The slow fashion movement tries to reduce industrial production and its environmental damage through rethinking consumption habits. As true for all products, manufacturing fashion garments needs an enormous apparatus and cheap labour–force. The fast-paced fashion industry uses up the natural resources of the planet on a large scale, and dominantly manufactures in the developing countries of the Third World – often under substandard and demeaning working conditions. The other factor of burdening the environment is the afterlife of clothes. The fashion business invites us to be frequent shoppers, accumulating unused items that – when turned into waste – will generate additional problems. 

On the contrary, slow fashion places emphasis on conscious consuming and natural materials, thus we may make deliberate decisions to protect our environment. For a sustainable wardrobe choose pieces that you really need, and may wear for many years to come. Offer clothes that are not loved anymore but are still in good condition for swapping or donation. Today more and more sewing workshops may help you transform old clothes into new favourites, or upcycle them as textile bags.