainable.
Burak Cakmak
Born in Turkey during a time when the country was a closed market and under a single-party rule, Burak saw first hand what it was like to live and survive with minimal options in front of him. As the country opened up, so did Burak’s eyes to what the outside world had to offer, and through education, he grabbed it with both hands. Studying political science and getting an MBA. His thirst for knowledge pulled him towards California and the tech world. But the impact of his formative years led him down a different path, one headed towards the field of sustainability.
During his career, he has helped to shape the social responsibility strategy for Gap, Kering, and the Swarovski Group. Each job bringing forth new challenges and opportunities to educate and enlighten some of the fashion industry’s biggest movers and shakers.
Then in 2016 Burak decided that instead of trying to change the current state of sustainability at established brands, he wanted to go to the true source of the fashion supply chain and became the Dean of Fashion at Parsons. This is his first role in the world of academia and over the last 4 years, he has reworked the school’s fashion focus, giving it a broader and more inclusive vision. And he challenged traditional customs with innovative thinking to help ignite a fire of social responsibility in his students. Students who will, of course, be the fashion leaders of the future.
I particularly wanted to talk with Burak now, as the world is facing a pandemic paradigm shift. To hear from him how he sees the future of fashion taking shape. And it was a relief to me to hear someone who is such a realist being so optimistic about where we go from here.
Just on a technical side note, I did want to let all you listeners know that - as is the new normal these days - Burak and I did our interview over Zoom Video. So don’t be surprised by a couple of very minor audio issues. And if you happen to be more of a visual learner, feel free to head over to my signature YouTube channel to watch the video version of this podcast in action.
Ok, now let’s listen to Burak let us in on what the future holds for us.
🎙️ Dana Thomas
Dana Thomas is a dyed in the wool, true blue journalist. She lives it, breaths it and consumes it every day. She is the Woodward and Bernstein or the Ronan Farrow, if you will, of the fashion industry. Her deep dive, investigative books into the inner workings of the fashion world have earned her the respect of her peers and I am sure, when she comes knocking, a few shivers of fear down the spine of at least a couple of CEOs during her career.
Dana Thomas is a dyed in the wool, true blue journalist. She lives it, breaths it and consumes it every day. She is the Woodward and Bernstein or the Ronan Farrow, if you will, of the fashion industry. Her deep dive, investigative books into the inner workings of the fashion world have earned her the respect of her peers and I am sure, when she comes knocking, a few shivers of fear down the spine of at least a couple of CEOs during her career.
Dana Thomas
In 2007 she published the New York Times bestseller, "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster" which explored the dark side of the multi-billion-dollar business and exposed the hidden secrets that luxury brands didn’t want to have see the light of day. Then in 2015 she published “Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano”. In that book, Thomas explored how two of the most creative and influential designers of the past 30 years cracked under the pressure of the 24/7 incessant demands of a business built on always coming up with the next big thing, must-have accessory and the designer as superstar approach to creating a global fashion powerhouse.
And now Thomas is back with another timely and on-point book called “Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes”. This time she examines the damage wrought by the global clothing industry and the role that sustainably, accountability, fair trade and transparency must take if the world of fashion wants to stay viable in the coming decades as the needs of the consumers and the climate both change.
After a year in Paris working as a model, Thomas moved back to the United States to start her award-winning career by cutting her teeth in journalism writing for the Style section of The Washington Post. She then returned to Paris and was, for fifteen years, a cultural and fashion correspondent for Newsweek in the city of light. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and Architectural Digest, just to name a few. And in 2016, the French Minister of Culture named her a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
I met up with Thomas in her home in the 7th arrondissement in Paris. There, surrounded by her collection of rare and out of print fashion books, with her dog Daisy at her feet and her daughter Lucie studying in the next room, we talked about her new book, her life long love of fashion and her ability to spot a seminal story before anyone else.
Image of Dana Thomas credit goes to Nick Gregan.