Is there such a thing as Slow Fashion?

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Is there such a thing as Slow Fashion?
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Some themes

• Problems of definition
• How new a concept?
• Class and slow fashion
• Slow fashion and globalisation

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Problems of definition

• Tendency to define in terms of an antidote to
  Fast Fashion
• Slow is not the opposite of fast there is no
  dualism Kate Fletcher

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Defining Slow fashion as the opposite of Fast
Fashion

• Overconsumption
• High volume low price impact on working
  conditions
• Throwaway culture
• Poor quality
• Landfill
• Landfill

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Defining

• Slow fashion is about designing, producing,
  consuming and living better. Slow fashion is not
  time based but quality based. Slow is not the
  opposite of fast there is no dualism.
• Kate Fletcher
• So if it is not about speed should we call it
  slow?

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How new is slow fashion as a concept?

• Historical concern about so-called slop shops
• Rationing
• Make do and mend

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Charles Kingsley Clothes Cheap and Nasty

• For at the honourable shops, the master
  deals directly with his workmen while at the
  dishonourable ones, the greater part of the work,
  if not the whole, is let out to contractors, or
  middle men - "sweaters", as their victims
  significantly call them - who, in their turn, let
  it out again, sometimes to the workmen, sometimes
  to fresh middlemen so that out of the price paid
  for labour on each article, not only the workmen,
  but the sweater, and perhaps the sweater's
  sweater, and a third, and a fourth, and a fifth,
  have to draw their profit. (Kingsley, 1850 vii)

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RationingOf Clothing, Cloth and FootwearFrom
June, 1941

• Rationing has been introduced not to deprive you
  of your real needs, but to make more certain that
  you get your share of the country's goods - to
  get fair shares with everybody else.
• When the shops re-open you will be able to buy
  cloth, clothes, footwear and knitting wool only
  if you bring your food ration book with you.  The
  shopkeeper will detach the required number of
  coupons from the unused margarine page.  Each
  margarine coupon counts as one coupon towards the
  purchase of clothing and footwear.  You will have
  a total of 66 coupons to last you a year so go
  sparingly.  You can buy where you like and when
  you like without registering.

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More recently

• Carlo Petrini 1986 - the slow food movement
• Defends biodiversity
• Opposes standardisation of taste
• Promotes transparency for the consumer
• Advocates protection of cultural identities
  connected with food

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Class and Slow Fashion

• Is it about "chic du chic classic and
  timeless tailor made products for the select few
  who can afford it?
• Pradamark fashion for all?
• Or doe we re-educate the masses to engage in
  Investment Dressing

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Investment Dressing

• Two key components - the Wardrobe Capsule. This
  is a grouping of clothes that can be mixed and
  matched and worn together with minimal effort
  Goks Fashion Fix
• Cost Per Wear. calculating the relative cost
  of a purchased garment in relation to its
  quality, timelessness, and compatibility with
  other items in the capsule

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Globalisation and Slow Fashion

• Is it about fair trade - village based , hand
  work with natural dyes which maintain local
  traditions?
• Or welcoming the shake out currently underway in
  which 12 million workers have a lost their jobs
  worldwide with a further 3 million expected to go
  through consolidation
• How do we achieve slow production in global
  apparel supply chains under cu8rrent buying
  practices?

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The Real challenge

• Making a shift from quantity to quality.
• Allowing suppliers to plan orders , predict the
  numbers of workers needed and invest in the
  longer term.
• Recognising that quality is going to cost more.

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Principles of Slow Production

• Transparency
• Simplicity
• Changing Consciousness

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