Latest / World Ablaze with George Fontes / Jeff Garner - Industry Icon Exposes the Toxic Fashion Industry

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Jeff Garner - Industry Icon Exposes the Toxic Fashion Industry · World Ablaze with George Fontes

• 0:00
  You are listening to a Fonts Media Network production.
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  On today's episode, I welcome world-renowned fashion designer Jeff Garner.
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  Jeff is not just a fashion designer.
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  He's also a renowned author, visual artist, and documentarian.
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  We dive into his latest effort, Let Them Be Naked, a documentary in which Jeff dove into the deep end of the fashion industry to expose the willing use of harmful chemicals and synthetic fabrics that negatively impact our health.
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  I know you'll enjoy this conversation, and please go watch Jeff's soon-to-be-released documentary, Let Them Be Naked.
• 0:53
  to begin with uh i want to thank you for your time man uh that you agreed to do this i i found
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  i found what you were doing very interesting and what triggered that is uh one day what my wife and
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  i actually saw a documentary on uh pollution and they focused in on clothing being like
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  the second leading cause of pollution and then they took you over to indonesia and uh they were
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  were talking about all the pollution there and then they showed the the shores on the beaches
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  you know and have all the clothes were piling up everywhere and we're just we're just tripping out
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  on that and um when i came across your profile and what you do in your documentary i was like
• 1:36
  okay i gotta talk to i gotta talk to jeff because you went out there and you really dug into it so
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  i found what you're doing intriguing and important and thanks for the link by the way um i did get
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  to see that and it was very well done by the way so congratulations you did a good job on it
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  thank you bud i appreciate that yeah yeah it's uh you know you can tell it's been a lifelong
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  journey so you know it was in the last minute kind of let's do a doc about this so yeah yeah
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  no we can tell it was pretty well done and very eye-opening and with that being said what so
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  just watching the doc which not everybody has seen yet because it's still going through
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  the festivals and whatnot.
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  But so I don't want to give too much away in there.
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  We'll obviously talk about it, but I want to, I want to be able to let people see it
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  for themselves and then, you know, they could form their own opinions or, you know, conclusions
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  based on the evidence that you present and what you did.
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  But I have to ask, so you mentioned something about your mother and that's what led you
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  to look into the toxicity of clothing, as in the materials, dyes, et cetera.
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  Was that the only time that you considered that?
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  Or was there any other time in your journey where you thought, hey, this isn't right,
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  how we're putting all this stuff on our skin and how things are being handled?
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  Was there any other moments in your life that triggered that?
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  Or was that kind of like the straw that broke the camel's back and you're like, okay, there's
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  something wrong?
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  Yeah, no, I mean, when I first started back in 2003, I kind of discovered the toxicity.
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  When my mom passed, that's what led me down the path of like, I have to do a documentary
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  because that's the only catalyst or platform to get it out there.
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  And it lives beyond us, right?
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  So I could sit here and do, and I've done over 100 catwalk shows all around the world
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  with U.S. embassies, with speaking engagements, TED Talks,
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  none of it's going to have an impact unless you get it on a screen.
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  And so when she passed, I was like, okay, now's the time.
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  You know, because, you know, I'm not a filmmaker.
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  Part of me was like, well, people believe this, not believe it.
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  You know, and so, yeah, that's why I did that 300-page book.
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  And then along with the docs, I wanted to make sure that nobody could
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  come alongside and say, oh, it's conspiracy theory, or oh, your science isn't good,
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  which TED Talks tried to do. And I burned that scientist out of his job, basically, because
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  the data's there, the science's there, it's all been peer-reviewed, and we did our own studies as
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  well. So it's one of these kind of interesting subject matters that hasn't got the tension,
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  And it's been studied because, as we say in the documentary, that it depends who's funding the studies, what kind of information and answers they want to get out of it, and whether they want to disclose it or not, it's up to them.
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  But, for example, one thing we didn't put in the doc is that the Army outlawed Under Armour years ago to wear underneath their uniforms.
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  So the guys were wearing Under Armour underneath the uniforms.
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  Well, the uniforms themselves have PFABs in it. It's a, you know, it's basic pretending like it's an old slick. So it keeps the uniforms catching fire. Right. And so they would wear these under armor underneath, but they outlawed it. Now they can only wear natural cotton because they learned that when the guys got into war and, you know, the fire happened, et cetera, it made the wounds worse. It melts into the wounds.
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  That's interesting.
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  And then you also found a study that it actually affected performance as well.
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  Is that true?
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  Correct.
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  So, you know, if you look at muscle fatigue, muscle fatigue happens when you don't have
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  oxygen supply, right?
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  So when you have a non-permanable fabrication, i.e. polyester, nylon, it doesn't allow any
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  breathability to happen.
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  So there's no oxygen exchange taking place.
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  Our skin is beautiful.
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  Like we can get, you know, even water through our skin.
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  It's a beautiful, amazing design.
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  So when we block that process, we're going to dehydrate ourselves.
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  And obviously we're going to cut off our oxygen supply.
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  So therefore it's going to cause a fatigue.
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  And so there's a study that's already been done before we got into this that basically confirmed you get have a 25%, you know, fatigue, you know, compared to wearing a natural fiber that allows breathability.
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  et cetera. So Darren and I, we did it in the film just to test it ourselves and it came out around
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  23, 24%. So it's really interesting. So it's just, you know, that's when you look at science,
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  it doesn't, you know, it doesn't lie. That's it. But nobody's kind of putting together the dots,
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  the synergy of effect. You know, polyester was just invented during the war. Then it was put
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  into clothing soon after because the chemical industries wanted to find a new use for it
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  so they could keep selling it.
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  And then we didn't question it.
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  And we actually liked it
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  because it made our clothing cheaper
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  so we could buy more.
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  But we never, ever tested
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  what happens when you put this on your skin.
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  What happens when these ladies
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  stop wearing silk stockings
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  and put on nylon stockings, right?
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  But then that's why we also included the dog.
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  You remember, we went back to this professor
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  who spent 10 years of her life studying
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  what happened back in the day
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  with these victims of fashion that were wearing an arsenic dress,
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  you know, dyed green.
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  Remember that.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  So that sticks out.
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  So we're still using those same chemicals.
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  It's ironic.
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  But back then, you could really see it because London, Paris, et cetera,
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  all these fashion hubs actually made the garments there in their backyard.
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  So you could see the correlation.
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  Now the correlations you can't see because we're manufacturing
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  and third world country. We're in India, we're in Indonesia, we're in China. We don't see it.
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  But you also could ask the question, do the manufacturers care? I mean, does that also
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  just give them deniability in the process or plausible deniability, like giving themselves
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  some distance? Because in the end, the problem I see in most any industry, because obviously we're
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  talking about health here, is it's crazy to me how large corporations will sacrifice the health
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  of the world just for a few extra dollars, which is nuts. And in a way, like what you're doing,
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  right? You're making the hemp briefs and whatnot or undergarments because what you found in studies
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  out there and how it actually will affect male reproduction, right? Testosterone, all of that,
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  just from having that synthetic material always right up against your skin. So that's really cool.
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  but is it good to cost that much more for for these manufacturers to to make that shift back
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  to natural organic materials or are they just so ingrained with what they got now in their
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  operation machinery that they just don't want to put the money out to make the switch
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  yeah i mean listen i yeah there will be a a let's call it a learning curve where they're going to
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  have to revert back to the natural fabrics and the dyes but if you recall like the original like
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  gene was hemp denim and it was cheap fabric because it was easy to grow. Everyone was growing
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  it. So what we're talking about is corporate greed. So they want to own the fabrication.
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  They don't want you to be able to grow it in your backyard. They want to own it,
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  call it a name. Let's call it Lyocell or Tencel. What the hell is that? And then you learn it's
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  made in laboratories. So they own that trademark. Therefore, they own the distribution and then they
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  own obviously the profit so will they let go of that no but what they'll they'll do is introduce
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  new fabrics that are like they'll call it bio-based and like what does that mean because
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  that means they add you know it's still a polymer still polyester but they use some wood pulp
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  instead of it all being flat right so right for them for them to actually grow the hemp and and
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  And that's a different business strategy because you don't own the distribution.
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  So when you develop that hemp, I could grow hemp and sell it.
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  And then you could grow hemp and sell it.
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  And we're both selling hemp.
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  We don't own hemp fabric.
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  And that's the difference.
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  So their profit margins will be different.
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  Their scale will be different.
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  But I don't think that's a bad thing.
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  I think it's kind of like Fight Club where these things have to blow up.
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  And then we have to reinvent what the new kind of fashion industry looks like using these better fabrications, these dyes, because the trajectory we're going, you know, and I'm not a doom and gloom guy, but it's just impossible to keep up with.
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  Even designers I know are quitting the business, et cetera, because it's impossible. Like the fast fashion created this mechanism where they're driving that consumer desire to replace order of every weekend. We don't need that in our society.
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  we need to design that waistcoat, that shirt that we wear for 10 years
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  and it becomes who we are and character.
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  So it's affecting society in a way too, sociology-wise
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  where people are insecure more and more now
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  because they're losing the sight of their true character.
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  They don't know who they are because they keep changing themselves
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  every weekend, every trend.
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  And back in the day, I'd see you walking down the street.
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  I'd be like, oh, there goes George in his scarf
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  because I recognize that scarf.
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  You've had it for years.
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  Your mom sewed it for you.
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  That's you, buddy.
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  But that's not, it's a weird, interesting cycle we're in,
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  but it's all about driving consumers back in the store
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  to buy more stuff they don't need.
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  So it's an addiction cycle we have to break.
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  And then we can bring in back that natural fabrication
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  and dye process because we're not having to output as quickly
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  and as much as the synthetics allow them to do it.
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  And that's it.
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  It's like shelf syndrome.
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  You build a shelf, people are going to fill it.
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  That's just human nature.
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  So we make the synthetic stuff illegal because it should be because it's a health issue and toxic and causing cancer.
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  Then they'll be forced to use better ingredients.
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  And it's happened in the food industry.
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  It needs to happen in fashion.
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  And that's why we're connecting.
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  What you put on your body goes into your skin.
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  So it is a liability.
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  It's funny you brought up the food industry because I actually did an episode where I did a deep dive on that.
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  and finding all the dyes, all the additives that are banned in the EU
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  and what is acceptable in America
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  and how our FDA is just really not looking out for our best interest.
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  It's really ridiculous.
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  And brands here, when they have to ship out to the UK or anywhere else,
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  they have to actually remake that package and the ingredients
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  to meet those standards overseas.
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  And that's the only time that they'll be forced to do it,
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  but yet they can't take that packaging.
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  Let's say that's going to the UK and then just say, okay, we're also going to distribute
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  to everybody in America.
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  They would rather just keep those toxic harmful chemicals in our foods because it's just
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  cheaper, which is ridiculous.
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  And I never understood how you know and you right when it comes even with clothing they throw these catchphrases It just marketing You know they just trying to capture people attentions people who have a tendency to want to make a change They like oh look it says bio like you said
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  or organic or whatever.
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  And just because it says that on the label,
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  like, okay, I'm doing something good,
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  but not realizing that there's still a percentage
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  of those harmful materials within that fabric
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  in and of itself, which is crazy.
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  I've got to ask you, though.
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  I've always been interested in this.
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  When, because I never paid attention, to be quite honest.
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  when did fast fashion become a thing?
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  Because in the pioneer days,
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  when we were trying to become civilized people,
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  civilized society,
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  we wore our clothes out.
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  They were functional, right?
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  They had to last.
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  They had to be rugged.
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  They had to get us through the day.
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  And then all of a sudden,
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  there was this thing where it was like,
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  oh, I need a new shirt, a new coat, a new belt,
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  everything.
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  Like every other week,
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  you got to go to the store and buy something new.
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  Do you know when that started happening?
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  It was basically late 90s, early 2000s.
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  It's when that kind of business model developed.
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  It was with Topshop in London, H&M, Zara.
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  Those were kind of the beginning of this kind of idea that we, you know, unfortunately, it's very unethical.
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  So they would go to the catwalk shows, knock off designers like myself, because we set the trends, go back, turn it into their system that already got built, and they could literally turn it out in two weeks and have it in the shop.
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  so we do seasonal so we present a season and then we don't make it to the following season
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  they already have our our designs in their shops selling to consumers and it was just and they
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  realized wow we're ahead of the game so we couldn't compete with it because we just we have to take
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  orders in know what we're producing before we produce it otherwise we'll go out of business
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  but they were able to like just kind of predict how much they would sell depending on how many
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  stores they have and they would just ante up and do production and throw it in the stores
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  and that's and it worked and then they were making a lot of money and that's when
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  you know and it sped up everything so these factories the textile you know before you
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  couldn't get and they're using cheap fabric so it's not like they have to make their fabric
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  it's you know pre-existing so you know and they use cheap hardware so they're not making their
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  hardware like their zippers we make our zippers our snaps you know and all that stuff so yeah it
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  was just a different model that had not been introduced because everyone that the the buyers
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  changed to where they just wanted cheap versus quality and you know they didn't and they started
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  teaching in design school design obsolescence which is basically how do you make a garment
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  that falls apart after three washes.
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  And so what it would do,
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  it'd drive the consumer back in.
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  It was a business idea
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  that they would drive people back in
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  to buy a new shirt.
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  And they even did a recycling program
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  in the same manner,
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  but they wouldn't recycle the garments.
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  But they're like,
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  oh, if you drop off the shirt,
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  they did statistics.
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  When a person walks through the store
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  to drop that shirt off,
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  they'll buy something new.
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  So it was all like social behavior stuff
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  that they realized the psychology of it.
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  And, you know, some smart business guy with no ethics decided that's a new way and made bank and nobody looked back.
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  And then everybody copied that model.
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  And then now we're dealing with a huge amount of what you saw on the beach.
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  That's what we're dealing with now because of that new cycle.
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  And the college kids loved it because they could buy a new outfit for their date that weekend.
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  And so, you know, nobody really blew the whistle until we saw it piling up, you know.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  It's,
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  it's crazy because it's,
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  you're just,
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  it is societal.
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  They,
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  we need to get away from,
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  I got to have the latest,
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  greatest,
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  the trend.
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  Right.
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  And what,
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  what happened,
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  it seemed in the fashion industry,
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  the same thing that's been happening in the tech industry for years too.
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  Like,
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  do we need a new iPhone every year?
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  No.
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  Technologically,
• 16:55
  that thing's more powerful.
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  The computers I used to build the nineties,
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  to be quite honest.
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  I don't need to upgrade,
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  but everybody thinks,
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  Oh,
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  the newest,
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  I got to have it.
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  But no,
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  you don't.
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  So yeah,
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  it is,
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  we need,
• 17:05
  we need to definitely,
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  retrain our culture and society.
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  But it's not just here. It's a worldwide
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  thing, which is sad.
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  What I found interesting too
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  is, I was unaware with like polyester
• 17:19
  is that most of
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  everything we wear is literally plastic.
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  And it's crazy how the
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  petroleum industry is ingrained
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  and embedded in everything.
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  Everything from our Tupperware to
• 17:30
  utensils, you name it. Everything has
• 17:32
  a bit of oil or petroleum in it.
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  and how, I don't know how to ask this question.
• 17:40
  Basically, why are they,
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  I'm trying to understand how it's so cheap
• 17:48
  to use those fabrics,
• 17:51
  synthetic fabrics versus organic fabrics.
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  I really am because I equate that to like gardening,
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  for example.
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  There's no reason organic vegetables
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  should cost more in the store outside of the red tape.
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  And that's another thing that I dove into one day.
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  I was just really interested into why is my organic apple or tomato costing more than the one from, you know, the big farm, for example, the big farm brands.
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  Because when we grow our garden, ours is all organic.
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  It doesn't cost us anything, no sprays, nothing, pesticides.
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  But due to government regulations, they force these organic farmers to pay more.
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  And I'm sure you know all about this.
• 18:25
  And is that something that's similar to, is there any regulation like that in the clothing industry too?
• 18:31
  If they want to claim, hey, this is all organic fabrics,
• 18:35
  is there a certain number of hoops you got to jump through to prove that?
• 18:39
  Is a red tape like that also in the fashion industry?
• 18:44
  I mean, there's certification programs I want you to buy into
• 18:48
  to certify your fabric.
• 18:50
  You don't have to do that.
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  It simply is coming straight from the textiler.
• 18:56
  It's just costing them more to grow it and spin it and do all the processing.
• 19:03
  In that world, it's a processing thing because you're not dealing with food.
• 19:07
  You're dealing with this is a liquid that they solidify through a machine and make polyester.
• 19:13
  And once you make those machines, then your ingredient is so cheap.
• 19:19
  You just plug that.
• 19:19
  So with cotton, hemp, and silk, obviously, there's a harvesting time.
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  There's a growing time.
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  There's a picking time.
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  There's a redding process.
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  There's a spinning process.
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  So there's a lot of labor intensity that goes into that.
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  So that will never go away.
• 19:35
  There's machinery that helps, like a deforenicator and other things that help that process.
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  Instead of redding it in the ground and letting it rot for three months, you can throw it through that machine.
• 19:45
  And that speeds it up.
• 19:46
  But that's the industrial age.
• 19:48
  But, you know, can it be almost equal?
• 19:51
  Yes, I think so.
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  when people buy into natural fibers.
• 19:55
  It will definitely create more production.
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  Therefore, it will be better in systems.
• 20:01
  It will make more money,
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  and then the price will come down and down and down.
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  But like you said, hemp, you could grow anywhere.
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  So technically, it could be mass-produced.
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  It could grow in the mountains, grow in any climates.
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  It's three months to full fruition to have it picked.
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  Cotton's a little bit more intensive,
• 20:19
  more water uses, et cetera.
• 20:20
  But that's why I'm a big hemp fan.
• 20:22
  But yeah, that would drive the pricing down.
• 20:24
  Now, why they use petroleum bases?
• 20:28
  Think of it like corn syrup for the food industry.
• 20:31
  It's just always been the cheapest ingredient to kind of keep all of it together and create the base of it, right?
• 20:40
  But yeah, I don't know.
• 20:44
  I mean, you're never going to have it equal, for sure.
• 20:48
  right now it's probably one to ten meaning you're paying one buck for a nylon yard and you're paying
• 20:54
  ten for a hemp yard right i think the thing with hemp though is i i get what you're saying because
• 21:01
  i mean you're you're you're directly in you're in it this is what you do for a living so i i hear you
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  but the thing with hemp is it has so many uses from from paper to like you said clothing um you
• 21:13
  could even use it to make building materials, which I've seen some companies starting to do.
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  So I would think that there is definitely a possibility for farmers of hemp, for example,
• 21:24
  to be able to be subsidized by multiple industries to drive that crop down to where it would be
• 21:29
  beneficial to not just the clothing industry, but also to other industries in general, just
• 21:34
  as it happened with the petroleum products. And at one time, that was the direction that we were
• 21:41
  going. So until Hearst got involved and basically started buying all the hemp farms out and closing
• 21:47
  them. But that's another, that's another journey. So yeah, it's, it's, it's a sad state. I'm going
• 21:54
  to pivot just a bit because you, I want to talk about you for a bit because my audience, I usually
• 22:00
  am more of a politics news commentary, but I tend to love to talk to people who I find interesting.
• 22:05
  And I, and I like that, you know, for someone like you was leading the charge, for example,
• 22:09
  in this particular subject matter.
• 22:11
  But what got you into,
• 22:14
  so you started with fashion, is this correct?
• 22:17
  Okay.
• 22:17
  And then you ventured out into visual arts
• 22:20
  and then becoming a documentarian.
• 22:22
  So can you kind of give me your journey there
• 22:24
  of how that all evolved?
• 22:28
  Yeah, I'll do a short synopsis.
• 22:30
  I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, horse farm.
• 22:33
  You know, grandmothers taught me to sew.
• 22:34
  They were, you know,
• 22:36
  granddad taught me how to work hard on a farm
• 22:38
  and dad taught me how to ride a horse.
• 22:40
  And I just was of the earth.
• 22:41
  And then all my buddies were in bands.
• 22:43
  They said, hey, be in our band.
• 22:45
  I was like, no way, but I'll dress you.
• 22:46
  And then I started learning how to make clothes
• 22:48
  for the individual.
• 22:50
  And what are they trying to say on stage with their music?
• 22:53
  And I was always artist-minded.
• 22:55
  And then when I got into merchandise production,
• 22:58
  like Pastasol Inc. and stuff like that,
• 22:59
  I was like, wow, this is a gnarly, dirty business.
• 23:02
  And I come from a farm background.
• 23:04
  I'm like, I don't want my river dirty.
• 23:06
  I don't want my horses to be around this.
• 23:08
  I don't want to be around this.
• 23:09
  So I started asking questions and trying to drive, like, why are you guys doing it this way?
• 23:14
  And it's just, that's what we do.
• 23:16
  So it started that whole journey.
• 23:19
  And then I moved out to California, got more education and learned.
• 23:24
  There were some guys out here already trying to grow hemp and do that whole world.
• 23:27
  And so, yeah, it just kind of eventually just kept moving the dial forward.
• 23:32
  I mean, I remember one day talking to a tech seller.
• 23:34
  I'm like, hey, if you produce hemp for me, I'll give you an order of band t-shirts.
• 23:38
  like 50,000 and I would kind of wage use what I had production wise to help develop new fabrics
• 23:45
  because back then there was nobody doing hemp you know not in the U.S. at least and so because it
• 23:52
  was too expensive and they thought nobody cared and that was like early 2000s so yeah so that's
• 23:58
  kind of how it developed it was just me just being this stubborn like country guy I am and just be
• 24:03
  like, all right, we got to do this differently. And I don't agree with this. And it wasn't about
• 24:08
  money to me. It was about doing the right thing. It sounds like you were always, as far as the
• 24:14
  fashion industry and then kind of always into the art scene itself. Sounds like. Did you play music
• 24:19
  yourself too? You playing instruments? Yeah, my mom was a pianist, a composer. She taught me how
• 24:24
  to play piano. And I would, you know, kind of grew up in Tennessee. We kind of string and play
• 24:29
  on the weekends and dance.
• 24:31
  You know, it's just part of growing up.
• 24:32
  But I never, I'm not competitive.
• 24:34
  I don't like, I honestly don't like being on stage.
• 24:37
  I don't like the limelight.
• 24:39
  Really?
• 24:39
  That's not my cup of tea.
• 24:41
  You do these crazy fashion events and you don't like it.
• 24:45
  No, that takes a lot of effort.
• 24:47
  I like to design in my room, on my floor and make things, you know.
• 24:51
  The person behind the scenes, right?
• 24:53
  Yeah, exactly.
• 24:54
  Exactly.
• 24:55
  I get it.
• 24:56
  So where you lived, you just grew up around all these people.
• 24:59
  and just found a need.
• 25:00
  And then you actually loved it.
• 25:02
  You just got behind it
• 25:02
  and just went for it all out, right?
• 25:05
  Yeah.
• 25:06
  Yeah, I looked at the need
• 25:08
  and I'm a, you know, my brain,
• 25:09
  my grandfather was one of the first chemists
• 25:12
  actually Oppenheimer hired
• 25:13
  for the Manhattan Project,
• 25:14
  you know, Gridge, Tennessee.
• 25:16
  So I grew up with him just making stuff
• 25:18
  like learning how to problem solve,
• 25:20
  not going off a blueprint or instructions
• 25:22
  and trying to create a problem solve,
• 25:24
  figure things out.
• 25:25
  We used to build radios
• 25:26
  and, you know, we built my go-kart
• 25:29
  it out of wood and built the engine and just, you know, so I had that, that brain and that
• 25:34
  mechanical kind of engineering background.
• 25:36
  So I was like, all right, I can figure this out.
• 25:38
  Like, let's try this.
• 25:39
  Let's try this.
• 25:39
  And like, so there's chemistry and natural dyes, you know?
• 25:43
  So I went to Florence, Italy, studied how they used to do it, brought it back to Tennessee,
• 25:48
  found a couple of friends of mine who were kind of hippie sisters doing tie dye and like,
• 25:52
  hey, you guys want to learn, you know, how to do this and let's dive in.
• 25:56
  And then we spent eight years developing out all the colors and you know learning what we could use around Tennessee to dye with And then we expanded it And anyway so I love that problem mind you know
• 26:08
  but then it's like,
• 26:09
  how do we take something that's crafty and take it to scale and production?
• 26:13
  And so, yeah.
• 26:14
  So that's always been kind of the journey.
• 26:16
  I think that's really cool, man.
• 26:17
  Yeah.
• 26:17
  Honestly.
• 26:19
  Natural dyes.
• 26:20
  I was going to ask you.
• 26:20
  So all of it was always plant-based, right?
• 26:22
  Like vegetables, leaves, things like that, dirt.
• 26:25
  Is that how most of all of it was made?
• 26:27
  Yeah, I mean, a lot of people say vegetables, and I think because they have strong colors. I don't use vegetables because the staying power is not there, in my opinion. But if you think about barks and leaves, they have a lot of tannins in them. That's where you're going to get really the deep, rich colors that stay. And I love doing that.
• 26:46
  But things like marigold flowers, for example, with the gold tones,
• 26:51
  eucalyptus leaves also are magical because they get gold, gray, and black.
• 26:57
  And the idea is you mix it with metal and an iron will get the dark,
• 27:02
  make things go dark, aluminum makes it go light.
• 27:05
  And it's like learning how to gas and brake and this and that.
• 27:09
  It's just chemistry.
• 27:10
  But in a natural way, I can drink my dyes.
• 27:13
  I was actually going to ask you about that because I heard that.
• 27:16
  Yeah. Yeah. Everyone laughs. I'm like, and I was like, I've done it on TV before. And you know,
• 27:22
  with somebody who's synthetically dying or saying they have water-based dyes, I'm like,
• 27:26
  what the hell does that mean? Then drink it. They won't touch it.
• 27:31
  But you will.
• 27:32
  Yeah.
• 27:33
  That's pretty cool. So you still make your own dyes in the house or do you partner with your
• 27:36
  other friends that you were talking about to have them do that for you?
• 27:41
  Yeah. I partnered with them because it was getting, you know, there's only so much I can do.
• 27:45
  And so they started doing the colors for me.
• 27:48
  And now one of them, one of them got married.
• 27:50
  The other one started getting other farmers to grow like indigo in Tennessee.
• 27:55
  And she wanted to crack the denim, indigo denim and start providing for Levi's.
• 28:00
  And so that's what she's doing now.
• 28:02
  And I'm doing, I'm not doing production anymore like I used to.
• 28:06
  I used to be in 75 stores and have a wearable collection.
• 28:09
  And then I decided that's not my journey.
• 28:11
  I'm going to pull that back and really just be, do more couture and show fashion weeks and show red carpet and get those highlights to teach people, hey, look, it can compete and look just as good as these synthetics.
• 28:24
  And it's dyed with this plant and it's made of this.
• 28:27
  And so that was kind of my new journey.
• 28:30
  And that's what I've been focused on.
• 28:32
  But I do with our boxers, obviously we do that.
• 28:34
  But yeah, right now, the way it's going is you can create a powder form of that plant dye and it can be used in the commercial machines.
• 28:43
  So that's kind of the next phase.
• 28:45
  Yeah, very cool.
• 28:46
  And your fashion in and of itself, we haven't talked about that.
• 28:50
  I've noticed this more like probably what, mid 1700s to mid 1800s?
• 28:56
  Is that primarily what you've done in the past or are you starting to change that?
• 29:02
  Honestly, yeah.
• 29:03
  I mean, I have different, like any designer, I have different downloads.
• 29:07
  And so like my new collection, I don't really want to share what it's about, but it's going
• 29:11
  to be completely different that kind of time period.
• 29:14
  And, you know, I've done it all, but I do like historical connections and I like intermixing
• 29:20
  that too, you know, but.
• 29:22
  So kind of like an homage to that with a little bit of modern twist.
• 29:27
  Yeah.
• 29:27
  Yeah.
• 29:27
  I did a few pieces on this TV series called Rain, which was Mary, Queen of Scots.
• 29:32
  And so you look like it's kind of, the dress is more modern for her for that time period, but I took liberty, but it like, it looks amazing, you know, but the dyes and the fabric are right on par for that time period, but the cut is a little bit sexier, right? And so I like doing that kind of take on things. Yeah.
• 29:54
  Very cool. And one thing I was going to say is when I was from the documentary and I looked other things up about you and your shows, what I noticed, and it actually caught my eye, was your dresses, everything you make, the fabric, how it just flows. Is that all hemp?
• 30:10
  majority is yeah i have a mix of a hemp and a silk that i just you know i created years ago and i love
• 30:18
  it and it's about a 4.2 ounce and it just has a great just hang and flow to it and i love working
• 30:25
  with that yeah just it just seems to move with the body and then just the way it catches any
• 30:29
  breezer it just looks so natural i really caught my eye because when i was watching it's like wow
• 30:33
  that i don't know what you're using but the way you did it it was it was really i'll just say the
• 30:38
  word. It was beautiful. It was awesome. I love the way that it flowed. So it was really cool.
• 30:42
  And your idea of how you fit women actually accentuates the body, I think correctly.
• 30:48
  Yeah. Thank you.
• 30:49
  Just hats off to you, by the way. It caught my attention. I thought that was really,
• 30:52
  really cool stuff you're doing. Yeah. Thank you.
• 30:55
  Do you still get nervous about that stuff though? What's the process when you're leading up to doing
• 30:59
  a show? I mean, is it all stress? Is it nerves? What goes on?
• 31:04
  That's a great question.
• 31:06
  How you see me now, I'm pretty laid back.
• 31:09
  I'm a surfer.
• 31:11
  I meditate every day.
• 31:12
  And people are surprised backstage, honestly,
• 31:14
  because most designers are yelling, they're cussing,
• 31:17
  they're pulling models around.
• 31:19
  I've been doing it so long, but I've never been that way.
• 31:24
  That's why I usually have a horse out front.
• 31:27
  I love the grounding of it.
• 31:29
  And most of the models love working with us,
• 31:31
  even though we're not a major designer,
• 31:33
  because they heard how we kind of do things.
• 31:37
  And obviously, the romanticness of it, I love.
• 31:40
  But yeah, I don't know.
• 31:41
  I mean, I don't, my nervousness came in with this documentary.
• 31:46
  Sitting in a theater, having people watch it,
• 31:48
  me hearing them like that, I'm like, no, thank you.
• 31:51
  Like that was not, you know.
• 31:53
  Different, right?
• 31:54
  It's different.
• 31:55
  And, you know, it's a new medium for me.
• 31:57
  And you always get this with anything you start doing.
• 32:01
  and everyone's like, oh, well, you know, this is Jeff's first film.
• 32:05
  And I'm like, and when I first started it, everyone's like, good luck, Jeff.
• 32:09
  And pat me on the back. I'm like, all right, cool.
• 32:11
  And then when I went out and raised some money in a week,
• 32:14
  I started the whole production, filmed in three months,
• 32:17
  did the editing in three months, and then had it popped out to film festivals.
• 32:22
  Everyone's like, can I be a part?
• 32:23
  Or like, I'm like, where were you when I needed you?
• 32:25
  That always happens.
• 32:27
  It always happens.
• 32:28
  So, you know, but it's interesting.
• 32:32
  The film world is interesting because it's not supportive.
• 32:36
  Not to say fashion is either, but it's super competitive.
• 32:40
  Everyone's kind of like, even if you do something for the good, I'm like, I'm not a filmmaker.
• 32:44
  I'm not trying to be a filmmaker.
• 32:45
  I have no ego in this.
• 32:47
  I just want to bring something to the awareness factor and help people.
• 32:51
  And you think you would get more people around you to help.
• 32:54
  It's like, oh, I know so-and-so, I know so-and-so.
• 32:56
  but no everyone wanted find out how much money you're paying they want it like it was really
• 33:01
  interesting in that sense as a creative artist i'm like no wonder you know the industry is kind
• 33:06
  of where it's at because in order to do something you know it's just it's it's very jaded and i felt
• 33:13
  that energy which is sad because i think so many more stories could be told in a beautiful way
• 33:19
  but they just either get beat down or i don't know but i'm a pretty tough bird and it took
• 33:26
  a lot out of me to get this film done and done in a way that was you know i didn't take any money
• 33:31
  from any sponsorships i didn't you know i want to keep it pure i wanted to showcase what's really
• 33:37
  going on you know and um yeah it's interesting so but that was the hardest part i'd say fashion
• 33:43
  weeks are like i could do one in my sleep because i i love it so much and and i you know i'm a
• 33:50
  competent artist. I know what I'm doing. Art is obviously subjective. So I know what I'm doing.
• 33:56
  I know my vision and I know how to deliver that. And if somebody likes it and loves it,
• 34:00
  it doesn't matter to me. I just want to give an experience. And so I kind of learned this art of
• 34:05
  unattachment to your art. And I think when people start listening to how people respond or press,
• 34:11
  how the press responds, I think that gets in your head. And that's when you start
• 34:14
  You got to ignore the noise, Jeff.
• 34:16
  You do.
• 34:16
  Yeah, exactly.
• 34:17
  Just let it go, man.
• 34:19
  Yeah, exactly.
• 34:20
  So as far as dipping your toe in the water, so to speak, with the film industry, like you're not trying to make a movie.
• 34:28
  You're trying to educate is what I saw, but doing it in a visually attractive way to where it just keeps your attention, you know, the pace that you have.
• 34:38
  So the documentary in my mind or when I saw it is successful in that regard.
• 34:43
  Thank you.
• 34:44
  And I liked how it was objective in presenting the information.
• 34:47
  And good call on not having your sponsors because then people can't say, well, you're only saying this because you got paid by this company.
• 34:52
  So that was a good move.
• 34:54
  Did you feel anybody was going out of their way to put roadblocks in front of you when you were making this?
• 35:01
  Or was it just people's greed kind of going, hey, I want a piece of that.
• 35:04
  What can I get out of it?
• 35:06
  Yeah, I mean, we had one of our toxicologists that was in the Victoria's Secret lawsuit case that I tracked down and wanted to interview her.
• 35:16
  And she got paid off not to talk to us.
• 35:19
  Really?
• 35:20
  Mm-hmm.
• 35:21
  Can you explain the Victoria's Secret piece?
• 35:22
  Because it kind of got brought up in your documentary.
• 35:25
  But can you expand on that a little bit?
• 35:28
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 35:29
  And it's expanded in the book.
• 35:30
  But, you know, I didn't want to make the doc about pointing fingers or saying, bad guy, good guy.
• 35:36
  But simply 600 women roughly did a lawsuit against Victoria's Secrets
• 35:42
  for basically issues caused by their brawls.
• 35:46
  So they were breaking out and rashes and everything.
• 35:49
  And a lot of women felt it was causing breast cancer.
• 35:51
  So the only problem with that, when you do a class action lawsuit,
• 35:55
  which they didn't know, so we interviewed the original woman who filed,
• 35:59
  but her lawyer talked her into doing a class action so other people could join.
• 36:03
  and usually that means more money for the lawyer.
• 36:06
  That's why they do it.
• 36:07
  But unknown to her,
• 36:09
  because she's just trying to make right something wrong,
• 36:12
  is that they threw it out of court
• 36:14
  because simply they can say,
• 36:16
  well, she has a different reaction than her,
• 36:19
  so it doesn't apply to her.
• 36:20
  Right.
• 36:21
  And it's very easy.
• 36:22
  It's a game, right?
• 36:23
  Very easy game for them to win.
• 36:25
  And she didn't have the energy or the money
• 36:28
  to do another lawsuit just with her against them.
• 36:31
  And so that's how it got settled. But you don't hear about that online. And we didn't know what happened at the end of that until we interviewed her and she shared the real story.
• 36:43
  And what's also interesting is that they did a, let's call it a leak, but this one reporter before talking to the interviewee who we had on the doc, it released saying that formidehyde caused breast cancer from the Victoria's Secret brawl.
• 37:04
  It's like an article that released.
• 37:06
  So they were talking about her lawsuit being about formidehyde in the brawl.
• 37:10
  Well, it's interesting because that's an easy kind of thing to go to.
• 37:17
  And everybody in the industry knows a lot of these chemicals and toxins are created by Synergy.
• 37:22
  So you cannot put formidehyde in a product, but because you dye it with X or you add X to it, it creates a formidehyde.
• 37:32
  So there's a lot of play in words that say we don't add formidehyde.
• 37:35
  So it naturally occurs and it does naturally occur in the environment.
• 37:39
  So it naturally occurs.
• 37:41
  Therefore, we're not liable.
• 37:42
  Again, it's a play on words and legal stuff.
• 37:45
  So with using formaldehyde as the culprit, so to speak, they knew they could probably get back out of it, get out of it if it went there.
• 37:54
  But we did in the documentary, we went and actually took the bra that was causing her having the rash.
• 38:03
  And we did our own testing on it.
• 38:05
  And because I know chemistry, I asked the lab, the independent lab, to look at nonaphenol.
• 38:12
  And nonaphenol is a carcinogenic toxin typically added to this fabrication and dye.
• 38:18
  And it basically, it shows on the film, but it was over the legal PPM amount that's legally allowed.
• 38:26
  And again, the legal PPM allowance is way too much.
• 38:30
  Like you should have zero of this chemical in your bloodstream.
• 38:33
  but they do that because they're industry friendly they don't want the industries to shut down
• 38:38
  so they get give them an allowance but this was like eight times allowance so anyways it shows that
• 38:45
  that was a corporate or my dad wasn't so it's just this game of like do we really know what's in our
• 38:53
  clothing right and if we did how do we go about protecting ourselves because they not going to do the studies They not going to list ingredients And that kind of the issue is that it is a public health issue because we have no idea what in it
• 39:08
  We don't know the synergy of the effect of all these chemicals and what it's doing to our body.
• 39:13
  And nobody cares because it would take money and a whole different setup to do it properly.
• 39:20
  And so until we push this, it's not going to happen. And so that's the reality we're up against.
• 39:28
  but these women did have these reactions.
• 39:31
  I mean, it was all over the internet.
• 39:33
  She posted it.
• 39:34
  I mean, once a news article came out,
• 39:36
  everyone came out of the woodworks and said,
• 39:38
  wow, I'm not the only one.
• 39:39
  And that's when my mom passed the breast cancer.
• 39:42
  It's like, these guys are bastards.
• 39:44
  They need to be, you know, this needs to change
• 39:47
  because they know what's in it.
• 39:49
  Everyone who designs a product knows what's in it.
• 39:52
  Well, what you said kind of begs the question
• 39:54
  because I can't imagine such a big company
• 39:56
  with these chemists involved,
• 39:59
  like, okay, play on words.
• 40:00
  They can say, okay, these two compounds,
• 40:02
  whatever, when they come together,
• 40:04
  then the byproducts formaldehyde,
• 40:05
  they know this already beforehand.
• 40:07
  They have to.
• 40:08
  Or are they intentionally using formaldehyde in the product?
• 40:12
  Regardless of how you word it,
• 40:14
  they can't really deny that they don't know
• 40:17
  what happens when these two products or whatever meet.
• 40:22
  Yeah, yeah, no.
• 40:23
  And the problem is, so if you go back to Europe versus US,
• 40:26
  Like you asked why they have different regulations than us.
• 40:29
  So there's a common, you know, basically if you can, you know, causality, right?
• 40:35
  So if we can say, hey, there's formidehyde in this brawl and it potentially can cause cancer.
• 40:42
  Well, in Europe, that's enough to say, okay, well, it comes off the market.
• 40:46
  We got to do studies on it before we let it back on the market because it could cause harm or cancer to people we're in it.
• 40:53
  In the U.S., you have to prove that it causes cancer before they take it off the market.
• 41:00
  So that's the main issue.
• 41:02
  That's why we have less, quote, regulation.
• 41:04
  And anybody knows, any chemist knows, you could get it maybe 95, you know, 90 cents.
• 41:11
  Like, there's so many variables.
• 41:13
  You're not going to be able to prove to the tent that it 100% causes breast cancer.
• 41:20
  because everywhere she may have a different perfume, different skin set, different age,
• 41:26
  different diet, you know, different whatever. It's bioaccumulation levels, right? So that one PPM
• 41:31
  could put her bioaccumulation level over and then she gets breast cancer. You know, so it's so many
• 41:38
  variables. But what I do know is that there are carcinogens in these bras that are made of nylon
• 41:44
  and polyester 100%.
• 41:46
  So they do go into the skin.
• 41:50
  And the body, when it receives it,
• 41:52
  it's like it's an alien to the body.
• 41:55
  It doesn't know what it is.
• 41:57
  So it grabs it, treats it like an estrogen,
• 41:59
  grabs it, stores it in the fatty tissues
• 42:01
  because it doesn't want to go into the bloodstream.
• 42:04
  It's just protecting the body.
• 42:06
  So then you have like a greenhouse-like event
• 42:09
  happening in the breast because they're fatty tissues.
• 42:12
  You have brawls over top of them.
• 42:14
  that are putting the chemicals in it and not allowing permeability.
• 42:19
  So you're sweating.
• 42:20
  There's no air passing.
• 42:23
  There's restrictions on the bra straps that's causing the phatic system
• 42:27
  that's designed to move out the toxins to not work
• 42:30
  because those are like hoses that you put any pressure on it, it doesn't work.
• 42:35
  And there's no pump, right?
• 42:37
  There's no heart pushing it through that hose.
• 42:40
  So your body, the way it moves it is by kind of like that watch.
• 42:43
  You don't have to wind up, but it winds up through motion.
• 42:46
  So that's why the breasts need to move and shake and push it out.
• 42:50
  That's how it's designed.
• 42:52
  So you're not supposed to be compressed and restricted for 16, 20 hours.
• 42:56
  Exactly.
• 42:57
  And so that's it.
• 42:59
  So, you know, but you can't put your finger on it and say, you know,
• 43:03
  but there have been studies done that show, you know,
• 43:06
  they took one of the guys we interviewed.
• 43:09
  That's why I interviewed him, because he did a study in Fiji with women who never worn brawls.
• 43:14
  And he put them in brawls and got what I would consider the most sure type of study because they never had touched a bra before.
• 43:22
  Same diet.
• 43:25
  They'd never left this village.
• 43:28
  So it's the closest you can get to a case study.
• 43:31
  And yeah, it proved what we all thought was going to be the outcome, which the more you wear the bra, more cancer.
• 43:38
  Right.
• 43:39
  So, that's the issue and that's all we're trying to bring to awareness is that something you should look at.
• 43:45
  It's like not studying a cigarette when you're talking about lung cancer.
• 43:50
  And the wild thing is when I got into this and I've been researching a long time, you couldn't find one study that was paid for to study the problem.
• 44:01
  That's interesting, actually, especially with the uptick in breast cancer throughout the years.
• 44:06
  Yeah.
• 44:07
  So, you think these…
• 44:08
  They never bothered to look, right?
• 44:09
  What's always on your skin?
• 44:11
  What's always on that area?
• 44:13
  And that shocked me.
• 44:13
  I was like, wait, all these foundations that raise money for breast cancer,
• 44:17
  they haven't studied the brawl?
• 44:19
  There's something.
• 44:20
  It almost presents itself like, oh, there's definitely something going on here.
• 44:24
  Because if they had a few studies and they came out with things that were
• 44:28
  this aligned or this didn't, that would make more sense to me.
• 44:31
  But the fact that it doesn't exist, I'm like, huh, there's something fishy going on.
• 44:36
  Yeah.
• 44:36
  Well, I can imagine because when you said in America, you have to prove it, right? You have to prove it through studies that yes, this actually does cause cancer versus in the UK, they'll say, hey, there's something here, red flag, where we may have to study this further. But in America, you know that I know you know this, but there's huge lobbyists out there that are paying to make sure that they get their way.
• 44:58
  And I know the fashion industry has a pretty big lobbyists and organizations to basically just tug on the shoulder of their favorite politician or regulator to make sure that things go their way.
• 45:14
  And I'm sure that is what really gets in the way of most of these studies that are getting done.
• 45:18
  It's no different than what happens in the food industry, drug industry, etc.
• 45:22
  Yeah, it's the same thing.
• 45:23
  you know um they have an intimate apparel coalition that you know kind of keeps tabs on
• 45:28
  all this and keeps it hush and whatever yeah i mean that's it and we're up against a big entity
• 45:34
  a lot of you know and i kept going you know like why hasn't been spoken about or talked about or
• 45:41
  addressed or you know and i couldn't figure it out until i like did a deeper dive and i realized
• 45:47
  oh wow it dates back to pre-world war ii where you have this chemical company that came up with
• 45:53
  the first pesticide, guess what?
• 45:55
  They're still in business.
• 45:57
  They're still making $75 billion a year.
• 46:00
  Who do you think is controlling the strings?
• 46:02
  It will be them because they're the ones that would lose the most
• 46:05
  because they're pumping their chemicals into all these industries.
• 46:09
  So they're not going to let this disrupt.
• 46:12
  That old saying, too big to fail, right?
• 46:13
  Yeah.
• 46:14
  And it's interesting to find out that the number one top chemical company
• 46:18
  was the economy for Nazi Germany.
• 46:20
  and they're still
• 46:22
  and you know number one
• 46:24
  and they're still pumping their chemicals out
• 46:26
  still poisoning us and
• 46:27
  it's just crazy that nobody's
• 46:30
  taking them all they were disbanded
• 46:31
  you know after they lost the war
• 46:34
  and then they basically came
• 46:36
  back together under a new
• 46:38
  name and kept going
• 46:39
  but it's the same chemicals that
• 46:42
  were developed during that war
• 46:44
  to kill people basically
• 46:46
  and that's what they're using so that to
• 46:48
  me is like come on guys there's got to be
• 46:50
  some more good-hearted people in this world that I know this is wrong and want to fight with me.
• 46:54
  So that's why I did the doc to help kind of create a banner and an energy for people to like get
• 46:59
  behind it because enough's enough, you know, you know, we shouldn't. And as in the film, they say,
• 47:05
  it's not a silent death, but it's elongated death. It's not like you're going to die tomorrow by
• 47:09
  wearing that shirt, but it will, you know, it will have an effect and will lead to a disease or a
• 47:16
  cancer after 10 to 12, 20 years, you know, you just don't know, but it does. Science will say it's,
• 47:24
  it's in there. It's going in your body. It is causing cell mutation and it can lead to something.
• 47:31
  So that's where I think we need to like at least bring to the table. We need to know what's inside
• 47:38
  everything that we buy and put on our bodies because it does affect us. And then that to me
• 47:42
  is enough and then people can make their own decisions because some people care, some people
• 47:47
  won't care. It sounds like through everything you just explained without directly saying that you
• 47:53
  did have obstacles in your way in making this documentary. Yeah, a little bit. I'm sure I'm not
• 47:59
  done. And yeah, we're getting pushed back all the time, but I don't think they understand.
• 48:05
  I have nothing to lose and nothing to gain. I'm probably their worst type because you can't pay
• 48:12
  me off and, and, uh, I'm not worried about anything. So I'm doing this. Yeah. So I'm doing
• 48:20
  this, you know, for, and, and that's why my friends have surrounded me because they, they
• 48:24
  know my heart in this. And, uh, you know, if I can save, you know, one mom from breast
• 48:30
  cancer, that to me is worth all of this, you know?
• 48:34
  And I just, I just realized, Jeff, we've been talking this whole time about this documentary
• 48:38
  and never even told anybody what was named.
• 48:40
  Let them be naked.
• 48:42
  I just, I just dove into it. I apologize. So it's funny. Yeah.
• 48:47
  My producer's like, that's a working title, right? I'm like, Nope.
• 48:50
  I thought it was a great title.
• 48:52
  Thank you. I did too. I, you know, cause me, in my opinion,
• 48:55
  like it's better to be new than dressed in synthetics.
• 48:57
  And to me it's a visual title. And I was like, you know what?
• 49:01
  We got to strip it back down.
• 49:03
  Who was it?
• 49:04
  Who was it in that documentary that you were talking to or film where she
• 49:09
  mentioned, and that kind of stuck with me. It was like, you know,
• 49:12
  you're wrapped in fabric from day one, you're born. Yeah. And,
• 49:16
  and you were just talking about the accumulation, right. Over time. Yeah.
• 49:19
  And unless, unless they could see something drastic happen,
• 49:22
  like immediately it doesn't ever attract attention and they just attribute it
• 49:25
  your, your ailments to other things like, Oh, it's, you work too hard.
• 49:29
  You're wearing your joints down. You're doing this. It's your,
• 49:31
  they'll make an excuse for everything instead of like you said,
• 49:35
  with the bras looking at, well, what's,
• 49:37
  what's directly affecting that particular area all the time every single day.
• 49:42
  Yeah. And that's it. As a designer, I was in advanced biology. I've dissected bodies before. Whether or not you believe in a creator, and God, I do, but I think it's a brilliant design. So what we put in our bodies, you have an esophagus, you have stomach acid, you have a liver, you have kidneys. It protects you from if you put something bad in your body.
• 50:05
  now we were designed to be nude so our skin has no protection mechanism it's gonna you know it's
• 50:12
  designed to be porous like i said it pulls in oxygen pulls you know it pulls in water it's just
• 50:18
  it gets rid of stuff it's a beautiful design but we clog it by putting these clothes on it
• 50:24
  and that was never supposed to be the intention of it so we're messing up that design so that's
• 50:29
  why I think clothing should be the number one thing we look at, not diet, not environmental
• 50:35
  factors. Because again, we have hairs on our nose. We have beautiful capillaries on our lungs that
• 50:41
  repair themselves. So we can handle some type of air pollution. We can handle food pollution.
• 50:47
  We can't handle this stuff. Well, it's like in California, you go to the gas pump, there's a
• 50:51
  warning all the time. This can cause cancer, but we still go to the gas pump every day to fill our
• 50:56
  vehicles. At least most of us do. I still do. So it's crazy. It's just, we just shrug it off
• 51:03
  because it's like, well, this is just how we live and it's part of what we do. And we just accept
• 51:07
  these things. We don't question them. Yeah. It's convenience. We're addicted to convenience. And
• 51:12
  what I'm presenting is an opportunity that we can do it differently. And you could
• 51:18
  go in your wardrobe tonight, go through your closet, analyze what you got in there as natural
• 51:23
  fibers that's not, analyze what's synthetic dyes, what's not, you know, get rid of that other stuff
• 51:30
  and then slowly add to your closet the natural garments because they are in existence today.
• 51:37
  There are people making undyed cotton, hemp options. And then you can learn how to dye yourself.
• 51:43
  It is doable, you know, and like food and housing, clothing's a need, unless we walk around naked,
• 51:50
  which I wouldn't mind doing, but you know, other people would mind.
• 51:54
  I'd probably get arrested, but that, you know, yeah.
• 51:58
  I'm surprised I didn't on the horse in London, but, um, but anyways,
• 52:02
  but that, yeah, that,
• 52:04
  That's, but what we're presenting is not, it is feasible.
• 52:09
  It is feasible.
• 52:10
  It's just not convenient.
• 52:12
  But in my mind, it'd be fun.
• 52:14
  You know, I like to be able to teach your kids how to die by your tree,
• 52:18
  leaves of your tree.
• 52:18
  It's like amazing.
• 52:20
  Well, I mean, there's convenience and there's knowledge.
• 52:21
  Like you don't, this never rang.
• 52:25
  I've been in businesses and running businesses and sales and marketing for,
• 52:29
  for many years.
• 52:30
  And I'll, I always used to hear the saying, like in the boardroom,
• 52:33
  we're having these meetings.
• 52:34
  I'm pitching to the CEO and it's like, you guys always say, you don't know what you don't know.
• 52:38
  And I used to hate that. But after a while, it started, it started clicking. It's like,
• 52:42
  wait a minute. You know, you really don't know what you don't know. And I think a lot of times
• 52:47
  people literally don't know there's an option. They don't, they don't realize what's happening
• 52:51
  and that there is something better for you that may not necessarily break your bank. For example,
• 52:55
  like you said, I think society, society is the problem. We always have to like, I I'm horrible.
• 53:00
  I don't even treat myself.
• 53:01
  I'll spend on other things.
• 53:03
  My wardrobe's horrible right now because I work with my hands a lot.
• 53:06
  I'm in the events industry too.
• 53:07
  I'm in event production.
• 53:08
  So I'm always, I'm always like, trust me, all my stuff will get torn up.
• 53:13
  And so a lot, a lot of times I'll just buy what's functional, what works and what will
• 53:17
  last.
• 53:17
  Cause I know my stuff literally will get ripped up and I'll have to replace it.
• 53:21
  A lot, a lot of people just buy because they think it makes them feel good, look a certain
• 53:25
  way, whatever.
• 53:26
  Now I could dress up when I have to, if I'm going to an event or meeting, sure.
• 53:29
  Absolutely.
• 53:29
  All day long.
• 53:30
  but I'm not going out and spending money every day like the average person is on clothes, for example.
• 53:35
  I'll wear myself till the end of time.
• 53:37
  Most people don't do that.
• 53:38
  So I think what you said is they have to be retrained, and I agree with you.
• 53:43
  And I also agree that, yeah, well, this one natural shirt, for example, costs $45, $50,
• 53:48
  but you don't have to buy a ton of them.
• 53:49
  It's going to last you a while.
• 53:52
  Just wash.
• 53:53
  Just take care of it, right?
• 53:54
  Just take care of the garment.
• 53:55
  It'll last longer.
• 53:57
  Everybody just puts everything on a high spin cycle,
• 53:59
  all these bleaches and everything else, it starts destroying the fabrics and it just wears out.
• 54:04
  Well, that's it. And what people, again, don't know is that synthetic dyes actually eat away
• 54:09
  at the tensile strength of the fabric, so they make it weaker. And I challenge everyone. I'm like,
• 54:15
  okay, buy three of my boxers or 45, 50 bucks each, whatever. Okay, fine, 150 bucks, get rid of all
• 54:23
  your other boxers. But all your other boxers, the 20 of them would equal probably more than 150.
• 54:29
  But those they like three boxes for a year I like yep And then you get black and nude and stripe That why I only did three colorways So you know which one you worn and you just rotate And I would challenge you and I do this all the time I just was on a two trip doing the documentary and only brought the three
• 54:48
  Rotated them, didn't wash them once.
• 54:50
  Didn't smell, didn't hold smells because of the fabrication.
• 54:54
  So you're not washing it as much.
• 54:56
  And yeah.
• 54:56
  Can you explain that real quick so people don't just hear this and go, oh, you guys are gross.
• 55:00
  Why is it you wouldn't need to washers or the fabric you're using anyway all the time?
• 55:05
  Yeah. So obviously the hemp and organic cotton mix that I use, and I use 100% hemp as well, is it's more hemp than cotton. So it acts like the hemp. So it's antifungal, antibacterial, naturally, and it's porous in nature. So it's not going to make your body sweat. It's not going to hold on to the smells.
• 55:24
  like, you know, how you could stand next to a fire and cotton really holds on to it or
• 55:29
  synthetic will hold on to that smell.
• 55:30
  You go to the gym and you can smell people because it's not allowing the sweat to pass.
• 55:35
  So that's why you have to wash those clothes like every day, every time you wear them.
• 55:39
  And people have gotten in that habit.
• 55:40
  They just throw in the laundry when they get home from working out.
• 55:43
  I work out on my hemp every day.
• 55:44
  People laugh because they're like, it's Jeff and his hemp clothing because it looks a little
• 55:48
  different.
• 55:49
  Don't need to wash it.
• 55:50
  Don't smell.
• 55:51
  I'll go out to a restaurant afterwards.
• 55:52
  And it's true.
• 55:53
  and that you know it's just a different way of living and i gotta admit i test and wear everything
• 56:00
  that i put forward otherwise i wouldn't suggest it like i wore this literally the same pair of
• 56:05
  socks i made in italy just two weeks ago i wore them the entire trip even in the snow and and i
• 56:12
  was in up in scotland highlands they said they got wet fine so you just like air your garments
• 56:18
  out overnight just let them you know air out and then you're good yeah and it's good and i've been
• 56:23
  after developing a sock because every sock is mixed with at least 10% nylon or acrylic or something.
• 56:29
  So it's going to hold some of that smell. And you could wear your sock maybe once or twice.
• 56:35
  And I'm most tired of it. So I wanted to develop. That's why I did the hemp boxers too.
• 56:40
  And every guy friend that kind of laughs at me and does it after they do it, they're like,
• 56:45
  you're right. So it's not a fabricated thing. I'm not trying to sell something. It is true.
• 56:52
  So when you weigh it, you're actually going to pay less for what you need versus more.
• 56:57
  And they are going to last longer because the tinsel strength of hemp is stronger.
• 57:01
  It's not going to get the holes in it.
• 57:03
  It's not going to rip.
• 57:04
  I use organic cotton waistband with natural rubber.
• 57:07
  It can go inside a dryer.
• 57:08
  But you don't need to dry them because synthetics take longer to dry.
• 57:13
  The hemp, you can hang it overnight.
• 57:15
  Six hours, it's going to be dry the next day.
• 57:18
  And I tested that Wool quick at drying too but a synthetic not So well let just be honest when we just talking about boxers most working people
• 57:30
  most men, they'll wear the same damn underwear holes in all for years anyway. We already know
• 57:34
  this. So they got to stop lying to themselves. They can afford to buy some good stuff.
• 57:39
  Yeah. Can I ask you though, when it comes to these materials, what about, what about people
• 57:43
  who do work their hands? Like the blue collar guys are going out and like the electricians,
• 57:46
  plumbers. How does that fabric work for people like them, for someone who might choose to design
• 57:51
  or make clothing for people who do those things for a living? I mean, I don't know. I mean,
• 58:01
  I'm an electrician. I build my own houses. I do all that work in my boxers. I ride horses in them.
• 58:08
  I mean, they're great for performance. They're great for actually working. So yeah, I mean,
• 58:14
  And I don't know really what the difference would be.
• 58:18
  But yeah, I think it's...
• 58:19
  I guess longevity, you know, like, I don't know.
• 58:23
  If I'm going overhead pulling wire and I'm snagging my shirt on something,
• 58:26
  like is the hemp going to be a stronger material, for example,
• 58:28
  that won't rip as quickly as, you know, let's say a polyester shirt or something like that?
• 58:35
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 58:35
  Tinsel, I mean, the tinsel strength of hemp is the strongest of any natural fiber.
• 58:39
  And so polyester is a mimic of hemp.
• 58:44
  So, you know, that's, and you look at like nylons, a mimic of silk.
• 58:48
  So they're going to have kind of similar properties.
• 58:50
  You know, polyester is strong, but, you know, hemp is going to, is going to be better.
• 58:56
  So the answer is use hemp.
• 58:59
  Yeah, exactly.
• 59:00
  Fair enough.
• 59:01
  Exactly.
• 59:02
  It's starting to rain here.
• 59:03
  I may have to let you go here in a minute.
• 59:05
  I get it, man.
• 59:06
  Well, no, if you have to run, I had more questions, but if you don't mind, we can catch up another
• 59:10
  time if you have time.
• 59:11
  I know you're a pretty busy individual.
• 59:12
  before you go though
• 59:15
  what is
• 59:16
  okay two more questions
• 59:19
  I'll let you go
• 59:19
  what's left for you as far as your
• 59:22
  venture into film now
• 59:24
  are you hooked are you now going to expand
• 59:27
  on it
• 59:27
  yeah I've already been asked that a couple
• 59:31
  times and you know
• 59:32
  and everyone's happy how it turned out
• 59:34
  so I think yeah I'm slated
• 59:37
  to do a second one
• 59:38
  and I'm going to dive into more solutions
• 59:40
  which I think is needed next.
• 59:44
  But yeah, no, I'm all about it.
• 59:45
  If people are willing to listen,
• 59:47
  I'm happy to be a catalyst for that.
• 59:49
  I'm not doing it to make a film,
• 59:52
  but I'm doing it if it serves a bigger purpose.
• 59:55
  Absolutely, 100%.
• 59:56
  So yeah so we already talking about that All right I see raindrops actually falling So you got to go You can sit there in the rain If you don mind let catch up again later Like I said thank you for your time
• 1:00:06
  I want everybody to watch your documentary.
• 1:00:08
  Let them be naked.
• 1:00:09
  And we have already created links and whatnot
• 1:00:12
  to your profile on my website.
• 1:00:13
  So once this is released,
• 1:00:16
  everybody can go there, find you,
• 1:00:17
  and there's links to where your books are on Amazon,
• 1:00:19
  everything.
• 1:00:20
  So where we got that taken care of.
• 1:00:23
  And when is your documentary released, by the way?
• 1:00:26
  Good question. We were talking about that yesterday. So my plan of action is that we're
• 1:00:31
  going to do a Mother's Day launch where we're giving it away to moms. Well, anyone, but the
• 1:00:37
  idea is to give it away to moms for like four days and let them watch it for free before we put it up
• 1:00:43
  on a network, which will be in September. And that's just my heart. And everyone's like fighting
• 1:00:48
  me on that. Like, no, this whole purpose of doing it, you know? So that's our launch date. So it'll
• 1:00:53
  be May 8th and you'll hear about it, but we're going to do an event on May 7th, launch it
• 1:00:59
  May 8th for the weekend to let everyone have a chance to watch it and get it.
• 1:01:04
  Because I don't want them, in my opinion, I don't want the information.
• 1:01:08
  I want to get out there as soon as possible because it every day counts, in my opinion,
• 1:01:13
  on this subject.
• 1:01:14
  Well, I already told some people once they watch us, they're going to want to get rid
• 1:01:17
  of their clothes.
• 1:01:18
  Yeah, pretty normal.
• 1:01:20
  I mean, that's kind of how I saw it.
• 1:01:21
  you're getting rained on.
• 1:01:23
  So I'll let you go,
• 1:01:24
  sir.
• 1:01:24
  All right.
• 1:01:25
  Appreciate your time.
• 1:01:26
  Absolutely.
• 1:01:27
  And I will follow up with you a little bit later on.
• 1:01:30
  Sounds good.
• 1:01:31
  Thank you,
• 1:01:31
  Jeff.
• 1:01:31
  All right.
• 1:01:31
  Appreciate it,
• 1:01:32
  buddy.
• 1:01:32
  All right.
• 1:01:33
  See you George.
• 1:01:33
  Bye.
• 1:01:34
  Well,
• 1:01:34
  thank you for listening.
• 1:01:36
  And as you just heard,
• 1:01:37
  Jeff's a great guy who really believes in what he's doing.
• 1:01:40
  And please go support Jeff in his efforts.
• 1:01:44
  Watch,
• 1:01:44
  let them be naked,
• 1:01:45
  which will be released on May 8th.
• 1:01:48
  You could also check out what he's doing as a fashion designer.
• 1:01:51
  Go to prophetic.com and that's spelled with a K at the end instead of a C and check out what Jeff is doing.
• 1:02:00
  And once again, thank you for listening, supporting the show.
• 1:02:03
  Please like subscribe, click your notification button.
• 1:02:07
  And by all means, visit us at rolledoblazepodcast.com.
• 1:02:21
  Outro Music