Environment enthusiasts and ecological designers inspire us with projects on their planet-friendly passion – slow fashion. What’s available on the clothing shop shelves, virtual or physical, forces us to decide what lands in our wardrobes. We impact the environment with our choices – what each item is made from and how it affects the health of the world’s water, air and land. If fast fashion clothing production hits the brakes, everyone can benefit.
The fashion industry is starting to weave slower, ethical, sustainable practices into the business of creating new garments. As consumers, we can embrace this action and always choose our clothes with a conscience – so it’s not just a passing trend. Slow fashion can be sewn thoughtfully into the fabric of all our lives – we look at three activities dedicated to making a difference.
There’s nothing like incentives and rewards to motivate us to improve our habits. There are tons of awards projects dedicated to recognising designers and companies who put fair fashion at the forefront of their new ideas.
- The Green Carpet Fashion Awards are already shining the limelight on sustainable innovation, with world-famous models and Hollywood stars presenting awards, helping to raise awareness of the importance of clothes made with a conscience.
- The Sustainable Fashion Awards reward the most sustainable ideas from designers and brands who qualify through their responsible attitude and footprint-reducing action. Their cash prize is divided in two: half for the winner and half for an NGO committed to the environment.
- Melbourne fashion graduate Tess Whitfort who won last year’s Redress Design Award, says, “It’s our responsibility to limit the negative environmental impacts of the fashion industry … whether through using AI to create zero-waste patterns … or a new ecofriendly textile or process.”
These eco fashion ambassadors can help push the industry to a whole new era, inspiring fellow designers to think about how they source and process their fabrics – and showing consumers that sustainable clothing is cool!
Kate Fletcher, professor of Sustainability, Design and Fashion, who presented her TEDx Talk on Usership: fashion beyond consumerism last year is a keen ambassador of responsible, sustainable choices. As such, Fletcher is also exploring “how the whole works together” to affect the choices for the clothing on our backs. As a member of the Centre of Sustainable Fashion in London, she recently led a project called Fashion Ecologies. This fascinating research studied localism and the interactions and relationships between garments, people and their local surroundings.
The effort and time taken to look into the big fashion picture through local sampling will no doubt lead to a better understanding of current fashion choices – and how we can work together towards a better future by picking fair fashion and slow fashion.
Consumers may forget a time when we treasured every piece of our clothing, hanging onto it for as long as we could. We’d lovingly add blanket stitch to fraying edges and patch holes with embroidery. Nowadays, we throw items out even if a hem comes loose or a button drops off. The project Visible Mending encourages us to extend the life and re-love our clothing.
The website offers “Mendspiration”– creative ideas on how to fix wounded attire – and blog posts reveal a wealth of inspirational stories, while highlighting the soothing benefits of mindful sewing. Very importantly, they’re encouraging others to get busy on social media, posting their proudly-finished creative cover-ups and garment renewals.
If we all get darning, stitching and patching, fewer clothes will end up in the bin – and we’ll reveal our individuality against the high-street clones.
Image credits:
Header image: Getty Images
Image of Green Carpet Fashion Awards event: Getty Images
Image of Redress Design Award winner: Redress Design Award PR
Slow fashion initiatives inspire us and motivate us to do better. If you'd like to see where Dylon stands on sustainability -- and how we're evolving -- click here.