What’s in a campaign: Slow Fashion Season

Have you ever embarked on a non-shopping adventure? Or experimented with just choosing well and making it last? Over the years, fashion has emerged as a powerful means of self-expression. Many use clothing and accessories to express their identity, values and creativity. The essence of fashion goes beyond just styling or keeping up with trends. It is far more than that. However, the fashion industry has earned a bad rap due to mass production of disposable clothes that’s contributing to the massive waste in the landfills.

That’s where the Slow Fashion Movement comes in. 

In 2018, the Slow Fashion Movement (SFM) started off as the Slow Fashion Season, a minimalistic and holistic adaptation of fashion, which encompassed the social, environmental and personal aspects of the fashion world. The Slow Fashion Season quickly gained momentum and turned into an annual 30-day campaign of not shopping for any new clothes. This year, the Slow Fashion Movement kicks off on the 1st of January, 2024, but with a twist: The 2024 campaign, called Slow Fashion Season: Earth & Beyond, allows you to choose your 30 days, and even take it further than Day 30, if you can. . It is also an invitation to challenge the traditional fashion systems, and encourage pledgers to look beyond and find better alternatives to fast fashion, so you bring focus on climate action and buy better and responsibly. So when you do buy, you buy better. 

What is slow fashion?

Slow fashion is an approach that emphasizes a more thoughtful and sustainable way of producing and consuming apparel. It’s about  changingour mindset and habits when it comes to dressing up, considering both the people involved in the production processes and its environmental impact. It also means experimenting with new forms of fashion that challenge conventional boundaries. Buying from homegrown sustainable brands, choosing craft-based or artisan-made products, or opting for secondhand hand options such as thrifting, swapping, renting and borrowing are some of the ways to embrace slow fashion.

From excess to emotion-first

SFM aims to help reduce the negative impact of fashion on the environment, by encouraging people to make mindful choices. The idea is to promote buying less, choosing well, upcycling and reusing. SFM, as a movement,  advocates for a more conscious and responsible approach to fashion, where quality, durability and longevity are prioritized over quantity, speed and trends. It also supports fair trade and ethical practices, advocating for fair pay, safe working conditions and basic human rights for workers engaged in the fashion industry, irrespective of their role. Through the Slow Fashion Season, SFM encourages us to take a step back and examine our fashion choices, so we can be better aligned with the ethos of the movement. 

At the heart of it all lies creativity and individuality, which allows you, as a consumer, to express your style and personality through what you already own–the unique and timeless pieces, over and over again.

Take the pledge 

Check this:

• • We consume 80 billion garments, globally, every year.
  • Approximately, $500B is lost, every year, due to fast fashion, overconsumption habits and throwaway culture. (Ellen MacArthur Foundation)
  • Around 30% of clothing in our wardrobes has not been worn in the last year.

Slow Fashion Season: Earth and Beyond is your chance to help turn this around. At the time of publishing, 31,997 fashion-conscious individuals had already signed up for the campaign. Together, these pledge-takers have helped cut back on over 68,00,000 lakh kg of carbon emissions and save 32,00,00,000 litres of water. They’ve also saved themselves over $15M and prevented 3,00,000 kg of waste being generated. All you have to do is, head to Slow Fashion Movement and sign up. And if you’d like to spread the word–because that’s how we really affect change–don’t forget to detail your journey, via social media, using #SFS. The great part is, you can do it all in your own time. Because playing it slow is the name of the game!