what are some of the disadvantages of slow fashion? (and are the advantages worth it?)
what is slow fashion?
Slow Fashion is a term used to describe the fashion movement that directly opposes Fast Fashion and its short manufacturing cycles that destroy our planet and exploit its workers. Fast Fashion quickly turns trends into clothes its customers can devour with no regard for its impacts on our planet and society, today, Fast Fashion is responsible for 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and for 20% of wastewater production that pollute our rivers and seas.
Slow Fashion promotes sustainable clothes, small brands, and an ethical business model that cares for the environment, the people, and the customers. It opposes the buy-n-throw Fast Fashion culture, overproduction, and unnecessary consumerism that generates tons of textile waste every year. We will talk a little bit in more detail about this subject because there is a lot more to be talked.
Slow Fashion combines other movements like Sustainable Fashion, which especially focuses on the ecological sustainability of its clothes, using organic and ecological materials and production processes, and Ethical Fashion, which focuses on the welfare of the textile workers who are exploited in the Fast Fashion industry. At the end of the day, they all want to achieve the same thing, a sustainable fashion industry but have different means of achieving that goal. If you want to know more about these differences be sure to check this article on What Is The Difference Between Slow Fashion And Sustainable Fashion.
what are some of the 5 disadvantages of slow fashion?
All things in life have good things, and also bad things. Slow Fashion is not an exception, although it may seem like the perfect, flawless sustainable fashion movement, it does have its flaws. Having said this, here are 5 disadvantages of Slow Fashion:
- It is rather expensive, because the garments are made with respect for the environment and the workers producing them, they are generally more expensive than Fast Fashion, which outsources its costs to the environment and the workers. This can be a throwback to many conscious consumers who would want to become sustainable but cannot because of the price.
- It is a new concept, we have said it many times before, new technologies or ideas take quite some time before they become profitable and widespread, the analogy we always use is electric cars, which were barely even known a few years ago, but recently they because accessible for the general public, all because customers became more conscious about the consequences of gas cars.
- Doesn’t appeal to a younger audience that much, young people are not generally so mature to care about the world’s problems and our planet’s health, therefore they are not really interested in Slow Fashion or what it stands for at all, they may even find it boring. There are some exceptions tho, and if you’re a young person who is interested in this topic, congratulations! You’re quite mature for your age.
- Many big companies are using it to greenwash their activities, many Fast Fashion corporations like Zara are trying to mask their harmful activities with „sustainability” promises that they’re never going to meet, lying about how they care about the environment and the welfare of their workers… This is called Greenwashing, and it is pretty obvious when a corporation is doing that, especially if they are known for literally inventing Fast Fashion.
- People don’t even know what it means, most people don’t know what Slow or Fast Fashion is, and many times they are not even interested to learn. This is a problem because if people don’t know that a problem exists, they are never going to do anything to solve it. And that is why we are always promoting that you should spread awareness about the subject, kind of like we’re doing here with this blog, this can even have a greater effect than actually doing slow fashion yourself, although you should do both, you know, predicate with example.
Here were some of the 5 disadvantages of Slow Fashion, now that you know the bad part, we should also take a look at the good aspect of this sustainable fashion movement, just to be fair you know.
what are 5 advantages of slow fashion?
We have reviewed the negative aspects of this fashion movement, however, it has a lot of positive aspects or advantages too, you may argue a lot more than disadvantages, but that is something we will be going to talk about next. Having said this, here are 5 advantages of Slow Fashion:
- Slow Fashion fights against Fast Fashion, which is one of the biggest polluters of human history. Just by fighting against Fast Fashion, it is already doing a lot to make this planet a cleaner and more sustainable one.
- It promotes slow manufacturing cycles, these make creating sustainable and fair garments possible. One of the best examples of these slow manufacturing cycles is On-Demand production, which creates garments on-demand, which means when the customer orders the product. Not only storage costs are reduced, but also overproduction and potentially throwing the garments before they are even bought.
- Slow Fashion and Sustainable Fashion go hand in hand, one compliments the other, and they basically want to achieve the same goal. Sustainable Fashion especially focuses on the environmental aspect of the industry, but both want to achieve sustainability.
- It promotes a conscious mentality, Slow Fashion wants to avoid the unnecessary consumerism Fast Fashion promotes, and it supports healthy consumer habits like buying only garments that you will actually wear and buying more quality rather than quantity.
- Slow Fashion helps the development of producing countries, because Fast Fashion creates cheap, low-added-value garments, the producing countries do not see much of the wealth that the fashion industry produces. However, Slow and Ethical Fashion support fair trade and the humane treatment of the factory workers, with its slow manufacturing cycles and higher-added-value garments that can help the producing countries actually develop, which will also help them become more environmentally friendly in the long run.
These are only 5 of the greatest advantages of Slow Fashion, however, there are many more we could name here. Now that you have both advantages and disadvantages, which is heavier? Do the pros outweigh the cons or the other way around?
is slow fashion worth it?
To reply to the earlier answer: Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? We shall compare the nature of both advantages and disadvantages. Here is how to do it:
The disadvantages of Slow Fashion are of a transitory and superficial nature, it’s not really that the movement has intrinsically something wrong, but rather that the customers and businesses are causing the disadvantages. For example, people do not demand or know about sustainable garments or the corporations that are trying to greenwash their activities for their own benefit. These issues are 100% resolvable and are transitory, the majority can be fixed by giving the general population more knowledge on the subject. Regarding the price, we have already explained why that is also transitory, with the example of electric cars.
The advantages, on the other hand, do not seem transitory at all, or that they would change anytime, they are intrinsic to the Slow Fashion movement in itself. The conscious mentality and the environmentalist aspect are inherent to the movement and what it stands for. Even after we destroy Fast Fashion from the face of the earth, these sustainable ideas will still be at the movement’s core.
Overall, the advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages, this decision is not biased in any way and you will easily understand that when we will make a pros and cons article on Fast Fashion. Like you should already know how destructive Fast Fashion is to our world, even the advantages of not wearing clothes at all outweigh those of Fast Fashion’s (or maybe not in this case, but it’s the intention that counts). We recommend you check this wonderful article written by McKinsey about the subject.
summary
We hope we have cleared your doubts a little bit and you now know what are some of the disadvantages of Slow Fashion, but also the advantages, which are very important to know too. If you want to learn more about the subject, maybe about Fast Fashion, check out the articles linked below or read our blog, where we have tons of different articles like these for you to enjoy.
We are thrilled to teach people all around the world 🙂 Also, did you really know what Fast Fashion really is and its terrible consequences for the environment, the planet, the workers, society, and the economy? Do you know exactly what the Slow Fashion or Sustainable Fashion movement is? You should really take a look at these articles about this forgotten and unknown but very urgent and important subject, click here to read „Can Fashion Ever Be Sustainable?”, Sustainable Fashion, Ethical Fashion, Slow Fashion or Fast Fashion 101 | How It’s Destroying Our Planet because knowledge is one of the most powerful strengths you can have, while ignorance is your worst weakness.
We also have a big surprise for you! Because we want to give you the right to know us better, we have prepared a carefully dedicated About Us page where we will tell you who we are, what our mission is, what we do, a closer look at our team, and many more things! Do not miss this opportunity and click here to check it out. Also, we invite you to take a look at our Pinterest, where we will pin everyday sustainable fashion-related content, clothing designs, and other things that you will surely love!
