Best friends and fashion lecturers set trends with new podcast

Laura Arrowsmith and Sophie Johnson have known each other since their first day at Birmingham City University where they studied fashion and business.

The two have been best friends ever since and went to work in the fashion communications industry.

But they were called back to give talks on their experiences at their old university, and were persuaded to go into lecturing not knowing they would fall in love with it.

The Fashion Business & Promotions lecturers wanted to share their conversations and debates about the fashion industry with others, and started their own podcast called The Fashademix.

Laura, who is from Ludlow, and Sophie, who is from Stafford, only started the podcast three months ago and it has already taken the number three spot on iTunes fashion and beauty podcasts.

Discussions

"We are both fashion and business lecturers and went to university together so have known each other a really long time," Laura said.

"We felt there was a gap in the market as such as there wasn't any podcasts done by fashion lecturers discussing the industry.

"As friends and colleagues, we have so many discussions and chats with our students and each other, we thought it would be great to share them. About three or four years ago we both predicted Topshop would collapse.

"The podcast has varied industry debates and discussions, we don't necessarily agree on everything – Sophie is very much into fast fashion whereas I am more into sustainability. Sophie and I have a good range of contacts in the industry as well that we have invited on to chat to us."

The pair have had the owners of Lounge Underwear, buyers from Superdry, content creators from In the Style and workers at GymShark on the podcast or lined up to talk.

Laura added: "It has been overwhelming how well it has done, it has been well received by so many people from students to those in the industry. We have had listeners from South Africa, the Netherlands and other place it's doing really well.

"We were so shocked as well to see it had reached the top 10 fashion and beauty podcasts on iTunes. It was a long term goal to get in the top 10 within a year or two. We have only been doing it for three months and already we are number three in the UK."

Sophie has worked as a lecturer for seven years now after working in PR after university, and Laura has worked as a lecturer for four years after going into marketing straight from university.

Search for The Fashademix on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.