why is slow fashion expensive?
what is slow fashion?
Slow Fashion is born as a direct opposition to Fast Fashion, a fashion business model that originated in the 90s and consists in quickly turning trends into clothes available for consumers without regard to the environment, the workers, and the planets with its very short manufacturing cycles.
This anti-fast fashion movement focuses on producing garments in a more reasonable manufacturing cycle with respect for the environment and the agents involved in this production. It searches for small businesses, and higher-quality garments avoiding the overproduction and unnecessary consumerism which Fast Fashion promotes.
This pro-ecological, pro-workers fashion movement is gaining track recently but unfortunately, it is not known enough yet and most people have no idea how the Fast Fashion industry is ruining our planet, and that is the reason why awareness has to be spread and the people have to be informed. If you are interested, we have many articles regarding this anti-fast fashion movement.
why is slow fashion expensive?
It is more expensive than Fast Fashion for one simple and important reason, it doesn’t outsource its costs to the environment, the planet, or the workers, it treats every agent in the production process with respect, and that costs money, but it removes other indirect costs that can be much worse. Long story short, this is why Slow Fashion can be expensive:
- It respects the environment and aims for sustainability, which can mean using more expensive but necessary production processes that respect the environment and the planet.
- It usually uses organic and recycled materials, which are very beneficial but they are usually more costly than the cheap materials Fast Fashion uses.
- Produces higher-quality garments to avoid the buy-n-throw model of Fast Fashion that is destroying the planet and the customers’ wallets long-term, and that costs money.
- Respects the workers, with a decent wage and humane working conditions, unlike Fast Fashion which uses slavery-like labor.
- These garments are sold by small brands, because sadly big companies today are not very interested in producing sustainable clothing, as their customers are not informed on the subject. Small brands have to sell items at a much higher cost because they make little to no money and have to cover a lot of expenses, making the price of the garments much higher than the base price of the blank product purchased.
Overall, these are the reasons why these sustainable garments may be more expensive, but this doesn’t have to be that way as we will see next.
why is fast fashion so cheap?
On the other hand, this terrible business practice that turns designs into clothes in a very short amount of time for its customers to devour produces very cheap clothes, letting customers buy more and more even if they don’t need to just because the clothes are so affordable. This is a very unsustainable and harmful model, but the question is, why are these clothes so cheap? There are a few reasons for this, here is why Fast Fashion is so cheap:
- It outsources its costs to the environment, which means Fast Fashion brands have no regard for the environment and do not care about the impact they have on our planet. They produce clothes in a cheap way that greatly hurts the environment.
- It exploits workers, using very cheap labor with unhuman wages and deplorable working conditions, in some cases even straight-up using semi-slave labor. This is highly illegal, however, and these big brands have been sanctioned in the past.
- Produces very low-quality garments, which lets them reduce the price of their clothes considerably, even making their customers buy more and more as the clothes they buy become worthless after a few wears, creating a buy-n-throw culture.
- Uses low-quality and harmful materials, synthetics like polyester that, although it uses less water, is not biodegradable and in very low-quality garments decomposes into microplastics that end up in our waters and soil.
- Its production models and manufacturing cycles have been refined, after so many years of producing tons of clothes, new more efficient methods that save money have been created, even giving birth to ultra-fast fashion and real-time models like SHEIN, which are incredibly more harmful.
This is, in a nutshell, why Fast Fashion is so cheap and so bad for our planet and society at the same time. If you want to learn more about this horrible business practice we advise you to read our article on the subject.
can slow fashion be affordable?
We have seen the reasons why it is expensive, and why it is a much better option than Fast Fashion, but the question still is, is it ever going to be affordable? Will we be seeing cheap (at least cheaper) sustainable clothing that doesn’t sacrifice our planet and people for its price?
The short answer is, YES! The long answer is a little bit more complicated. For Slow Fashion to become cheaper and more affordable brands need to start adopting this new sustainable business model, and that is not going to happen until its consumers become aware of the problem of Fast Fashion and start taking action.
As people become aware of the terrible repercussions of their fashion choices on our planet, they will start to demand slow, sustainable fashion garments. Brands will start to meet this demand, especially smaller brands who care more about the environment, as they do this they will search for cleaner, cheaper ways to produce clothes and will refine their production models so they stay competitive. The end result is a cheaper, more affordable Slow Fashion that is even cleaner and higher quality.
Something similar is happening with cars, with hybrid, electric, and hydrogen cars in the future that will replace polluting old cars. But this will surely not happen if the customers are not informed and aware, because they will not oppose Fast Fashion if they don’t even know what it is in the first place. That is why it is so important to share information on this subject and spread awareness. Either way, we have another article that talks about this in more detail here.
summary
We hope you have learned a lot from this article! This is a journey where not only you but also us are constantly learning. The next crucial thing is to put this information into good practice and to spread awareness on this unknown subject, which, as we saw earlier, is extremely important to stop Fast Fashion and achieve sustainability in the fashion industry, one of the most pollutant industries in the entire history.
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?”, 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!
