In our earlier blog article on Fast Fashion you can read a number of reasons why you really should stop choosing Fast Fashion. Hopefully it has inspired you to stop buying Fast Fashion and instead consciously choose Slow Fashion. Slow Fashion has many advantages and takes people and nature into account. But what exactly are these advantages? You can read in this blog.
What is Slow Fashion?
When can you call clothing Slow Fashion? Slow Fashion literally means "slow fashion" and encompasses several aspects. This involves slowing down the fashion system as opposed to Fast Fashion where everything has to be faster (and cheaper) all the time. With this, there is conscious thought about the clothes being made. As a buyer of Slow Fashion, you often think more consciously about the clothes you buy and only buy clothes you really need.
More and more fine sustainable clothing brands are emerging. Unfortunately, there are also many companies that falsely call themselves "sustainable. Therefore, it is important to always take a critical look at the clothes you buy and see if this company is truly sustainable. This can sometimes be tricky, which is why Sophie Stone has already done this research for you! At Sophie Stone you will only find truly sustainable brands.
More attention to clothing
Slow Fashion clothing is often given a lot of attention. So no factories with mass production and poor working conditions, but small-scale factories where employees are treated well and given time to pay sufficient attention to production. Also, Slow Fashion brands are often transparent so this way you can easily find out where your garments come from.
For example, the sustainable brand Jan 'n June has a QR code on every card of its clothing that leads to the ECO ID, the passport of your garment. Here you can find the entire supply chain of the garment and details every step of the process. From the origin of the raw material to the final production. This allows you to track exactly where your garment came from. Clothing also improves in quality due to accuracy. Care is taken to ensure that each item in the collection is well put together, making the garment last longer. This also means that there is a lot more time in the production of Slow Fashion clothing.
So says the sustainable sneaker brand Veja for example, that the production time of its Veja shoes is 5 times longer than shoes from major Fast Fashion brands. This is partly because they use fair trade and organic fabrics, because they are more economically equitable for all parties involved in the production chain, and because they invest in research and new technologies.
Slow Fashion is timeless clothing
Een groot voordeel van Slow Fashion is dat de kleding tijdloos is. Geen kleding die na een seizoen uit de mode is maar kleding die jarenlang meegaan. Als je kijkt naar Fast Fashion zie je dat de kleding kort mee gaat en uiteindelijk ook weinig echt gedragen wordt. Gebleken is dat deze kleding soms maar maximaal 7 keer gedragen wordt! Daarentegen gaat Slow Fashion jaren mee en is bewezen dat deze zelfs 50 keer langer en vaker gedragen wordt dan de Fast Fashion kleding.
Zo worden er ook elk jaar twee biljoen panty’s gemaakt, een paar keer gedragen en daarna weggegooid. Het duurzame merk Swedish Stockings vindt dat dit anders kan en maakt duurzame panty’s die veel langer meegaan en ook nog eens beter zijn voor het milieu.
Uiteindelijk is het dus eigenlijk een stuk voordeliger om voor duurzame kleding te kiezen. Slow Fashion items zijn tijdlozer en over het algemeen wat meer basic. Dit zorgt ervoor dat ze makkelijk te combineren zijn en je ze dus ook sneller uit de kast pakt. Dat betekent echter niet dat het designproces sneller en makkelijker is. Vaak wordt er juist veel meer aandacht besteed aan het ontwerpproces.
For example, the People Tree sustainable brand's design process begins more than a year before the products become available to customers. That is also more than four months before Fast Fashion companies begin the design process. So this ensures that better thought is given to the choices made in the design process.
Fair trade clothing
Slow Fashion is made in a fair way that takes into account people and nature. The workers who work in the factories that produce Fast Fashion clothing are paid far too little. The percentage that goes to the workers per garment is around 2.5%. So for a shirt of 30, that comes down to 0.75 euros.
The sustainable brand Armedangels shows in their annual social report that the percentage that goes to the workers is much higher. They have shown this per production country and for a T-shirt made in Portugal, for example, this percentage is no less than 44%. That is considerably higher than the previously mentioned 2.5%, which is a lot fairer.
Many Slow Fashion brands are also affiliated with a certain label in order to prove that they are truly sustainable. You can read more about these labels here. So plenty of reasons to choose sustainable and fair Slow Fashion clothing.