Born to Slow Fashion

I was born to slow fashion. Until I was 11, my wardrobe consisted of clothes worn by my 4-years-older sister. Some of them were inherited from my eleven years senior aunt. The rare incidents of purchasing clothes for me have stayed fresh in mind; the excitement of a five-years-old trying on a coat in her absolute favorite color of red under the bright lights of a spacious department store or the velvet of the new dress to celebrate the end of the primary school semester. For my defeat, my sister got a similar dress on the same occasion, so my color code and style were defined for the next four years. 

Slow fashion was almost an uneasy part of my life. Still, I was never lured by fast fashion. I had seen, how cheap clothes were produced in the end of the 1990’s in Central America. During my tenure, I met a young woman, who had to wear diapers to avoid delay in her production line. I saw how textile shred was pushed down to the streets of Managua from slowly driving truck. The sweatshops in the Nicaraguan free trade zone did not contribute a cent in form of taxes but did not hesitate to strain city’s weak sanitation system with their garbage. 

From a newspaper I could read of a death case of a factory worker. He had turned lights on the production facility, where the owners had not followed security standards on their electric installation. These enterprises seemed not to care about anything else than their profit. Poverty would assure them a continuous flow of workers and governments waited in line to attract the badly paid jobs they offered. 

Ever since, I considered myself as a conscious consumer, trying to buy good quality clothing manufactured in Europe or purchasing them directly from micro entrepreneurs. But little I knew about the heavy environmental burden of my fashion statements; cotton in a simple T-shirt consumes 3,000 liters of water. Try to go for ecological cotton; the fuzzy global value chains offer environmentally sourced cotton garments outnumbering harvests of ecological cotton. Neither I had realized that washing my sweaty exercise gear shreds microplastic ending to oceans. My eyes were opened by an excellent course of Wageningen University on circular fashion. It is free of charge to attend by anybody at edx.org. My warmest recommendation! 

Reckless fast fashion pushes endlessly cheap, low quality products to the market. 50% of these items are thrown away in less than 12 months. It is calculated that fashion accounts for 10% of the global emissions. Fortunately, there are other consumption choices. The secondhand shops are becoming more and more inviting, some of them have curated pieces and offer sewing service. With a membership to a “clothing library” you can share garments with community of design addicts with three-hugging genes.

Circularity is approaching as well. For example, Danish “Sissel Edelbo” upscales saris used by Indian women for Nordic bohemians, creating new local jobs simultaneously. Finnish companies “Infinited Fiber” and “Spinnova” have developed techniques to produce thread of waste combined with cellulose without damaging chemicals. With all this available, I can find a new inspiration for to replace my beloved sweatpants and get control of my life sustainably.