Lessons from Patagonia's (Work in) Progress Report

14 November 2025 | 431 Words

The Californian outerwear brand, known for prioritizing planet and people, has published its first progress report since its founding 52 years ago. Here’s what companies can learn from their alternative approach to scaling a profitable and sustainable business.

With COP30 ongoing, one topic remains noticeably absent from the conference’s agenda: clothes, and the toll they take on our planet. Fitting for Patagonia to release its first progress report in its 52-year history this week. It presents trials and errors as well as successes, offering a blueprint to becoming an environmentally and fiscally responsible enterprise.

Patagonia presents an anomaly in today’s apparel business landscape. Despite belonging to the minority of profitable companies putting people and planet first for over half a century, founder Yvon Chouinard opens the report saying: “It has never felt more difficult”, lamenting the worsening state the earth finds itself in. This sentiment is emphasized by fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbering most delegations at the COP30 conference in Brazil, where ambassadors are meeting to discuss how to curb the accelerating climate crisis. While government intervention serves as a valuable tool to reign in the largely unregulated fashion industry, it seems as though change can only truly happen from within.

The report calls on companies to follow Patagonia’s lead in prioritizing people and planet. However, with no profit-driven incentive, this seems highly unlikely as applicable to the wider industry. Kenneth Pucker, contributor to the Business of Fashion and Professor for Sustainable Business Dynamics at Tufts University in Boston, disagrees. “There are many extensible approaches from Patagonia’s Work in Progress approach.” He names the internal carbon price, a practice where fees are applied internally to manufacturing steps, proportional to their carbon footprint — these fees result in savings that can be reinvested elsewhere.

For example, in electrifying the manufacturing process. If done right, relying on renewable energy is cheaper than relying on fossil fuels, though the expensive switch is what currently puts factories off. Kim Drenner, Head of Environmental Impact, calls on brands to stop gauging suppliers on production costs. She also believes local governments should take a bigger role in making green solutions a financially realistic energy alternative for manufacturers.

Pucker emphasises that other companies should “learn from Patagonia’s embrace of advocacy”. He refers to “New Rules” as an example — legislation that would raise fines on all brands selling in New York and California who do not provide supply-chain transparency and make over $100million in global revenue.

Supporting industry regulations would "ultimately benefit all brands, keep the playing field level and lift the floor for industry social and environmental practice and impact."

"I Just Wanted It to Be Beautiful"

12 December 2025 | 774 Words

Little Steve Diet Goedde was obsessed with women’s shoes and dresses––unaware that this would develop into a passion for fetish photography. The author of The Beauty of Fetish would introduce a whole new category within this genre. On a Tuesday at 7.15am LA Pacific time, the now 64-year-old and I discuss his unique style and legacy.

LYNN YIN DITTEL What was the fetish photography genre like when you first started?

STEVE DIET GOEDDE In the 80s, fetish photography lacked artistic representation—you would mostly see women in whips and chains. That’s not what I wanted. In 1990, Bob Carlos Clarke released his book The Dark Summer with these beautiful photographs of models wearing the most exquisite latex gloves and dresses and posed in very artistic ways, this wasn’t sexually suggestive at all. Seeing that gave me what I needed to finally pursue this on an artistic level and combine my interest in art and fetishism.

LYD Why did you focus on latex?

SDG Anything tight and shiny really appealed to me. I loved how it would accentuate women’s curves and the natural beauty of their body. It looks really cool, but it also looks empowering to wear. I like photographing women in a powerful manner, or at least in charge of their own sexuality. It also goes back to my interest in fashion photography, especially from the 1940s and 1950s, like Richard Avedon’s work. The women that wore those clothes just had a certain demure attitude. I wanted to capture that in a modern sense with this different fabric you wouldn’t see on a regular day.

LYD Where do you think the interest in a more artistic kind of fetish photography came from?

SDG It might be one of those things that people didn’t know they wanted until they saw it. Finally seeing their weird kink interest shown in a more appreciative and respectful light, rather than just the deep black and white photographs with no attention to artistic detail you’d see in sex magazines from Amsterdam or Germany, I think they really enjoyed seeing that as something new.

LYD When fetish became more connected to art, did that in turn make it more palatable to mainstream and high fashion?

SDG Once fetish photography became artistic and started developing an underground crowd, yes. That’s usually how things work, where the underground will start a new movement. Especially when Madonna started incorporating more fetish elements in her projects. Fetish magazines started getting more fashion-oriented. Skin Two was the leader of that, they were just beautifully designed, featuring all the best, coolest new photography. All the big fashion designers at the time. Creative types in mainstream fashion houses knew that was cool stuff. They noticed and used it as inspiration, especially since it involved a brand-new fabric. Who knew rubber would be a viable fashion fabric? It seemed natural that it would happen eventually.

LYD Atsuko Kudo was part of that development, and I know her clothes are featured in a lot of your photographs. Are there certain aspects that made her designs different from any other retailer?

SDG My photoshoots, they’re always very organic. I never really worked with designers, I just used whatever models had. All the models I shot were great models, so they had the best clothes and everybody had to have something Atsuko Kudo. I was appreciative of her work, so I made sure those got the first attention when I did photoshoots. Her clothes were always aesthetically beautiful and exquisite and I wanted my work to look like it could be fashion photography, just in a tight, shiny fabric. I never wanted it to be overtly sexual, just beautiful. I wanted the models to feel beautiful once they saw the final photographs, literally The Beauty of Fetish.

LYD I often see you credited as one of the people who changed the perception of fetish in fashion and art. What do you say to that?

SDG If that’s true, I’m extremely honored. It’s probably true, though, but I wasn’t the only one. Bob Carlos Clarke was the one who first did it, especially with latex photography. You could say Helmut Newton, but his vision was a little bit more widespread. I kind of give him half credit, and there were a lot of other kinky photographers at the time too, like Eric Kroll. But in terms of presenting latex photography in a beautiful aesthetic, I would say Bob would be the first I’d put on that list, and then I was probably the second one to follow up on that.

LYD Is that what you would want your legacy to be?

SDG I’m comfortable with that. It’s been my focus for over 35 years now, so I would like to be known as that. I don’t mean this in a bragging sense, but I think it is objectively true. I was there at the beginning. A lot of people tell me I’ve inspired them, and I’m glad to hear it.

Little White Powder Bag

25 November 2024 | 805 Words

Kate 'Mess' edits, Charli XCX’s Sweat Tour, JeremeyFragrance’s ‘Power’: Cocaine is back at the forefront of pop culture. Always associated with wealth and fame, it has now made its way into many civilians’ day-to-day lives.

“365, Party Girl (Bumpin’ that) / Shall we have a little key? / Shall we have a little line?” Charli XCX, 2024 Summer It-Girl, sings on her recent album release brat. The album’s marketing has made its hyperpop beats and overt drug references impossible to escape. Its success is, of course, due to Charli’s talent and PR team but also reflects a broader shift in attitudes toward casual cocaine use.

As the world grapples with economic challenges, cocaine is resurging in pop culture despite its £80-£100/gram price tag. Compared to cheaper club drugs, its glamorisation through pop culture, social media, and its artificial high price drive demand. The 2023 UNODC Global Cocaine Report reveals that the number of global cocaine users is rising at a significantly faster rate than the growth of the adult population aged 15–64.

A large-scale drug dealer from Berlin with eight years of experience in the business tells me: “It used to be mostly junkies, but now you see more normal people.” He also reports an increase in demand. When I ask him if the price is justified he laughs and tells me: “Not at all, [...] they produce it for a few cents.” Consumers mainly pay for the illegal transport and associated risks, but even this doesn’t justify the high prices they pay for the product. European cocaine is usually cut 2-3 times with additives like paracetamol, caffeine and amphetamines before it reaches the end-buyer. Wholesale prices have actually gone down over the years, but demand remains steady, so that suppliers maintain prices and just take a bigger profit. Artificially high prices position cocaine as a luxury drug, akin to the marketing of the Hermès Birkin. A model agrees: “It’s a luxury symbol because it’s expensive.” She tells me that showing up to fashion events with anything cheaper than cocaine would result in an embarrassing ordeal.

The fashion industry and cocaine have long been intertwined. The model describes how the demanding nature of the industry—constant travel, overnight shoots, social event after social event—normalises cocaine use: “You’re not sleeping much. Cocaine becomes the easiest way to stay energised and talkative while looking presentable.”

The current return of heroin chic and glorification of skinny bodies to popular consciousness has brought upon a trend of taking Ozempic to slim down. Models, too, feel the pressure to lose weight. My source tells me how she has been nudged toward the trending diabetes medication and rib removal. Supposedly, she is too big for Paris and Milan. She wears an XS and is about 175cm tall. Those unable to access an Ozempic prescription, or with too little funds for it, use cocaine to suppress their appetite: “Models never pay for drugs, because they’re pretty girls.” The model doesn’t know anyone in the industry who doesn’t do drugs.

“All [...] cultural associations for cocaine are glamorous,” says Rock Herzog, interior designer and former admin of the Twitter account CocaineDecor, which once boasted around 60,000 followers. He links the substance’s prestige to its visual appeal. “Aesthetically, cocaine is a glamorous-looking drug [...] you do it on a mirror or a shiny surface.” This appeal isn’t limited to tools and settings, but also extends to the people who use it. Compared to other drugs, cocaine causes less visible damage to outward appearance, the dealer explains, reinforcing its association with the beautiful and rich.

Public figures like Charli XCX, of whom a video doing a bump during a DJ set in Ibiza went viral, further glamorise cocaine’s image. The model says this has influenced her as well, justifying four-day benders, frequent orgies and drug use with ‘brat summer’. The dealer believes its popularity also has to do with the surge in health influencers and health consciousness. “[People] feel better doing coke than doing speed, which makes you sweat and smell like a chemistry lab.”

The always-steady demand for cocaine also has to do with personal positive connotations to it, offering an escape from the current grim socio-economic realities of many European citizens. “Most people do coke in the club, and have a good night––they associate good memories and happiness with cocaine”, the dealer says.

I ask him if he remembers any customers he has sold to. “Plenty”, he says. He tells me of a mother who would place orders through her son, and proclaimed in front of both son and supplier: “I like you better than my son. You always bring me something nice.” He tells me of people who starve themselves to save money for coke and people who go into debt with banks, friends and family to be able to afford their addiction. When I ask him if that makes him feel bad, he says it does. “But also not really”, he adds, “Cocaine has become a brand of its own. It sells itself.”