Sustainability is a hot topic right now. Many movements in different areas of our daily lives have arised on the attempt to protect the environment. One of these is slow fashion, created in 2007 by Kate Fletcher, professor of sustainable design at the Center for Sustainable Fashion, in England.
Fashion is a branch of the “Slow Movement”, initially thought in 1986 by Carlo Petrini, which aims at a cultural change based on slowing down the everyday life. The idea came as a protest against the opening of a unit of the Mcdonald’s fast food chain in Piazza di Spagna, Rome.
Following the trend of the slowdown, what Slow Fashion wants is for fashion consumption to be made in the most conscious and sustainable way possible, reconnecting consumers to producers. To achieve these objectives, the movement’s proposal is to transform the production model, valuing the manufacturing processes, the people who make the clothes, always respecting the reality of the time and costs of production, in addition to valuing the local culture.
This model is completely opposite to what we are historically used to consume, right? The famous — but outdated — fast fashion (the fashion system responsible for the large department chains) encourages the manufacture of products to be extremely fast, with several large-scale collections and very low prices, disrespecting processes, the environment and people, this can be seen in the numerous reports of slave labor committed by these companies..
With this concept in mind, you, the reader, are likely to wonder how to practice more sustainable fashion, that is not so aggressive to the environment and values the service of those who produce it. The answer is very simple: ask yourself questions, do a self-reflection.
The most sustainable wardrobe is the one you already have, with clothes that might be enough to spend years. So, before going out in search of consuming the newest trend that will go out of style at the speed of light, think about whether you really need that. If you conclude that yes, you are going to make that purchase, search for brands that respect their employees, the processes, the culture in which they operate and the environment.
Many people usually don’t like to buy from brands that sell products created in a more ecological way because the price ends up being higher than the pieces from departments stores or the from those stores that we find in gigantic shopping centers — as we see at 25 de Março street and Brás, here in São Paulo. And that’s the point where it’s very important to reflect on what is most worthwhile: buying a piece of inferior quality that fits the market trends of the moment but will soon be over or opt for timeless products, that go with everything and tend to have an impressive durability? If we evaluate well, the money spent will be practically the same.
After purchasing your products, the task of maintaining your wardrobe continues with the care that must be taken during washing and storing. As we already said at the beginning of this text, the idea of slow fashion is to reconnect consumers with their products. Rethinking their short, medium and long-term attitudes towards fashion, not only will a reconnection take place, but a small step towards a greater transformation of the current reality, taking care of the society and the places where we live.
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The article above was edited by Gabriela Girardi
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