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All you have to know about Slow Fashion

  • by Cecilia Rossini

Clothing production worldwide has doubled since the beginning of the century. In 2000, more than 50,000 million garments were manufactured; according to “The New Plastic Economy” document by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (based on data from the World Bank) in 2015 they reached 100,000.

We have gone from consuming two large collections a year, (spring / summer - fall / winter ) to renew clothing almost every week because of the arrival of new clothes to stores. It’s also calculated which the majority of the garments we buy are thrown away before a year has passed since their purchase.

In the last few years we are experiencing a wave of change in the fashion industry; consumers are more involved and conscious around the situation of the planet, people and animals. An increasing number of brands are rejecting the principles of Fast Fashion. The Slow Fashion movement has started.

So what is Slow Fashion? The “Slow Fashion” philosophy, or sustainable fashion, is the antithesis of the so-called “Fast Fashion”, or industrialized fashion.

 

What Slow Fashion means

Slow Fashion is a different approach to fashion; it involves and gives relevance to those processes and resources used to produce clothing. This means buying better-quality garments that will last longer and values fair treatment of people, animals and the planet.

The term “Slow Fashion” was coined in 2007 by Kate Fletcher, Professor of Sustainability, Design and Fashion at the 'Center for Sustainable Fashion' in London.

This movement gained notoriety after the tragedy at the factory in Bangladesh in 2013, where more than 1,100 people died. The building where they were producing “fast- fashion garments” collapsed, because it did not comply with basic safety measures.

Nowadays, Slow Fashion is an environmentally conscious movement that thankfully has more and more followers.

After the Bangladesh tragedy, many companies and consumers began to get more aware of the sustainable fashion concept. So, more and more people choose to buy fair trade clothes and accessories, with greater quality and exclusivity compared to the detriment of garments at affordable prices but made in chain and with materials harmful to the environment, exploiting people and their working conditions.

 

Slow fashion VS Fast fashion: Some numbers…

Slow Fashion opposes the Fast Fashion model that emerged around 20 years ago. While we already mentioned some of the reasons why Slow Fashion is important (When you buy fair trade, ethical clothing, you are automatically supporting positive and ethical working conditions around the world), now we want to show you here some numbers and real facts: 

#The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry: almost 20% of the waste generated on the planet comes from this industry. That is due to the high production. So, a lot of waste is generated and often, these types of companies do not dispose of wastage responsibly, but rather throw them into rivers or the sea.

#Fast fashion: 1 cloth for 7 uses only, that’s the average use of a fast fashion clothes; this is because fast fashion is based on creating garments quickly and in large volumes. To achieve this, it sacrifices good business practices in pursuit of productivity and benefits.

#Fast Fashion consumes a large number of resources, especially water. Just to give you an example, a pair of jeans required 3,000 liters of water.

#Fast Fashion is cheaper ‘cause it maintains unfair working conditions for the people who manufacture them. Production plants are usually based in developing countries at a minimal cost. Many working hours at a very low price is causing a negative impact on the communities.

 

 

Some characteristics of a Slow Fashion brand

Apart from some certification of a fair trade product, you can “quickly” recognize a sustainable, eco-friendly brand from some details:

  • Check the products quality; usually clothes are made of natural and sustainable materials.
  • Slow Fashion brands are often located in smaller stores rather than huge chain enterprises.
  • Sometimes are locally sourced brand, which produced and sold garments in place to avoid a mass production and transportation pollution.
  • You will find few and specific styles per collection, which are released twice or maximum three times per year.

 

The Slow Fashion movement has inspired many changes in recent years, particularly in the production of clothing and in the consumer behavior.

 There is still a long way to go, but the growing support for Slow Fashion is real. More important, it has become a lifestyle for many people, which means it is considered as a long lasting value, which will be transmitted to the generations to come.

 

Hippy Chick is a Slow Fashion brand

Don’t just choose Hippy Chick Ibiza for its style but also for its sustainability and respect for the environment. We travelled a lot and our collections find their origin in the richness of ethnic and gypsy cultures that we’ve encountered in our trips…
We share a common dream, to create a better world through conscious actions and for this we all have the power and responsibility to create a major change with the choices we make every day.

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