All Consuming

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Exploring our culture of consumption through products that have changed the world

Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala explore our culture of consumption through products that have changed the world -  asking how did we get here and what happens next?

Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala explore our culture of consumption through products that have changed the world. They unravel the mysteries of marketing and the formidable forces that drive purchasing habits. From toilet paper to funerals, perfume to package holidays they'll be combing the past to see how landmark innovations have shifted the course of history. And asking what happens next?

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All Consuming: Denim

Denim

BBC Radio 4 - All Consuming, Denim

Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala unpick our abiding love affair with denim.

Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala continue their exploration of our culture of consumption by unpicking our abiding love affair with denim.

Around 70 million pairs of denim jeans are sold every year in the UK. They come in a dizzying array of shapes and styles, but the essentials haven’t changed since they were first conceived in the Californian gold rush 150 years ago. 
  
Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala continue their exploration of our culture of consumption by unpicking our abiding love affair with denim. 
  
Mohsin Sajid, denim designer and lecturer at some of the UK’s top fashion colleges, takes us through the history of denim which originated as tough workwear, to its golden age of 1950s American youth culture. 
  
Meanwhile, Bryan Szabo who runs an annual raw denim fade competition - the Indigo Invitational - explains how denim allows wearers to leave an imprint on their clothes and tell a unique story. 

Sir John Hegarty discusses his agency’s relaunch of Levi’s 501 jeans in the 1980s when an irresistible combination of visual and music references made this item so desirable it became a symbol of rebellion in the Cold War. We hear from Nicolai Khalezin of the Belarus Free Theatre about how denim was used in Belarus to bolster a protest movement. 
  

Produced by: Ruth Abrahams and Emily Uchida Finch
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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