Setting the Pace: How “Slow Fashion” Can Save Us From Waste
As a new year dawns, it is often an opportunity for us to take stock of ourselves and our habits and seek to effect change where we find we are falling short. Whether it’s saving more, eating less, or any other positive alteration we seek to make, the clock ticking forward inspires us to see the gap between where we are and where we want to be. This has historically only happened at the individual level, though for 2022 it might finally be time for an industry to follow in that same progressive spirit, namely the fashion industry. Just as eating too much leads to weight gain or overspending leads to debt, the trend of “fast fashion” has had a similarly destructive influence on our wallets, our happiness, and our self-worth. Today we will outline the key differences between “fast” and “slow” fashion and the effects that moving from the former to the latter would have on our lives.
“Fast” versus “Slow” fashion
“Fast” fashion is, for the most part, how the modern fashion industry works. Put simply, the idea is that clothing brands and retailers should go through production cycles and trends as quickly as possible in an effort to drive more sales. While this makes sense from a corporate perspective, it is ultimately injurious to customers (for reasons we will outline below). “Slow” fashion, on the other hand, is both where the industry was prior to the 1950’s and where it should strive to be today. To produce “slowly” does not imply inefficiency; rather, it emphasizes the importance of ensuring enduring quality and style are present in every new line of clothing. While traditional slow fashion cycles followed the seasons and produced about four collections a year, the pace of fast fashion is downright frenetic: in some cases, there are collections released every single week, or 52 collections a year. At this high speed, styles must change quickly to keep customers coming in regularly. Now that we know how the industry has changed, let’s highlight the key benefits of changing it back and making slow fashion vogue once more.
1) Savings
The most obvious benefit to fewer collections is the financial savings of not having to continuously upgrade your wardrobe. However, there are other savings-related benefits to having longer fashion cycles as well. If you know that you only need to plan for four seasons, you will save a great deal of time by not having to constantly stay on top of weekly trends or visit the store as often. In a sense, this constitutes “stress savings” as well, an often-overlooked benefit of finding ways to slow life down to an enjoyable pace. It should be noted that one of the first things to be sacrificed in the drive for faster production of fashion is quality. After all, lower quality is cheaper to make, and clothes that have a short lifespan incentivize customers to go buy more to replace them. The opposite is true for slow fashion: higher quality and longer-lasting pieces become the norm as any article being worn frequently will need to stand up to regular use and washing.
2) Minimalism and Happiness
A recent cultural trend has been that of minimalism, an effort to ensure that the things we fill our homes with truly make us happy and add value to our lives. In a world where we have to take time to organize our possessions, pay to store them, and constantly navigate around them when they take up too much space, this trend could not have come at a better time given the volume of “stuff” the average person now owns. Fast fashion only adds to this existing problem, making us feel like our closets are too small and that we waste too much time determining what should be kept or donated. Returning to the four seasons of slow fashion means that our closets become both more manageable and simultaneously more enjoyable to us; what’s more, they stay that way and free us from the mental clutter that takes away from our ability to enjoy a simpler life.
3) No More “Keeping Up With the Joneses”
Part of what drives us to acquire ever more possessions is actually our sense of self-worth and need to “belong”. It could be that we want to reward ourselves for our hard work or perhaps it’s the desire to maintain appearances for our friends and colleagues who also chase after the latest fads. While feeling proud of what you’ve accomplished and wanting to have healthy friendships are reasonable goals, going through the “revolving door” of fast fashion to accomplish it is not the most healthy approach to reach them. If we as individuals make a greater effort to appreciate others for their personal qualities rather than their need to have the latest gadget (or this week’s newest “use it then lose it” fashion line), we can cultivate a better way of living life and emphasizing thankfulness over acquisition. This is not to say we can’t reward ourselves once in a while or take fashion cues from others, though when we do, we should do so because we really love what we’re buying and not because we feel pressured to buy.
No great and lasting change in the history of the world has happened without a great deal of effort by many, so if we want to reap the benefits of a return to a slow fashion culture, it will take the collective commitment of everyone, including not only customers but also the fashion designers, brands, and retail outlets who participate in the process. People often look back at the beautiful gowns and day dresses worn during the early 20th century and wonder what became of the culture that prized possessions that were made to last. The truth is that it never really left, though its remaining adherents have been outnumbered for some time now. We here at the Studio believe that clothes should be loved and appreciated, and if you feel the same way, perhaps together we can make fast, throwaway fashion finally go out of fashion.
