What does “slow fashion” in the fashion industry mean?

How to distinguish slow fashion brands from the fast fashion ones? Let us take a closer look at the difference with the help of three basic spheres of business we can encounter in the fashion industry.

What exactly is “slow fashion”?

Slow fashion (alternatively known as “sustainable fashion”) is the antithesis to the so-called fast fashion.

Slow fashion brands choose their suppliers carefully, knowing full well, where the materials used in manufacturing come from. Such brands manufacture high-quality, durable pieces that do not incentivize overproduction. Slow fashion brands communicate with their partners as well as with their customers in a transparent manner, the proof being in the detailed tag of every single product manufactured. They are environmentally conscious and care about forests, water, soil and air quality, hence striving towards minimalizing the negative impact clothes manufacturing has on our planet.

We can therefore conclude that sustainable brands act responsibly towards employees, society and the environment. But what does it truly mean?

Not every profit is the same

The main priority of “slow fashion” isn’t to generate profit off of inferior quality, abusing people or at the expense of the environment. We would be naïve however to think that the financial side of doing business with slow fashion brands is not an important factor. Naturally, the financial side constitutes a very important factor for such businesses. After all, without finances, there is no moving forward.

Sustainable fashion brand, however, manufactures products not solely for the economic advantages, it also focuses on the social and environmental impact of its business. It strives towards finding balance between them. It does not prioritize money at the expense of people’s lives and nature – that is the main difference between a slow and a fast fashion.

Every human being counts

In pursuance of the social area of its business, the slow fashion brands take interest in the wellbeing of workers that partake in the entirety of the logistical supply chain. From the growers of crops, textile workers to the tailors that produce the end product.

They care about the conditions these employees work under, and care whether these workers are rewarded fairly for their hard work.

For our planet and responsibly

Sustainable brands take active interest in the impact of their production on the environment. They do not aimlessly waste resources and, within the bounds of possibility, they choose the ecologically friendlier alternatives as well as limit the usage of plastic or recycle it. Minimizing the resulting carbon footprint and supporting the revitalization of the environment isn’t alien to them either.

No brand is 100% sustainable. However, with environmental consciousness and responsibility, a brand becomes sustainable, thus “slow”.

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