Slow fashion is about designing, producing, consuming and living better. It is about combining ideas about a sense of nature’s time (of regenerating cycles and evolution), culture’s time (of the value of traditions and wisdom) as well as the more common timeframes of fashion and commerce. Its emphasis is on quality (of environment society, working conditions, business, product, etc.) So slow in this context is not the opposite of fast –there is no dualism- it is simply a different approach in which designers, buyers, retailers and consumers are more aware of the impacts of products on workers, communities and ecosystems.
Recognizing and designing with speeds other than just a fast commercial pace takes the pressure off time. Garments are still mass-produced, but they are done so in supplier factories that pay living wages and maintain high standards. Mutually beneficial relationships between retailers, top brands and their suppliers are fostered over the long term.
At the heart of the idea of slow fashion is balance.
Slow fashion includes products that are designed for rapid imaginative change and symbolic (fashion) expressions as well as those designed for material durability and emotional engagement. Only in balancing these speeds and rhythms of use will quality be achieved. Quality normally comes at a price and at least some slow fashion pieces will cost substantially more than they do today, reflecting their materials, workmanship and values. This will result in us buying fewer high-value, slow-to-consume products and bring key resource savings. It has been suggested for example that the sector could halve its materials use without economic loss if consumers pay a higher price for a product that lasts twice as long.[1] Yet other slow fashion pieces may cost the same or even less than today. These will be specifically designed to be resource-efficient, quick-to-consume products developed, say, as part of carefully planned material cycles.
Recognizing and designing with speeds other than just a fast commercial pace takes the pressure off time. Garments are still mass-produced, but they are done so in supplier factories that pay living wages and maintain high standards. Mutually beneficial relationships between retailers, top brands and their suppliers are fostered over the long term.
At the heart of the idea of slow fashion is balance.
Slow fashion includes products that are designed for rapid imaginative change and symbolic (fashion) expressions as well as those designed for material durability and emotional engagement. Only in balancing these speeds and rhythms of use will quality be achieved. Quality normally comes at a price and at least some slow fashion pieces will cost substantially more than they do today, reflecting their materials, workmanship and values. This will result in us buying fewer high-value, slow-to-consume products and bring key resource savings. It has been suggested for example that the sector could halve its materials use without economic loss if consumers pay a higher price for a product that lasts twice as long.[1] Yet other slow fashion pieces may cost the same or even less than today. These will be specifically designed to be resource-efficient, quick-to-consume products developed, say, as part of carefully planned material cycles.
[1] S. Brands, The clock of the Long Now, 1999
Quoted from the book: Kate Fletcher, Sustainable fashion & textiles design journeys, 2008, p173
Quoted from the book: Kate Fletcher, Sustainable fashion & textiles design journeys, 2008, p173
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