Reflection on Kate Fletcher’s “Slow Fashion: An Invitation for Systems Change.”:
In her article, Fletcher begins by defining fast and slow fashion and the inherent environmental, economic, and social problems caused by the fast fashion trend of today. She then discussed the way companies and society at large proposes solutions to the problem of fast fashion. She explains, “Slow culture, rather being allowed to seed a radical new approach, gets passed through the sieve of understanding and hierarchy of priorities and goals prevalent in today’s industry and becomes absorbed not as high-level systems change (where the rules and goals of the industry are transformed) but as a marketing angle or alternative distribution channel in the current model, a tweaked version of today’s practices.” (Fletcher 263). While reading this section of her article, I was struck with how this “tweaked version of today’s practices” plays out in fast fashion clothing stores I myself used to shop at. I recall one day shopping at H&M and seeing a sign behind the check-out counter advertising a clothing return/recycling system where customers could bring back old clothing to be reused/recycles and in exchange get a 10% off discount on their next purchase. I watched a documentary at another time about the fast fashion industry which explained this new marketing strategy. Stores such as H&M, Levi’s, Forever 21, etc are now offering incentives for people to return their old clothing. While this is marketed as a move to try to be more sustainable (i.e a solution to the fast fashion problems of today), the true purpose behind this advertising is to get people to come back and use their discount to buy even more fast-fashion items. Through this approach, consumers feel like they are being more sustainable, while in reality this clothing return system rarely helps sustainability efforts. Because so many fast fashion clothes are made from mixed fibers, it is often difficult for companies to actually turn many of the donated clothes into new products, and it takes a lot of energy to do so. Many of these companies also advertise that they are sending old clothing to poorer countries so they can be reused by locals, instead of being thrown away. However in actuality, many of these clothes do not get bought by locals in these countries and just end up being thrown away in those countries instead of being thrown away by the company itself. It is clear to me that such marketing strategies are examples of the misconstrued Slow Fashion solution Fletcher discusses in her article. While companies act like they are providing a solution to the fast fashion problem, in reality they are providing solutions which only benefit their own sales and often do not offer any sustainable benefits along the way. This article makes me more determined to question “sustainability” efforts made by companies and provides incentive for me to simply not support these fast fashion companies in the first place, even if they claim to be focused on sustainability.
Reflection on Li Edelkoort’s “Anti-Fashion: A Manifesto for the Next Decade”:
As part of her talk, Li shows a movie about a weaving factory which exemplifies a local, slow fashion model. She argues the need for “Labeling the origin, content and labour of a product to better comprehend price” as a new form of marketing strategy that could change the future of fashion. I think such labeling would be a crucial step in encouraging consumers to make smarter, more sustainable fashion choices. As Li exemplifies in her talk, it is not possible to provide a 10 pound evening gown without there being some kind of unethical, unsustainable methods involved in its production. While some may claim that it is the burden of clothing companies to employ sustainable methods in the making of their products, it is also, I believe, on the collective consumer to demand, through their purchasing decisions, sustainable, slow fashion products. However it can sometimes be difficult for every-day consumers to sort which companies and what fashion items are sustainable and ethical, and so labeling the origin, content and labor of a product would be an easy way for people to make better choices about what they are buying. I myself would find this labeling system extremely helpful when making purchasing decisions.
I found Li’s talk interesting, because she discusses various ways to fundamentally change the fashion industry to have a “voice” for the 21st century. She doesn’t reject clothing and fashion outright, but instead claims that the current structure of the industry is out of date and inconsistent with our society’s current structure and values. I think her approach is useful as a method to work with the system to create change, and perhaps it can be combined with other sustainability efforts to create positive future change.
