Taking on fast fashion in rural China

In the remote mountain villages of Guizhou, China, indigenous people have been handmaking clothes for centuries. But with so many young people leaving rural areas for jobs in China's manufacturing centres, those ancient skills are disappearing. Angel Chang tells us how she quit her job in the designer fashion houses of New York to start her own clothing line, employing indigenous craftspeople to grow organic cotton, use natural dyes and sew her collection by hand. It’s part of a wider shift away from the highly-polluting fast fashion industry. We also hear from Nicole Rycroft, founder of the NGO Canopy, which is changing the way popular brands source the world's third most popular fabric: viscose, which is traditionally made from the wood-pulp of trees. Vivienne Nunis asks if this more environmental approach can be adopted by the wider fashion industry. Producer: Sarah Treanor. Image: A woman dressed in handmade clothing typical of the Dong indigenous community in Dimen, Guizhou, China, holds some handwoven cotton fabric that has been dyed with locally-grown indigo. Credit: Angel Chang/Boe Marion/2DM Management