why is slow fashion important?
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.
why is slow fashion so important?
As we have seen earlier, Fast Fashion is a terrible business practice that is destroying our planet, generating 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and 20% of the global wastewater, polluting rivers, seas, and even soils with their garments made from harmful materials. We recommend you to check Fast Fashion 101 | How It’s Destroying Our Planet to learn more.
Slow Fashion is very important because it wants to achieve a sustainable fashion industry, an industry that is accelerating the destruction and pollution of our planet in today’s world. But there are other reasons for its importance, here is why Slow Fashion is so important:
- It promotes Sustainable Fashion, protecting our precious and only planet from destruction.
- It promotes small businesses, which comes with competitiveness and innovation that will modernize the fashion industry.
- It opposes consumerism, which makes customers buy unnecessary garments they may not even wear, throwing them and polluting the soil, even more, when they end up in the landfill.
- Fights against overproduction, which causes environmental and social problems during the production and the disposal of the garments that did not get purchased, greatly polluting our rivers and soils with its toxic cheap materials.
- Protects the workers, who in the Fast Fashion industry have terrible working conditions and inhuman wages.
- Promotes high-quality garments, made with organic and biodegradable materials that will last longer and will have a low impact on the environment, protecting the planet and consumers’ wallets long-term.
These are one of the most important aspects of this fashion movement, but surely there are a lot more to point out. If you want to know more about this subject, check out Slow vs Fast Fashion.
is slow fashion sustainable fashion?
We have talked about the slow movement of fashion, but there is another term called Sustainable Fashion that we mentioned earlier, but, are they the same thing? If not, how do they differ from one another?
Sustainable Fashion refers to a fashion movement that, while also directly opposing Fast Fashion, focuses more on the eco-friendly aspect of fashion and the sustainability of the materials and production processes of its garments. Sustainable Fashion promotes clothes made with organic and biodegradable materials above all things, focusing on achieving the minimal carbon footprint possible, and it is not a result of the birth of Fast Fashion but rather a result of the necessity to reform the planet-killing fashion industry.
Slow Fashion is very similar to Sustainable Fashion but is not exactly the same thing. Both want to achieve sustainability in the fashion industry, both want to reduce their carbon footprint… They differ in the way they want to achieve things, while the Sustainable Fashion movement focuses a lot more on the environment and the garment materials, the Slow one focuses more on the whole production model and the item itself.
At the end of the day, both movements want the same things and both are equally great, it depends on what path you want to go through, but it doesn’t matter which one you choose as long as you choose one, and moreover, fashion stores that sell Sustainable Fashion sell both Slow And Sustainable Fashion garments. We have already done an article about this subject, if you want to learn more about these differences we recommend you to read What Is The Difference Between Slow And Sustainable Fashion.
how can we do slow fashion?
Now you know how to differentiate and what is Slow and Sustainable fashion, why these movements are important, and why Fast Fashion needs to be stopped, but how can you put this information into practice? Here are some tips to do Slow or Sustainable Fashion:
- Choose small businesses, this way you will promote small entrepreneurs, innovation, and competitiveness.
- Look at the materials used in the garment, choose cotton, preferably organic or recycled ring-spun cotton and avoid synthetic materials like polyester which are not biodegradable and leave small microplastics polluting our waters.
- Look into the brand you want to purchase from, learn if they use ethical business practices or if they respect the environment.
- The 3 W’s Rule, When you see an item of clothing for the first time in an undisclosed amount of time and you ask yourself What? When? From Who? then you know you have too many clothes that you don’t need.
- The 30 Day Rule, whenever you decide to buy some clothing product ask yourself „Will I wear it a minimum of 30 times?” if the answer is true yes, then go on. You will be surprised to know how many times you say no.
- Donate Clothes, Fast Fashion garments still pollute our soils when they end up in the landfill, letting harmful toxic materials leak into the soil and potentially into the water, instead of throwing your clothes, you should donate or recycle them.
- Use your critical thinking, determine if the brand you are looking at is really sustainable by taking into consideration the price of its clothes, if they talk about sustainability or not, if they have been involved in any scandals and if they have apologized…
Anyway, there are many ways you can do slow fashion, and any action you take is an action away from Fast Fashion. If you want to know more on how to become more sustainable regarding fashion read How To Do Slow Fashion.
summary
We hope you have learned a lot today and the importance of this anti-fast fashion movement. It is crucial you put this information into good practice, as Fast Fashion is a huge but untalked about problem in our world, and that is why it is so important to spread awareness and inform the people because we will not end this problem if no one knows that it exists and the importance of ending it.
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!
