What is Slow Fashion?

The term Slow Fashion was first used by Kate Fletcher, a researcher and professor at the London College of Fashion. In her book "Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys," published in 2008, she highlights grievances in the fashion industry and draws parallels to the fast food industry. She sees the fast-moving fashion consumption of our throwaway society as a reason for the exploitation and environmental problems of our time. Kate Fletcher also hopes for a rethinking in the fields of fashion, based on the already trendy topic of slow food and the associated conscious handling of nutrition and food.

What does Slow Fashion mean?

Slow Fashion aims to extend the life cycle of a garment as much as possible through more sustainable and conscious use. Fashion should be produced and consumed in a more sustainable and conscious way. On the part of the fashion industry, this means producing fewer, but high-quality collections. The raw materials should come from sustainable cultivation. Processing and finishing of the fabrics should be carried out under fair pay and healthy working conditions. For consumers, Slow Fashion means buying fewer, high-quality clothes and wearing them for as long as possible. Moreover, worn clothing should not be thrown away, but repaired, redesigned or partially reused. Borrowing, exchanging or selling second-hand clothing are also possible alternatives in the sense of Slow Fashion.

Slow Fashion vs Fast Fashion

While Slow Fashion focuses on the longevity of clothing, Fast Fashion aims at the opposite. Clothing should be as cheap as possible and above all short-lived. Constantly new trends and collections are offered at cheap prices and thus tempt people to make impulse purchases. Inferior raw materials and processing lead to the fact that the clothes quickly become unsightly, which is why again new purchases are made and so the cycle begins again. In recent years, this trend has become the most successful business model in the fashion industry. But at what price? Fast Fashion only pays off for the fashion industry - for people and our planet, it's a disaster. Because it not only wears out resources and workers, but also poisons our ecosystem.

Fast Fashion and its impact on the environment

The European Parliament's Scientific Service conducted independent studies to examine the environmental impacts of textile production and waste and found the following:

• 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are generated in the production of clothing and footwear. This corresponds to more than international flights and ocean shipping combined cause.
• Around 20% of global water pollution is caused by the dyeing and finishing of textiles as part of their production.
• 0.5 million tons of microfibers enter the ocean each year from washing cheaply produced synthetic clothing. This is 35% of all primary microplastics released into the environment.
• 2,700 liters of freshwater are needed to produce a single cotton T-shirt. This is equivalent to the amount that one person drinks in 2.5 years.

According to the WWF, the demand for clothing will continue to rise in the future. From 62 million tons in 2015 to an estimated 102 million tons in 2030, it will be all the more important in the future to establish a more sustainable and conscious approach to fashion.

Benefits of Slow Fashion

The benefits of Slow Fashion are many, not only for the environment, but also for us humans. Because through sustainable and reduced consumption, not only are resources conserved and our ecosystem relieved, in the long term we also save money and invest in our own health. Concrete benefits of Slow Fashion are:

• Resources are conserved: By using only sustainably grown raw materials, the resources of our earth are conserved.
• Human rights are respected: In the spirit of Slow Fashion, care is taken to ensure that raw material cultivation and textile production take place under humane conditions. This includes fair payment and healthy and safe working conditions as well as the renunciation of child labor.
• Drinking water is saved: Alongside climate change, global water scarcity is one of the greatest environmental problems of our time. Valuable drinking water is used en masse for the production and dyeing of textiles and is subsequently discharged as polluted wastewater. Slow Fashion not only prevents wastewater from being discharged into nature, but also helps to save valuable drinking water by reducing consumption.
• Oceans are spared: The use of exclusively natural and biodegradable materials means that no microfibers are released during washing, thus sparing our oceans.
• CO2 emissions are reduced: The lower and more sustainable production of textiles automatically reduces the global greenhouse gas emissions generated by the production of clothing and footwear.
• Waste is minimized: High-quality clothing does not wear out as quickly and is therefore more durable. Not disposing of worn clothing but repairing or reusing it also helps to minimize waste over and above the extended life cycle.
• Money is saved: "If you buy cheap, you buy twice." In this sense, cheap clothing may seem cheaper at first glance, but in the long run it pays to invest in high-quality clothing.
• Health is promoted: In the spirit of Slow Fashion, the use of harmful pesticides and chemicals that can cause long-term illness or cancer is avoided throughout the production process.
• Appreciation is learned: By consciously consuming fewer but high-quality garments, we learn to appreciate clothing more again.

Your contribution to the Slow Fashion movement

There are a few concrete things you can do to make your personal contribution to the Slow Fashion movement. In principle, you should prefer wearing existing clothes to buying new ones. To keep your clothes looking good for as long as possible, you should wash and care for them properly according to the instructions. Damaged clothing can often be repaired or restyled - if you cannot do this yourself, it is often worth going to an alteration shop. Clothes that you still want to discard do not necessarily have to be thrown away. By lending them out, giving them away or selling them at a second-hand store or online clothing exchange, you are also making a contribution to the Slow Fashion movement.

When buying new clothes, you should look for high-quality fabrics from sustainable cultivation. Organic labels and Fairtrade seals help you to recognize sustainable and fairly produced clothing. In general, you should develop a personal interest in knowing what materials your clothes are made of and under what circumstances they were produced. Under the hashtag #whomademyclothes, a significant campaign has been established in this context since 2013, with the help of which a look behind the scenes of the large fashion chains and an awareness of the abuses in the textile industry should be created. This campaign was triggered by the serious disaster at the Rana Plaza textile factory in Bangladesh on 24 April 2013, in which 1,134 people died and around 2,500 were injured. By posting a photo of an article of clothing on social media channels, on which the clothing label is recognizable and which you mark with the hashtag #whomademyclothes and the corresponding fashion label, you are calling on the label to create more transparency in its production process.

To counteract these abuses and the exploitative Fast Fashion industry, more and more smaller fashion labels are emerging that place great value on transparency within their supply chains, as well as on the quality and durability of their clothing. By supporting Slow Fashion brands like Maggy and Jules®, you are also contributing to the Slow Fashion movement.