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What’s This About
Slow fashion is an approach to clothes that puts quality before quantity. This guide explains where the idea came from, how it compares with sustainable and fast fashion, and six ways you can support it.
Key Points
01Support for slow fashion is growing, along with demand for sustainable fashion.
02Slow fashion aims to make clothes with more care for people, animals and the environment. It could make up for some of the damage done by fast fashion.
What is Slow Fashion?
Slow fashion is an approach to how clothes are designed, made, bought and worn. Everyone involved, from designers to shoppers, is meant to be more aware of the effects on workers, communities and the environment.
When it comes to making clothes, it favours local craftspeople and eco-friendly materials.
It aims to protect local crafts and the environment while giving good value to both makers and buyers.
The Origin of Slow Fashion
Kate Fletcher set out the idea of slow fashion in a 2007 article for The Ecologist.
She wrote that the idea ‘borrows heavily from the Slow Food Movement’, and that slow fashion is ‘not time-based but quality-based’.
In her 2012 book, ‘Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Clothing’, Elizabeth L. Cline looks at the true cost of making cheap clothes.
Slow Fashion Philosophy
The slow fashion movement looks at several issues. The two most important are how clothes are made and how they are bought.
Slow Manufacturing
Slow production means making fewer, better pieces. Fletcher argues that this gives suppliers time to plan their orders, and gives workers more secure jobs with regular hours.
The clothes are meant to last.
As a result, slow manufacturing aims to:
- Support local craftspeople and their skills.
- Pay fairer wages.
- Cut carbon emissions.
- Protect the environment.
Slow Consumption
The second issue is how people buy and use clothes. Slow consumption can take several forms:
- Buying second-hand or genuine vintage clothes. A new piece in a vintage style copies the look but does not reuse anything.
- Redesigning or reusing old clothes.
- Buying from smaller producers.
- Making clothes at home.
- Buying fewer, high-quality clothes that last longer.
As Fletcher put it in 2007:
“Slow fashion is about designing, producing, consuming and living better.”
Slow Fashion vs. Sustainable Fashion
People in fashion often use ‘slow fashion’ and ‘sustainable fashion’ to mean the same thing. Both aim for a cleaner, safer and happier world, but there are small differences between them.
Sustainable fashion is the wider term. It covers ‘eco’, ‘green’, ‘slow’ and ‘ethical’ fashion.
Slow fashion shares sustainable fashion’s aims. But not treating clothes as disposable does not, on its own, make them sustainable. How they are made and used matters too.
It also looks at each part of fashion and the links between them, which gives it a built-in concern for ethics.
It cares about raw materials, the people who make clothes, the environment and keeping these links healthy.
In this way, slow fashion offers a ‘workable solution’ to today’s wasteful fashion system.
Slow Fashion vs. Fast Fashion
Fast fashion is a way of making clothes that relies on cheap labour, using up resources, creating waste and people buying too much.
Slow fashion supporters, by contrast, encourage people to keep their clothes for more than one season. Their answer is to make clothes with a cultural and emotional link to the places and people that made them.
This more careful way of making clothes can counter some of the overproduction and pollution caused by fast fashion.
Slow fashion could also revive the craft of clothes-making and celebrate the skills of the people who make them.
The Benefits of Slow Fashion
A slow fashion model could also help the fashion industry by:
- Offering high-quality, timeless clothes that people can wear for many years.
- Slowing down thoughtless buying.
- Reducing pollution and the textile waste that fills landfill sites.
- Cutting carbon emissions, which protects the environment.
- Supporting local craftspeople and their skills through fair wages.
How Can You Support Slow Fashion (6 ways)
- Take care of your clothes. Wash them only when needed, on a low-impact setting.
- Repair your clothes. Sewing on buttons and replacing missing parts is simple.
- Think twice before you buy.
- Buy only from slow fashion brands.
- Upcycle, or remake, worn-out clothes into a unique capsule wardrobe.
- Recycle or donate the clothes you no longer need.
Slow fashion calls for a complete change in how clothes are made and bought.
Support for slow fashion is growing, but there is still a long way to go.
Be Sustainable with The VOU
Slow fashion only works if you keep and wear what you buy. So choose clothes you will actually wear.
Knowing which eco-friendly brands to buy from is one step. Knowing which of their clothes suit you is another.
That means matching clothes to your body shape and your seasonal colours, the colours that suit your skin, eyes and hair.
It also means knowing how to choose and pair clothes, shoes and accessories, and how to dress for the occasion, the place and the time of day.
Find Your Body Shape
Different clothes flatter different builds. Find your body shape with our body shape quiz for men.
Identify Your Best Colours
Not every colour suits your natural colouring. Find your best colours with our seasonal colour quiz for men.
Dress for the Occasion
Each occasion, from a casual weekend to a formal event, needs its own approach.
To save time, stress and even money, contact The VOU’s expert stylists.
Get Expert Styling Advice
Take our fashion style analysis for men. Our expert stylists can then help you choose the pieces that matter most for a wardrobe that shows success and confidence.
They will also put together a bespoke capsule wardrobe that reflects your tastes and goals.
Whatever you choose, care for it, repair it and wear it often. That is where slow fashion starts.