How to Become a Slow Fashion Supporter

How to Become a Slow Fashion Supporter

So, what is slow fashion? As it says on the tin, it requires you to slow down on your fashion consumption. It asks you to consider what you are buying, whether you need it, and how it was made.

There are several ways to support slow fashion. Firstly, stop buying into fast fashion and open your mind to buying pre-loved, vintage, and from independent designers. Obviously, you can’t go wrong with a “Chazzer” shop, loads of unique pre-loved items, with all money spent directly supporting the charity rather than lining corporate pockets; whilst creating a circular economy to reuse existing garments.

Vintage boutiques are also high on the slow fashion register; independently run with unique pre-loved collections and pieces that have been lovingly curated, offering vintage and retro gems from the 1920s to the early noughties. You are literally spoilt for choice! Which is your decade?

Independent fashion designers and businesses all run on small, slow fashion ranges that are carefully handmade and often bespoke, not mass produced like fast fashion. If you want a unique item, the independent designer is your friend. Many also offer bespoke services personally for you; plus, you will also have a warm feeling that you are supporting indie businesses. Good for you!

Online platforms like Depop, which is gaining a reputation as a hardcore seller’s paradise, offer private sellers and indie businesses opportunities to sell vintage, pre-loved and independent fashion over brand-new fast fashion items. Which is a good thing. (Follow Depop Drama on Instagram!) Well, now we know what slow fashion is, what exactly is fast fashion? A colleague asked me this question the other day, even though I’ve been banging on about it the whole four years I’ve known them – Aaargh!! But at last they are now listening! We are getting through!

Fast fashion is anything that is mass produced; its fashion drops, new collections, the latest big trend, BooHoo, Primark, supermarket brands, Topshop, crazy low priced online fashion platforms... The list goes on. Even our beloved M&S, despite their attempts to be as transparent as possible, will still over produce and fill their shops with new lines dropping on a weekly basis. Do you think they sell every garment? What do you think happens to the unwanted clothing??? Hello, landfill! This is all fast fashion!

A vintage shopper at Rhubarb Jumble vintage shop, Bristol

(Photo credit - No Debutante)

How can you become more fashion conscious?

Consider how much the fashion items cost in the first place, if its cheap as chips you can bet it didn’t get to the shops sustainably and ethically. Cheap garments = poorly paid workers. If that top cost you £3, how much do you think the worker got to make it? What was their cut? It’s not good is it?

It may seem harder to support independent businesses at this time, especially in lockdown situations, but nearly all independent businesses sell online. From indie shops to virtual markets and clothes swaps. Everything is available if you look for it.

Did you know you can send a DM on instagram to most small indie fashion businesses to buy or enquire? And remember those links in bios for an instant indie shop hit! Indie supporters like Bristol Markets and Indie Roller also have virtual markets on Instagram that you can drop into by viewing their stories. These markets often happen on a certain day and time with links to lots of indie sellers who are often offering discounts too, all from the comfort of your sofa! What’s not to like here?

Another big tip is to stop following fashion trends. Why are you following trends? Do you really need the next big thing? Will it change your life? Will it make you feel better and for how long? With everything being so instant in our digital world, trends can change quicker than you can press ‘like’ on Instagram. By the time you’ve got the ‘next big thing’ and photographed it to show your followers, Instagram has moved on… Don’t be pulled in by consumerism, you really don’t have to Buy, Buy, Buy! Slow down, be unique, have your own fashion vibe.

Buy from independent makers. Yes, their garments cost more than Primark’s, of course they do, they have been handmade with care on small, often unique fashion runs. Pay them for their worth, support them, make a change, be that change. Are you still shopping for fashion items regularly? Why? Have you nothing to wear at all?

Stop scrolling, delete those persuasive ‘buy it now’ emails from your inbox, unfollow fast fashion and its influencers on social media. Just take a step back. Think about the planet and the waste and the suffering that fast fashion supports. I realise how hard it is to make the change with so many temptations around you. The government is currently bigging up supporting small businesses but are still allowing billboard posters and buses to advertise fast fashion main offenders like Boo Hoo all over the country, whilst our indies are struggling!! It makes no sense at all!

Did you know Boo Hoo have refused to share information on their manufacturing processes, including where their items are made and what conditions their workers are in? Like many other fast fashion corporates, they were still demanding garments from their workers during the pandemic lockdown! By refusing to talk to sustainable and ethical organisations like Labour Behind the Label and Fashion Revolution, Boo Hoo are unwilling to, at the very least, become transparent and let their customers know what is going on behind closed doors. It should become illegal to refuse such basic requests on sustainability and transparency.

Companies like this should be boycotted from advertising at all. Sadly, at the moment this is not the case, so they can carry on their merry fast fashion way, whilst garment workers and small businesses continue to suffer.

Make the change. Be the change. Support slow fashion.

How to become fashion conscious: A few quick tips!

- Stop buying into fast fashionBuy pre-loved items from charity shopsSupport independent local designers and businessesSupport local (designers and businesses)Buy vintageBuy sustainableStop following fashion trendsUnsubscribe from fast fashion newsletters and apps

- Stop following fast fashion corporates and influencers on social media

- Follow independent designers, makers and businessesFollow sustainable designers, makers and businesses

- Think before you buy – Do you need it? How was it made?

- Educate yourself on sustainable fashion!

- Wear your clothes!

- Upcycle, rework, restyle your wardrobe!

Attend fashion swaps and independent markets (virtually for now!)

Be unique!

Emma Gorton-Ellicott Fashion Blogger at No-Debutante and Founder of slow fashion brand Fruit Salad

www.no-debutante.blogspot.com