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Material Matters with Grant GibsonAuthor: Delizia Media
In Material Matters, host Grant Gibson talks to a designer, maker, artist, architect, engineer, or scientist about a material or technique with which theyre intrinsically linked and discovers how it changed their lives and careers.Follow us on Instagram @materialmatters.design and our website www.materialmatters.designMaterial Matters is produced and published by Delizia Media Ltd. Language: en-gb Genres: Arts, Design, Visual Arts Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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ELV's Anna Foster on upcycling denim and founding a sustainable fashion brand.
Episode 3
Tuesday, 10 March, 2026
Anna Foster is the founder and creative director of the sustainable fashion brand ELV Denim – a company that has saved thousands of pairs of jeans from going into landfill, upcycling them into something genuinely desirable instead. She started her career in magazines and worked as a fashion editor for 20 years at titles such as Exit and i-D, before becoming fashion director at Lula and fashion director-at-large at Australian title RUSSH. Since launching ELV – short for East London Vintage – in 2018 she was won a slew of awards, nominations and accolades, including Responsible Brand of The Year from Country & Town House and Walpole’s Brands of Tomorrow 2025. In this episode, she talks about: why women are born to innovate; what happens to our old clothes; reworking existing garments into something new; finding all her makers within a three mile radius of the studio; celebrating skill; the issues with denim and how ELV strives to solve them; valuing things other people don’t want; her dislike of stretch denim; being an ‘environmental enthusiast’; extending her material palette and making pieces from old hotel linen; the importance of collaboration; and the meaning of the word luxury. Important fact check: Grant misread some of his statistics in this episode. We produce between 4.5 to 6 billion pairs of jeans a year and a pair of jeans uses 3,800 litres of water to produce. We’re happy to correct these errors. Support the show
