Slow it down! Why we need to re-invent how we make, sell and buy fashion
Our fashion industry is like a dead-end highway. One-directional, fast, and polluting.
At a staggering rate, new clothing trends are forged from virgin resources only to be consumed within ever-shortening cycles. Everything speeds up: The design process, the production process and most importantly, the consumption process. You remember that once-so-trendy ethno print top and chic party dress from a season ago? Guess what? Sadly, your wardrobe is merely a stopover on their terminal journey to a landfill or incineration land.
Fashion is, by definition, based upon the unsustainable idea of fleeting trends. Novel garments are hardly ever introduced because they are improved in their functionality. They don’t warm us better, they don’t protect us from rain and sun in any improved way. The constant urge to follow latest fashion crazes is partly fed by a consumerist materialistic society which tries to tell us that this specific piece of clothing will make us happier beings. The fact that garments are nowadays designed to fall apart and fade does not help, neither.
Obviously, the hidden cost of the way we produce and consume clothing has long been revealed. At least since the collapse of a Bangladeshi textile factory with over 1000 causalities the true social cost of fast fashion has become shockingly clear.
Also, the environmental cost does not remain hidden with Europe alone producing 12 million tons of textile waste each year. The story does not end here. The whole lifecycle of our clothes is producing waste: wasted resources from an inefficient production processes; wasted capacity from little-used clothing which just catch dust in your wardrobe; wasted valuable materials from all those textiles send to the landfill. No wonder that movements promoting a slow and circular fashion industry grow louder!
Slow Fashion promotes a clothing culture in which less is more; in which quality beats quantity and in which respect for people and planet is key.
It was born to offer a more sustainable and ethical alternative. The idea is to slow down the cycle of consumption. To own only as much as you need and take good care of your favourite pieces. To shop consciously and not follow seasonal, ephemeral styles.
Kate Fletcher — pioneer of the movement — stresses that slow fashion requires a deeply altered world view which reaches beyond superficially “greened” production processes. Adopting nature’s designs and processes can help us quite a bit in transitioning towards more a more sustainable production.
Here are some key ideas what designers, producers and eco-labels might want to think about.
Slow Fashion aims for balance
When observing natural systems, we find a strikingly delicate equilibrium between rapid renewal and long-term stability. Some organisms are growing and decaying quickly — like the weeds in your garden. Others are stable, complex and slow — like the tree giants which took roots thousands of years ago. Both lifeforms have their role and necessity within larger ecosystems.
In the fashion industry, we can use this analogy to understand the lifecycles of different clothes. Some items — like the highly fashionable dress that was “in style” for one season — are not made to last. They are introduced as an exciting novelty to satisfy our desire for something different. In contrast, good pair of classic jeans or a winter coat are items designed to last.
Aiming for a sustainable fashion industry requires us to balance these “lifeforms”. Most likely, as inherently creative and innovative beings, we won’t live in a world where we all have one wardrobe we stick with. We like the exciting feeling of wearing something new, of changing our looks. To remain stable as a system, we need to find a balance between introducing novelties and sticking to long-lasting. Between producing too much at the cost of future generations and producing too little to satisfy our desire for exciting and new things.
A careful design thought is required
Acknowledging balance as a key principle of a sustainable fashion industry, designers and producers should make use of these lifecycles to guide their choices. How about a biodegradable party top if we know that such an item has a low-use profile and quickly forgotten by the buyer? The coat and the timeless jeans in contrast should be designed with longevity in mind if we know that consumers plan on using these for many seasons.
The Lifetimes Project tries to understand these use rhythms of our clothing in order to make better design decisions in the future.
Especially thinking about the end of life of our clothing will become an important task for designers. Up to now, incorporating principles for circular design is still very uncommon. But with big fashion labels, such as H&M, announcing a vision for full circularity, it is only a matter of time until more brands follow.
Celebrating diversity and localism
Lastly, slow fashion leans on a systems-thinking approach. Any system, whether natural, social or economic, is more resilient if it is diverse. Diverse designers, diverse manufactures and diverse materials replace monopolies and monocultures.
In this sense, a search for simple symptomatic fixes of the fashion industry is in vein. We need to acknowledge that revolutionizing the fashion industry relies on localized and decentralized approaches. No one-size-fits-all solution can respond to all the different cultural and local demands.
Slow fashion recognized cultural diversity as much as biological diversity! It relies on all of us to take back the control of an industry which so much affects all of our lives.
We can do this by making use of more diverse and local fibers. We can buy from smaller brands which support our mission. We can try to find our personalized style which endures more than one season.
Turning the dead-end highway into a slow roundabout
Our company, Lookingreen, joins this journey of slow fashion. It is a journey of learning what we truly need. Of stripping down our wardrobes to the bare essentials without compromising on the joy we get from dressing well.
But a slow dead-end street is not enough. Not if its final destination remains the landfill. That is why we strive for slow and circular fashion. We envision a slow roundabout where high-quality clothing is designed with their end-of-life in mind. Where valuable nutrients can be fed back into the cycle.
Of course, we cannot do this alone. And we are far from there yet. But with the help from like-minded producers, designers and manufactures we will slowly build a strong community for slow and circular fashion.
The last puzzle piece is you!
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