What is Slow Fashion?

Slow Fashion is a term all fashion lovers are coming across lately but few know really what it is. Slow fashion is actually something that anyone knows about but till the age of fast fashion there was no need to be identified in that sense. Slow Fashion is a global response to a phenomenon of fast fashion. In order to understand what is Slow Fashion we need to understand what is Fast Fashion.

Fast Fashion is a modern phenomenon, something that did not exist as global form 15 years ago. It represents globalised, mass production of fashion where garments and accessories are transformed from the design stage to the retail in only a few weeks, with having in mind only profit. With retailers selling the latest fashion trends at very low prices, consumers are easily tricked into purchasing more than they need, purchasing low quality and suspicious origin fashion. This became a popular form lately because everyone loves a good deal, right? But this overconsumption comes with a hidden price tag, and it is the environment and workers in the supply chain that pay. As well, the consumers themselves are paying, by wearing clothes which may be of suspicious quality, with toxic substances which on long run may affect their health. It is important that the gain that the consumer may think they have from buying a low price fashion or scoring a deal, as most believe, on the long run, these clothes often do not survive more than a season if not less, which on the long run, means they will be buying a shirt or a pair of jeans at low price each season or year, instead of spending more for a quality item that will last for years to come. This means that the consumer will spend up to ten times more money for clothes, which will be soon in a dumpster, instead of having clothes that last longer, of better quality, made in a way that is less harmful to environment and not being made by workers who are severely underpaid, working in horrible conditions and even made by children. I read a line, a few days ago on the internet saying: Your tee should not cost as much as your latte! And it sure should not! Think that a shirt that you buy in a retail store, for 5 euros, like your latte, lets say, cost about 1 euro to make. How much do you think the worker that made your tee is paid since the cost of making it is not just labour but also fabric, electricity, return on the machinery, print, etc?

Fast Fashion is surely to blame for the fact that we are bombarded with new collections and arrivals each week by low price brands, so they can make huge profits by selling nicely designed junk. This way we always think we are behind and we are psychologically manipulated into buying fabricated trends.
In order to keep the prices low, the fast fashion companies, produce fashion in underdeveloped countries, where they can pay workers extremely low wages, without providing them with proper working conditions, no health insurance and no pension funds, where the law allows them to exploit workers but also take away from producers who pay their staff right and operate in countries which have regulations on standards and protection of environment. This may also mean that someone you know may have lost their job because the fast fashion companies, nowadays dominating the global market, in order to sell you clothes cheap, produce in underdeveloped countries, and you choose to purchase from them. This means that you are responsible for supporting such practices and such businesses! This phenomenon has costed many European countries the severe damage in fashion sector. In Greece for example, once big weaving and clothing industry has been almost vanished by cheap products from the east. Where Greek companies, could not keep up with them, because they had to secure their facilities, oblige to laws and pay according to the low their workers, social and health security. At a point it was unprofitable to keep the factories running so they closed, leaving an army of highly skilled workers and highly trained professionals without work.

Unfortunately, we as consumers have a blame in all this, as much as we all hate to admit it. I believe many may posses a coat made by greek produced quality wool, or dress made of greek silk. These clothes after many years still look much the same. But could you say the same about a dress or a coat you bought cheap from some of the high street cheap chain stores a year or two ago? If they are, then are they still in fashion??? Im sure that we will all agree that once we had clothes that felt good next to our skin, that we used to feel good about wearing them and that they lasted many many years. Now we got a closet full of clothes but still nothing to wear.
Slow Fashion is everything that fast fashion isn’t. Slow fashion is something we all used to know. Slow fashion is the one that never had anything to do with Rana Plaza. Slow fashion cares about the way that clothes are produced, cares about the environment and cares about people who make them. Because of the huge shift in profits and sales fast fashion companies win over slow fashion, slow fashion companies have been forced to redesign the price politics, where the most of the price you pay for slow fashion goes to the cost of making it, making this kind of fashion unattractive from the profit point of view, to the retailers, who more and more decide to sell fast over slow fashion, plunging the market with low quality fashion that is designed to last a season.

Fashion industry is enormous, so the consequences of such shift in the market have huge impact on environment, civil rights and exploitation of resources and the worker. While at the same time, someone is making tremendous profits. And we are all to blame. Next time you are shopping, think again who will you support? Because, as well as workers and environment, you have rights too, You have a right to have clothes that will not have implications on your health, that will not fall apart after a season and which will make you feel good, knowing that no-one suffered in order for you to look good. So, next time, when your tee will cost as much as your latte, or even less, think about all that I said and pass the “deal”. Its certainly not worth it!