Today I speak to my little sister Lucianne Tonti about her book Sundressed that has just been released (so very very proud) but also about how to fall in love with your clothes and by extension yourself. About our parents, about womanhood and creativity and about a future we can find that is beautiful and hopeful through the regeneration of nature and our wild landscapes. Sundressed is the perfect balance of personal stories about her life in fashion & her love affair with her clothes and deep research into the future of fashion and the joy of natural fibres.

Lucianne has worked as a sustainable fashion consultant and journalist in Melbourne, Sydney, London and Paris. She is the Fashion Editor for The Saturday Paper and a regular contributor to The Guardian where she writes the column Closet Clinic about how to care for your clothes. While living in Paris, she founded a showroom and consultancy for high-end, sustainable designers from the United States, Europe and Australia. In October 2020, she launched the sustainable fashion site Prelude, which was profiled in Vogue as ‘paving the way for a slower, “gentler” fashion industry’.

Here is a summary of Sundressed:

Why beautiful clothes in natural fibres are the answer to fashion’s climate crisis. Lucianne looks beyond sustainable fashion to a future remade by natural fibres. An exploratory dive into the art and industry of clothing and an ode to the possibilities in nature, Sundressed is an accessible, engaging and optimistic challenge to designers, farmers and business to think bigger. If we grasp their potential, natural fabrics will revolutionise more than the way we dress. Regenerative farming of fibres like cotton, wool, flax and cashmere can restore biodiversity, soils and water cycles, making it possible to create beautiful clothes while improving the environment. She introduces the farms and fashion houses that are changing the industry. Luc uncovers a growing hive of activity worldwide, from mulberry groves in China and cotton collectives in California to Mongolian goatherds and Australian sheep farmers. Her extensive research in sustainability is interwoven with her insights and personal experiences in fashion houses internationally. With a designer’s eye for detail and an insider’s understanding of the market, Lucianne shows us where our clothes come from and why it matters.

@blackincbooks #sundressedbook

You can find Lucianne on instagram @luciannetonti or to contact her for consultancy and writing you can head here and to purchase Sundressed head here

You can find more from Claire Tonti at www.clairetonti.com or on instagram @clairetonti

Show credits:

Editing – RAW Collings and Claire Tonti

Music – Avocado Junkie