If you follow us on social media you've probably seen the word "Slow Fashion" in MANY in our posts. What is meant by Slow Fashion? It's a term that gets thrown around quite often in the fashion industry, but you may be wondering, what exactly does it mean and why should we be starting a conversation about it?
Fast Fashion took a hold in the last 20 years as large brands started producing more and more overseas. This has lead to increased sweatshop use in poor countries and increased pollution. Fashion is now the second largest polluter in the World, just behind the oil and gas industries levels of pollution.
Slow Fashion is a movement to be the opposite of Fast Fashion. Instead of using cheap labour and dirty fabrics, Slow Fashion aims to pay workers fairly and use the best in non toxic fabrics like our Oeko-Tex certified non toxic fabrics. Fast Fashion throws away tons of clothing waste every year, most of it simply because a product didn't sell! Slow Fashion aims to use up every scrap and reduce waste in order to prevent textiles from ending up in the landfill.
Here are 5 reasons why we think Slow Fashion is a wonderful thing:
1. Slow Fashion Means Fair Wages and Quality of Work
Fair labour fashion is hard to find in this day and age. One of the reasons why slow fashion is so great, is that it allows workers to be paid for the true cost of what goes into making products by hand. Items made locally fall under local labour laws.
At Salts and West, we love and treat our employees like family. When shopping with companies who produce overseas it's often very hard to know truly how the products are made. Transparency from the company is important in the growth of slow fashion.
2. Slow Fashion has Less Impact On The Environment
By producing less at a higher quality, Slow Fashion has a less of an impact on the environment. At Salts and West, we produce ethically sourced clothing made out of organic and eco-friendly fabrics such as bamboo cotton. Often fast fashion companies throw away tonnes of wearable clothes that don't sell. We use our pre-order program as a way to make sure there is not clothing waste. We only make what we sell with a few extras. Small companies can use the fabric more efficiently and manage to use up every small scrap. At Salts & West we use the scraps to make our headbands and Bamties bamboo underwear so they never end up in the landfill.
3. Slow Fashion Caters to Your Local and Lifestyle needs
When you know who your customers are, you can easily cater to their unique lifestyle and specific needs. Local crafters are designing and making products catered to the needs of the people locally within a community. Your needs change based on where you live.
Live on the west coast of Canada? You probably wear a hoodie and bamboo leggings all winter (we can help). Live in the city? You probably need more office wear. Your local designers have their fingers on the pulse of not only what's trendy in your area but also what you need to feel perfect in your local climate.
4. Slow Fashion Treats you with Personable Customer Service.
In a small business, you can connect with your customers one-on-one and give them that quality customer service you would never get at a department store or fast fashion chain. You deserve to be treated as family when you walk into a store.
Shopping slow fashion allows you to meet the makers and designers and have your specific tastes and desires heard by them. Many a Salts & West design has been inspired by the needs and requests of clients!
5. Slow Fashion Supports Local Businesses & Jobs
Supporting slow fashion brands like Salts & West allows you to also support local jobs and businesses. You're helping businesses in your community and the people that live and work in it. People working in small business in the community tend to shop at other small businesses this creates a vibrant economic trend in an area.
Slow Fashion is growing... and you too can join the movement! Together we can make a change in the fashion industry by slowly stopping polluting and unethical fast fashion practices.
