Sophie Bramel is the technical editor at Inside Denim, and she watches the entire global denim ecosystem. Brands, mills, fibers, innovation, sustainability. All of it.

In this conversation, Andrew and Sophie trace her path from music and fashion reporting to becoming one of the industry's most trusted observers. She talks about why denim mills feel like "cathedrals to blue," why true innovation takes decades (she uses Tencel™ as the perfect example), and why the industry talks sustainability far more than it actually implements it.

They dig into labor equity, the global South, and the real limits of circularity. Sophie doesn't sugarcoat the challenges. Chemical recycling is still opaque. Wages haven't kept up. Clothing is the one thing that hasn't gotten more expensive, and that's not normal.

They also talk about trade shows (too many?), what young writers should do if they want to cover fashion, and why denim is one of the few corners of the industry where deep reporting still matters. Sophie's take? If you're just copy-pasting press releases, you won't survive.

If you care about how this industry actually works, listen to this one.

Thank you to our sponsor Inside Denim.

Sophie Bramel
Technical Editor, Inside Denim
Inside Denim, LinkedIn, Instagram, Bluesky, Threads

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