The Slow Fashion movement is a fashion concept that has become a popular topic, especially in Social Media. The current onslaught of brands selling their products on Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook has people reflecting more about the lifecycle of their wearables, where their clothes are coming from and what will happen with those clothes once they stop wearing them. This subject matter commonly focuses on sustainability and consciousness in fashion, however, in this blog we’re going to focus on understanding the Slow Fashion concept and how this movement is beneficial to current fashion.
Slow Fashion - what does it mean?
The article published by Good On You in July defines the positive values of what Slow Fashion means:
“It encompasses an awareness and approach to fashion that carefully considers the processes and resources required to make clothing. It advocates for buying better-quality garments that will last longer, and values fair treatment of people, animals, and the planet along the way.”
Slow Fashion simply means that when creating products, the producer is being mindful and respectful to the earth and its people during the process. Note that it also encompasses and supports the usage of quality, not inferior, materials during this process. Slow Fashion, Sustainable Fashion, and Ethical Fashion are very similar movements, the main difference being that slow fashion cares not just about the production of the products, but also about the consumption of them.
Why are people talking about Slow Fashion?
If we google a product to buy online, or even if we visit the shopping mall, we’re probably going to see a deluge of fashion advertisements, mostly from Fast Fashion companies. Some examples of these Fast Fashion advertisements are coming from businesses like Zara, H&M, GAP, Hollister, and Target, just to name a few. But, in the past decade, with more conscious thought being disseminated, an important number of brands have begun to reject Fast Fashion principles, preferring more sustainable and ethical ways to produce fashion.
The term Slow Fashion was coined from the phenomena of the Slow Food movement and represents new businesses that are trying to move in the opposite direction of big brands. SHEIN is an example of a big brand that is selling cheap and trendy clothes made from bad materials, while also shipping one order at a time halfway around the world. Slow Fashion Brands are selling fewer products, made with a more ethical process, like The Checkroom.
Some of the characteristics to look for in a Slow Fashion Brand are:
making goods from high-quality and lower-impact materials
designing timeless goods that possess style over trend
locally sourced materials and production
the 'Made-to-Order' process, which reduces unnecessary production and waste
The Slow Fashion Movement
Keep in mind that fashion reflects the place and culture of the people who are living within it. Today, people are more concerned about sustainability and the impact that society will leave behind on the planet. On the flip side, people are also just as concerned about what they wear and how they look.
This concern is then reflected in the ethical ways that clothes are manufactured and produced, and not related to anything sustainable. Ethical matters such as the treatment and payment of employees are some of the biggest problems that this world faces in direct correlation to fast fashion consumption.
With Fast Fashion, the speed of producing trendy items quickly means the labor should also be as speedy and as quick as possible. This situation only leads us to poor working conditions, low wages, and in quite a few instances, modern slavery. The second factor to this looming issue is that in order to make a lot of trendy, cheap clothes as quickly as possible, non-durable materials are needed to support low production costs.
Until now, our society hasn't found a way to produce cheap fashion with durable materials and fairly treated employees. The most effective way for a consumer to counterattack this issue is to invest in timeless, locally made fashion, supporting slow fashion and accessory brands. The result of this will inevitably result in fair treatment of all workers, which makes the movement worth it even more.
making slow fashion accessories
We at Clutch Made, pride ourselves in being a design/manufacturer who implements the Slow Fashion method. We encourage our clients to produce smaller quantities with quality materials, which result in longer-lasting accessories. We encourage classic design for timeless results. We treat our entire team with respect and fair wages. We pass on our values to our clients who are creating their own brands: develop a fabulous brand with ethical and sustainable principles, respecting everyone included in the process along the way.
If you are looking to get started developing your accessory brand, we would recommend the Product Design Pack, which happens to be our special summer deal! The Pack includes our Online Course “How to get started making accessories in the USA”, the One-Hour Design Consultation with our founder Laura Dotolo, as well as the Tech Pack Consultation, which micro-focuses on the details of your accessory design and includes lots of handbag designing tips. Click here and sign up today!
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