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PodcastsMay 15, 2020

How a local fashion label has used lockdown to give back to its customers

Business is Boring host
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Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Emily Miller-Sharma, general manager at Ruby.

One of the nicest things to come out of lockdown is a reconnection to creating – whether it’s making bread, growing plants or, for followers of local fashion label Ruby at least, online sewing classes.

A lot of work goes into creating clothes from a strip of fabric. Patterns are like a 3d jigsaw puzzle, and require a lot of maths. Fit and draping are a kind of magic. And all those human touches can get forgotten when clothing is made for fast-fashion chain brands.

With the fashion industry in a precarious place due to Covid-19, we chatted to Emily Miller-Sharma, general manager at Ruby. She’s one of the driving forces behind Mindful NZ, an industry body bringing together local producers to advocate for better standards of traceability and to create locally appropriate codes of conduct to find out what the industry is facing. Miller-Sharma talks about initiatives like apprentices and moving towards more sustainable choices throughout the business, and tells the story of Ruby.

Either download this episode, have a listen below or via Spotify, subscribe through iTunes (RSS feed).

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MediaMay 8, 2020

The Fold podcast: Bailey Mackey takes Māori storytelling to the world

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He started as a journalist, became a producer, and is now one of NZ’s most successful TV creators. Bailey Mackey joins Duncan Greive on The Fold.

This month’s episode of The Fold, The Spinoff’s media podcast, features host Duncan Greive in conversation with Bailey Mackey, a TV producer with one of the most interesting CVs in the entertainment industry. Mackey grew up in and around Gisborne, and got his start in broadcasting on Radio Ngāti Porou, before hitching to Auckland to audition for Te Karere. When he arrived he wore a suit two sizes too small, and saw Julian Wilcox auditioning for the same job. They both got the job, with Wilcox becoming an on-screen legend, while Mackey gravitated towards production, and eventually to reality TV, where he learned from the master – Julie Christie.

Mackey was then a highly successful head of sport at Māori TV before launching his own businesses, first Black Inc and latterly Pango, which aims to take Māori storytelling to the world. His career has been stunningly successful, with the creation of hit shows in New Zealand like the huge but unjustly maligned The GC and Sidewalk Karaoke, a format sold to Fremantle, along with a slew of other shows created here and watched globally. Greive spoke with him about how you sell a show, what New Zealand does right and wrong in the screen trade, and the business as it is right now, decimated by Covid-19, but boiling with opportunity too.

To listen use the player below or download this episode (right click and save). Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, RSS or via your favourite podcast provider.