What is Slow Fashion???
“When your clothes cost less than your coffee, don’t expect them to last longer than your coffee.”
In some high street stores, it would take you a matter of minutes to find a t-shirt which costs less than your morning cup of coffee (the average high street frappuccino in the UK cost £3.85 in 2021).
We are sure you can imagine a selection of shops in which this would be an easy task. As a hint… they are all in the top 10 in the UK in terms of clothing market share, and have all benefitted from the rise of fast fashion since the early 2000s.
In simple terms, fast fashion is a “design, manufacturing, and marketing method focused on rapidly producing high volumes of clothing. Fast fashion garment production leverages trend replication and low-quality materials in order to bring inexpensive styles to the end consumer. These cheaply made, trendy pieces have resulted in an industry-wide movement towards overwhelming amounts of consumption.”
Large brands are able to capitalise on high economies of scale, greenwashing, and large advertising budgets, resulting in a self-fulfilling cycle of yet more profit from cheap to produce clothing.
There needs to be a loser somewhere in this fast fashion chain, and sadly the moral lines are often blurred in social and environmental issues. Garments are often produced in the developing world where workers are paid a minimum wage at a fraction of what is considered acceptable in Western nations. Furthermore, the cheap materials used for these throwaway garments cause huge strain on the health of the planet.
So, what can be done??
Slow fashion is a concept central to Ghillied’s ethos. It is the belief that clothing should be produced out of respect for people, animals and the environment. Specifically, this relates to reducing the number of garments purchased to a small number of high quality items made to last a long time. This is with the view to reducing textile waste, and subsequently, harm to the environment and anything else living or otherwise involved in the fashion industry.
Ghillied’s high quality clothes are designed to last for the long term. We want our customers to enjoy fashionable, comfy and robust clothes for years to come. As such, we operate small, UK based batch production with the goal of minimising the waste which is clogging up landfills and the environment.
Please, do your research on brands, look at expert guides to sustainable clothing, and make thoughtful purchases. We believe that those of us privileged enough to have a roof over our heads, food on our plates and clothes on our backs, need to act with collective responsibility to help redraw the lines around ethically produced fashion.
By making conscious buying decisions, the planet benefits. And in turn, the planet repays the favour 🙂