Slow fashion refers to an approach to producing clothes that, unlike those produced through fast fashion, take sustainability, quality, and design into consideration. Slow fashion takes all aspects of the supply chain into consideration as far as cloth manufacturing is concerned, including but not limited to, the choice and dignity of the consumer, the safety of the animals, and the conservation of the environment.
While quality and sustainability are important concerns for slow fashion, it is not just limited to that. According to The Pulse of the Fashion Industry’s 2018 report, around 75% of the clothes produced through the fast-fashion supply chain ended up in landfills, damaging the environment in numerous ways. Such reports raise critical concerns regarding the effects of continuing such consumption patterns in the future and our role in it. Undoubtedly, the convenient approach of choosing cheaper clothes and saving some money while shopping is causing much more harm than good, not just to the environment, but to our future generations as well. This compromise of cheap quality over quantity also takes the value of the clothes away from them and reduces them to mere assortments of random colors and designs that might or might not suit one.
Slow fashion, therefore, can also be understood as a relevant, befitting, and popular response to fast fashion. It is a more reflective, eco-friendly, and comprehensive approach that allows one to divert away from repetitive cycles of excessive production and mindless consumption, both of which are as damaging as the other.
The clothes made through a slow fashion approach are also made in an ethical way. This ethical aspect is carefully heeded in this slow and detailed production process because the fast-fashion approach has led to an increasing number of sweatshops and a concerning rate of violation of labor laws and human rights across the world. Slow fashion, therefore, is much more thorough and thoughtful in avoiding and preventing such instances from happening.
It also allows for the values of producers and consumers to align, for the overcomplicated supply chain is replaced with a simpler and more effective model. While slow fashion is still quite far from becoming the norm, the growing acceptance of slow fashion trends and brands around the world also proves to be an indicator of its necessity and relevance in this globalized and digitally connected world.
