October is Slow Fashion Month



“Slow fashion” coined in 2007 by Kate Fletcher (Centre for Sustainable Fashion, UK.) is antithetical to fast fashion. Fast fashion pumps out clothes at ever faster rates with; cheaper prices, poorer quality, increasing amounts of chemically derived fibers and massive amounts of waste and pollution. Slow fashion is both an ethos and practical approach to cloth production and clothing purchases that puts the art and heart back into the production process. This ethos cultivates thought about what we buy, how much we buy, who we buy from, how long we wear it for, if we really need it, if it is made from fabrics which are heavily laden with chemicals and helps us to factor in the people who make the clothing. The slow fashion approach brings awareness to the treadmill of unconscious consumption and how that is filling our wardrobes with clothing that is quickly discarded. More importantly slow fashion provides a wide variety of options to gradually or quickly, depending on your skills and budget, fill in your wardrobe with sustainable clothing options. And most importantly, for the purposes of this business plan, slow fashion provides vast opportunity for textile artisans and makers to create prosperous textile businesses in order to fill what promises to be a large demand for sustainable clothing.She also compiled a number of inspiring links to pair with her write-up:
- http://fortune.com/2015/04/24/clothes-slow-fashion-zady/
- http://www.latimes.com/fashion/la-ig-slow-fashion-20150419-story.html
- https://www.notjustalabel.com/editorial/slow-fashion-movement
- http://www.triplepundit.com/special/sustainable-fashion-2014/slow-fashion-slow-catch/
- http://slowfashionforward.org/
- http://www.overdressedthebook.com/
- http://www.slowfashioned.com/resources
- http://www.swaporamarama.org/
As menswear makers, we are all part of the slow fashion movement - this is the month to celebrate the time we take to make!