The phrase ‘fast fashion‘ has these days got a range of (negative) connotations – it represents the actual speed of how fashion is produced, marketed and consumed and it is increasingly being used to characterise non-ethical fashion.
Fast fashion is developing alongside technology with labels like Burberry offering customers to pre-order clothes from its live-streamed shows. Recently the label also announced that from September this year, you’ll be able to buy its collections straight after they are shown on the runway, rather than having to wait the standard four months. The result is increased production speed, adding to the sentiment of having to constantly keep up with the latest trends.
The oxymoron would be slow fashion.
And there is an increasing interest for the various kinds of slow fashion. Patagonia has designed sustainable clothing for decades, encouraging you to keep and repair your items. In 2013, the 10-Year Hoodie became the first fashion project on Kickstarter to raise over $1 million and the 30 Year Collection by Tom Cridland is a similar initiative. In these instances designers are taking their time to create something that is meant to last.
The idea of a fashion business that encourages long-term use is probably the most important thing here, with most clothes being produced today being designed to wear out and fall apart. But a lot of us are fed up with clothing that only lasts a few washes so there is definitely a market for thinking differently.
It comes back to the idea of buying things we really like and that we can wear for longer. It’s about asking yourself whether you’re buying a piece of clothing just for a specific occasion or whether you genuinely think you’ll wear it multiple times. Eco-fashion activist Livia Firth has been promoting the social media hashtag #30wears encouraging people to buy things they’ll wear at least 30 times and Flint and Tinder, the guys behind the 10-Year Hoodie say that “not everything should be disposable“.
Ultimately, it’s about finding your style, or styles you like, rather than just chasing after the latest trend.
Image: 30 Year Sweatshirt by Tom Cridland