Why is Slow Fashion so important today?
Shopping is always in fashion ...
Shopping is always in fashion ... we shop when our girlfriend invites us to a shopping day, we shop when we had a good or bad day, we shop to stay trendy and especially when there is a Sale. Only rarely do we (and by that I mean especially us women) buy something because we really need it. And far too seldom do we think about where our clothes actually come from and who has sewn the T-shirt for 5 francs.
And our wardrobes are already very full. However, one in five items of clothing is almost always in the wardrobe, because 80 percent of the time people wear 20 percent of the pieces ...The worldwide production of clothes has doubled between 2002 and 2015: 100 billion items of clothing are produced every year.
Consumers today are buying more clothes than ever before, and for less money: 15 kilos a year - four times as much as in 1950. There used to be two seasons - today there are 52 micro seasons, and new clothes come into the shops every week. And online, there are sometimes 400 new styles per week on a website. Add to this, the feeling that sales are always going on ... because somehow you have to get all these clothes to the man and woman. I wonder what happens to the rest?
And when we look behind the scenes of the big, so-called fast fashion companies - and I'm not excluding the luxury goods manufacturers - the reality is still a sad one. 75 million people make our clothes, 80 percent of them are women and 1 million of them are children. 16 hours per day, no living wages, no holidays, sexual abuse, no health care or retirement provisions, insufficient security and disastrous hygienic conditions ... still today they are part of everyday life for many garment manufacturers. And: production locations in Europe are no better.
The good news: there are many alternatives. And it is actually quite simple:
Minimalism is the magic word. Less shopping and only what I really need and yes, in between times when I want something. But that should be the exception.
Paying attention to fair production and ecology, researching and inquiring.
Set value on quality.
Swapping clothes with friends or at swap events, which can be found in almost all larger cities.
With TGIFW - THANK GOD IT'S FAIR WEAR - we make a difference and offer a real alternative to the big fast fashion sellers. All our products are fairly produced, we celebrate traditional handicraft and Swiss design and with the sale of our scarves we support social projects in Nepal. Of course there are other great fair fashion labels in Switzerland besides us - more about this in our next blog post.
Best regards,
Carmen Lama
Co-Leader TGIFW
Further information on the topic