Slow Fashion
Maybe youa��re hearing this term for the first time or maybe youa��ve been wondering what it really means when youa��ve come across it in the media lately. The slow movement is on the rise. But not many people really know much about its philosophy aside from admiring the highly fashionable (and, to be honest, usually also quite expensive) clothes that are claiming to be all about protecting the environment.
How it all started
The first slow movement started in Rome with a single protest held against the planned opening of a new McDonalda��s restaurant led by Carlo Petrini, a culinary articles contributor for local newspapers, who is now considered to be the acclaimed founder of the International Slow Food Movement. The Movement boasts more than 83,000 members and has been fighting against the standardization and suppression of cultural differences in the food industry since 1986, encouraging food consumers worldwide to enjoy regional produce and organically grown food, fiercely defending agricultural biodiversity. In other words: Leta��s eat with pleasure but responsibly!
This concept has become increasingly popular, with supporters from different areas of life joining in, and various subcultures started to form around it a�� whether it was in design, fashion, or urban lifestyles. Concepts with strange names like Slow City, Slow Design, Slow Parenting, Slow Media, and Slow Fashion derived from the original concept.
What is it about slowing down?
Professor Guttorm FlA?istad of The World Institute of Slowness explained the philosophy of the slow movement as follows:
The only thing for certain is that everything changes. The rate of change increases. If you want to hang on, youa��d better speed up. That is the message of today. It could, however, be useful to remind everyone that our basic needs never change. This is given only through slowness in human relations. In order to master changes, we have to recover slowness, reflection, and togetherness. There we will find real renewal.
The World Institute of Slowness
Slowing down allows us to take some time to make more environmentally conscious decisions that could prevent further environmental damage. The word a�?slowa�? therefore describes a brand new perspective on everyday life: slowing down our pace and shifting the focus toward long-term sustainability rather than short-term satisfaction. Every day, more businesses are joining the global slow community and basing their activities on its main vision: respecting ethical treatment, using organic sources, and preserving local traditions and materials.
The unpleasant reality of fast fashion
You could say that fast fashion is not just about the speed of the production, as it is also about the greed of both buyers and sellers. And this greed doesna��t come for free. In the desperate struggle of the clothing industry to lower their costs and boost their sales at the same time, they are trying to squeeze the most out of the resources available. The main goal is to achieve fast delivery to the customer at minimum costs. This often results in a lack of interest in their environmental impacts (outsourcing in developing countries uses further transportation which is unnecessarily depleting the worlda��s oil reserves and increasing greenhouse gas emissions) or appalling working conditions (low wages, human rights abuses, high likelihood of workplace accidents, and child labour).
But how do you make quick and cheap clothes without slipping into the danger of the exploitation of labour and natural resources? Only recently, the media wrote about a huge scandal with the wholesale chain Primark, allegedly collaborating with suppliers using child labour. You obviously dona��t think about this when youa��re admiring cheap versions of the latest fashion trends that youa��ve just seen on the Paris catwalks. The truth is, consumers are magically drawn to the exclusive collections for reasonable prices offered by such fast fashion retailers as Old Navy, H&M, Zara, Walmart, Target in the U.S., and Primark and Peacocks in Europe. With retailers selling the latest fashion trends at very low prices, consumers are easily swayed to purchase way more than they really need.
The fast production often uses the just-in-time manufacturing, which is so effective that it can produce a ready-to-wear products from an initial sketch in the unbelievable time of less than twelve days. Recent research has shown that the consumption of garments has risen by one third in recent years, which is seen as buyersa�� natural response to the growing strength of discount retailer chains such as Walmart, Primark, and Matalan. These stimulate over-consumption. For example, people buy several variations of the same product just because of the extremely low prices. Naturally, a big part of it ends up unused or worn just once or twice, left lying around in their wardrobes.
The main arguments against fast fashion are that it has very little regard for wages, working hours, and climate change. It contributes to the depletion of fossil fuels, diminishes fresh water through cotton crop irrigation, and uses synthetic fibres that are not easy to recycle.
Slow fashion: a must-have for more than one season
Sustainable Fashion
and Textiles Design Journeys
When applying a�?slowa�? principles to the fashion industry, ita��s not just another seasonal fashion trend. A movement that creates an alternative to mass-produced clothing (a�?fast fashiona�? or a�?McFashiona�?) should be seen as a a�?sustainable fashion movement rather than a seasonal trend that comes and goes like animal print,a�? as explained by Kate Fletcher at a convention organized by the English Centre for Sustainable Fashion in 2007. (Read more on this subject in her book, Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys). Slow fashion is about choice, information, cultural diversity, and identity.
Looking for some parallels in food, we already know we should buy more local, organic, and seasonal products. In fashion, this translates into more local, organic, and less seasonal products. To illustrate this similarity, imagine that when youa��re buying clothes. Try to fill your shopping bag with the same attention to quality and a�?expiration datea�? (which could translate as durability in the fashion industry) of the items that you would expect with your grocery shopping. Try to find your own personal style by combining old and brand new pieces of clothing, just like you create a delicious meal out of the only ingredients that are available in your fridge on a Sunday evening.
Slow fashion takes off the pressure of time. What is needed is to rethink the whole processes of designing, consuming, and living and bring it to a whole new level. Concentrate on the important things: dona��t only strive for maximizing your profit. Adjusting business activities to these principles, suppliers would have enough time to ensure the highest quality of the product, plan orders, and choose the right amount of workers working regular hours with no need for unplanned overtimes. Diverse and innovative business models are strongly encouraged a�� independent designers, larger fashion houses, second-hands, vintage, recycling, fashion leasing, your local knitting club, and clothing swaps are all recognized in the movement.
With the recent boom in trends including a�?bio,a�? a�?green,a�? and a�?organica�? products, it seems that customers are finally becoming more engaged in these issues, willing to invest significantly more money into quality products to make them feel good about what they buy (whether it be the decision about buying eggs from free-range farms or supporting local produce and privately-owned green farms in the neighbourhood).
Grow conscious
Taking part in the slow fashion revolution represents awareness in the choices you make a�� as consumer, as designer, and as producer.
Ita��s high time to slow down and think more about the consequences of constantly choosing quantity over quality. The numbers are alarming: 2 million tons of clothing are purchased annually, and almost three quarters of this amount ends up in the landfills. Choosing quality goods over disposable items can significantly reduce these numbers. We should reconnect production with consumption, take responsibility for our environment, and understand that with changes in our habits, we ourselves are making a statement.
But how does it work?
Linen by Wikimedia Commons
By using more premium materials such as silk, linen, and cashmere, we choose to increase the durability of our clothing. Low-quality clothes often deteriorate more quickly, and there is no point in trying to repair them since theya��re ready to be thrown away.
Rather than encouraging you to create your own personal style, the streets are often full of look-a-likes blindly following the latest trends. Buying more products that are a�?trans-seasonala�? can decrease your carbon footprint. Slow fashion supports individual creative expression.
Naturally, you will be concerned that the quality is going to cost you more. One possible solution is to buy fewer high-value products with a good feeling that you personally contributed to the change. A general tendency is that your usual slow consumer will be in his or her 30s with a regular income, since students tend to go for cheap. But there are many easy tricks you can learn to make the change affordable.
Key concepts of slow fashion
- Opposition to mass-produced fashion and praising personal style
- Sustainability as a core value in the garmenta��s lifecycle
- Raising awareness about the negative impacts of the fashion industry on workers, communities, and ecosystems
- Quality over quantity
- Promoting conscious consumption rather than frivolous over-consumption
- Support for smaller businesses, fair trade, and locally-made clothes
- Slowing down the supply chain to reduce the number of trends and seasons
Tips on how to become a slow fashionista
- Buy second-hand or vintage clothes to recycle
- Donate unwanted garments to charities rather than throwing them away
- Choose clothing made of sustainable or recycled fabrics
- Choose quality garments that will last longer
- Dona��t just follow every new trend
- DIY: make, mend, customize, and alter your own clothing
- Buy fewer clothes and buy less often
- Avoid impulse buying
- Be generous and lend clothes to your friends
- Try out new pieces from your friendsa�� wardrobes before you buy them to see how well they fit into your life
Slow fashion companies
Max Jenny Collections
These companies are successfully producing stylish, quality garments that have a minimum impact on the planet and give a maximum benefit to people and the environment. The businesses that want to follow this concept need to create a fine balance between strong fashion expression and durable, quality products. What we wear also expresses who we are, our ideals, our identity, our values, and our responsibility toward our environment. There is a constant challenge to design fashion that does not go out of style. Who are these pioneers that manage to implement these principles into their missions?
Fashion designers
Slow fashion has struck a chord even among the ranks of the most extravagant fashion brands. New designers for the house of HermA?s, Haider Ackermann, and Christophe Lemaire are supporting the slow fashion way, spreading the belief that clothes should be made with the finest materials and are meant to be long-loved. The Scandinavian brand Max Jenny is a true pioneer of a�?Zero Offcut Fashion,a�? minimizing waste through using all of the cut-offs created while working on a collection. Their amazing outerwear is made of 100 per cent recycled bottles. If you want to combine your love for exquisite fashion pieces with protecting the environment, look for more designer brands and shops online through one of the portals, such as YOOX (look into their Esthetica section), that promote these brands.
Susan Cianciolo
New York-based designer Susan Cianciolo, who produces many one-of-a-kind, handcrafted pieces, also belongs to the slow fashion movement. Her clients admire her enduring commitment to her creations, and she says she is often asked to rework pieces after years of wear. Susan takes it a bit further: she is personally searching in the woods with her mother for materials to make non-toxic dyes to add finishing touches to a pair of jeans and thereby avoid toxic bleaching.
Miik
Miik
Designed and made in Canada, this lifestyle clothing brand is one perfect example of how you can build up your business on the ideas of slow fashion. Miika��s clothing line is made of exclusively organic materials, 10 per cent spandex and 90 per cent certified organically farmed bamboo. The owners (husband and wife) Michael Gaughan and Donna Smith say they chose bamboo because ita�?s not only one of naturea��s fastest-growing natural resources, but bamboo fabric is also very comfortable to wear, doesna��t fade or lose its shape, and is extremely durable. For the latest collections, theya��ve expanded their portfolio of environmentally friendly fabrics, adding tencel (a biodegradable fabric made from wood cellulose pulp) and organic cotton. The linea��s carbon footprint shrinks for Canadians because the pieces are designed and sold in and around Toronto. Keeping their price reasonable, you can order your favourite picks either online or swing by at the local store on 477 Richmond Street West in Toronto.
{r}evolution apparel
{r}evolution apparel was founded by two courageous Americans who decided to team up after years of travelling and volunteering around the world. Finding their inspiration while backpacking in Central America, they decided to develop stylish but versatile and functional apparel for the adventurer. Incorporating their mission (a�?Our lives are defined not by what we own, but by who we love, what we do, and how we impact the world.a�?) in every aspect of the new business, they claim that the inspiration came at a time when all their personal belongings fit in a single backpack. Launching the new collection in 2012, it consists of only ten items of clothing that can be combined into 100 different looks. Each piece designed for maximum versatility and worn a in variety of ways, it is the perfect example of a sustainable product. The adorable Versalette is a multi-functional piece that can be worn over 15 different ways with just a few adjustments. It serves as a dress, shirt, skirt, scarf, purse, hood, and more.
Goodone
Goodone is an award-winning sustainable fashion design company based in London. Its unique womena��s apparel and accessories, all made from recycled materials, bring you the typical urban edge of British fashion. They also sell their collections through some popular retailers such as TOPSHOP.
Adili
Adili has established itself as one of the leading online ethical retailers, showcasing a diverse portfolio of products from ethical fashion and beauty to lifestyle.
Edun
This company, founded by Ali Hewson and U2a��s singer Bono in 2005, is committed to developing trade with Africa through creating a global fashion brand. Edun not only brings attention to business potential hidden in Africa but also uses its profits to support local manufacturers, infrastructure, and community-building initiatives.
New Balance Shoes
This privately owned American company based one of its founding principles on a commitment to a domestic workforce. With annual sales of $1.6 billion, it operates five factories in the U.S. but also employs 210 people at Flimby in the United Kingdom, where around half of its production is sold.
Entermodal
Entermodal
The designers behind the handbag company Entermodal have taken the concept of preserving a craftsmana��s heritage one step further. Designer Larry Olmstead and his team are using the technology of the 1850s available prior to the Industrial Revolution to create bags that truly can last for decades.
As you can see, once you start looking into this a little bit more, you can be surprised by how many companies out there are joining in by producing eco-friendly and sweatshop-free yet very stylish designs. Making a small change in your habits by thinking more consciously about what you buy can have a significant impact on the environment in the long term a�� especially if there are enough people to support this idea.