Fashion is thinking
Fashion has value, fast fashion doesn’t.
’Fast fashion’ is an approach to clothing that samples ideas from the catwalks and turns them into cheap, trendy styles in a breathtaking pace. In recent years, fast fashion has become the symbol of our extravagant, western lifestyle and the biggest culprit behind the ever-growing piles of textile waste.
The concerns over textile waste and the industry’s other sustainability issues are real. Yet, the discussion is often muddled and one of the problems is linking the term ‘fast fashion’ to ‘fashion’. In my view, we should stop talking about fast fashion. Instead, we should focus on the wicked problems of mass production, and re-learn what fashion means.
First lesson: ‘fast fashion’ has nothing to do with fashion.
Fashion carries a wide range of meanings; it is aesthetic expression at a particular time, place and in a specific context. It is also an embodied practice, a ‘second skin’ that connects us to others and to the world. Fashion is a medium: it enables us to communicate who we are and who we wish to become. It is a means through which we show belonging.
The value of fashion is immaterial. Fashion has the ability to make an object special by affiliating it to the designer’s personal style or brand, to stories, history or emotions. This is why a piece of clothing interpreted as fashion stays vibrant through time. Fashion can grow old, but it will never become obsolete.
A piece of clothing can become an important personal memory or, in the perfect setting, it can evolve into designer vintage, a timeless classic or even an iconic piece of fashion history. These are the types of clothes we are interested in and their future is important to us. Who will wear this after me? Who can I give this to? What kind of a story will it tell for future generations?
Fashion is caring. It is willingness to mind for individual garments and keep them wearable for as long as possible. And, if at some point fashion loses its charm to one person, someone else will surely want it and even pay for it — because of the value of true fashion.
Second lesson: Don’t talk about ‘fast fashion’. It doesn’t exist.
‘Fast fashion’ does not embody these values. On the contrary, its value lies on expendability. The ‘fast’ in ‘fast fashion’ refers to copying, low production costs, exploitation of natural resources and workers. It’s a fast track to the landfill — and a high price for us to pay.
Don’t get me wrong: contemporary mass production of clothing is socially and ecologically untenable. With cost-efficiency as its primary driver, the western industry has scattered all of its manufacturing and processing steps. Fabric is wowen in one place, dyed in another, sewn in a third and sold in a fourth location. This logistic circus is obviously a huge problem.
However, if we focus merely on the supply chain, we cannot make a real change. We need to have a look in the mirror and understand the role we’re playing. It is estimated that over one third of the emissions of a piece of clothing comes from the consumer. We produce a lion’s share of the emissions.
Third lesson: Fashion is thinking.
We have to gear up our thinking before our actions can truly change. We can start by looking at the clothes we own. Ask yourself: do I care for my clothes? Do I show them the respect they deserve? Caring for each item means spending time with them: maintaining, repairing, modifying, conserving. This gives clothes meaning. It enables us to get to know our clothes, to create a relationship with them — and with ourselves. Knowing fashion is to know ourselves.
To fashion is to think, and thinking is always slow. Fashion is a language of creativity and exploration. Fashioning means making new forms and figures, images and materials. It is a process that alters our sense of the reality and the human; it is a process that creates new realities and existences. Fashion gives form — it imagines our being.
To fashion is to intervene, to challenge norms and conventions. Fashion is, in essence, a creative means to solve problems and to make space for new perceptions and new meanings. Fashion is a platform that brings together and unites people and different disciplines in a constant dialogue with the surrounding society.
Fashion challenges us to think who we are and what we wish to become as individuals, groups of people, as a human race. Fashion paves way for the future. Together, with fashion, we can be the change we wish to see in fashion.
Annamari Vänskä
Annamari Vänskä is Adjunct Professor of Fashion Research at Aalto University. Her research focuses on fashion, visual and digital culture and art, particularly on fashion media, fashion advertising, fashion influencers, data-driven fashion and fashion curating.
A longer version of this blog can be found in Finnish:
