Sought-after consultant, speaker and writer driving systems change within the fashion industry. Rachel has dedicated her career to transformation; tracking and interpreting signals of change, and working with organisations on implementation. She is obsessed with rethinking long-term value creation in order to secure a sustainable future for people and planet, and believes fashion the ideal case study for the economic shift required.
Rachel is currently the Advocacy Lead for Sustainable Fashion at the United Nations Environment Programme, where she focuses on challenging industry norms and accelerating circularity in the sector. This work includes exploring narrative shift as a lever for reducing overconsumption and addressing the elephant in the room of production volumes. Both were the basis for the UNEP x UN Climate Change Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook she authored in 2023. She also hosts UNEP’s Transforming Textiles podcast, interviewing global policy leaders about change.
She has further worked with Textile Exchange, the UN Climate Change-convened Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action and the British Fashion Council’s Institute of Positive Fashion, and previously led the strategy for Google’s environmental data platform with WWF and Stella McCartney. She also advises various multinationals and mentors start-ups similarly focused on driving change, and has contributed to accelerator programmes including Farfetch’s Dream Assembly and John Lewis’ JLAB.
By background, Rachel is an award-winning business journalist, with work featured in heavyweight titles including Vogue Business, The Business of Fashion, The NY Times, Wired, Forbes, The Guardian and more. She has also delivered a TED talk about the role of innovation for a more environmentally sustainable fashion industry.
Rachel was named one of 50 Future Icons Power People for 2025, a sustainability thought leader in the Vogue Business 100 Innovator list in 2023, a LinkedIn Top Voice for sustainability in 2022, one of 30 people changing the face of fashion by Glamour in 2020, and was awarded trade/B2B fashion journalist of the year by Fashion Monitor in 2015. She is an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University.
Rachel also regularly mentors young people in the industry, hosting monthly open office hours call for anyone to join and talk about careers and sustainable fashion.