People Power and Fashion Detox- A step towards brighter future of fashion
With the advent of the pandemic, the fashion industry is transforming a lot and at this point, all of us understand how fast fashion is affecting our people and planet and there are multiple upcoming organisations and movements which promote slow fashion, encourage people to understand about the industry, make sustainable choices, and be the voice of change. But most of us might have this question that in such a large industry, does an individual change even matter. Do our sustainable choices have the power to change the working of huge brands?
Well, the answer is yes, people power does matter, that’s what the social activisms throughout history have proven.
In the book, Social Movements: The Structure of Collective Mobilization, Paul Almeida tells us that an emerging pattern in the new millennium:
“involves ordinary people mobilizing around increasingly negative conditions. When we observe some of the largest protest campaigns of the past twenty years, they are clearly driven by worsening situations.”
The strategy of mass movements is simple enough. Turn the public towards the cause. Whether it is Freedom, Equality, Human Rights or the Rights of Nature. Greg Satell explains this in his insightful TEDx talk: “successful movements work to attract everybody else to bring in people who weren’t standing with them from the beginning.”
Coming to fashion, it has always been about activism in some way or the other, defying the norms, introducing new things, conveying a message; Fashion has always served as a way to tell stories through dress. Silhouettes, crop-tops & shoes convey meaning, but when it comes to being on the right (or wrong) side of history, we use the power of clothing to convey what we stand for. From the '80s ACT UP’s FDA protest to 2016’s Black Lives Matter’s march; activists have used the power of clothing to convey what they stand for. The designer and founder of the design and tech lab, SLOW FACTORY Céline Semaan, first coined the term Fashion Activism, she asserted in an interview with i-D UK that
“Fashion means more than clothing here. It’s about defending choice”
Historically, fashion activism has not only defined and written the history of many struggles but it's also won many battles and continues to remind us of its importance.
So, now it’s time that the activism comes down to the fashion industry itself.
Behind the beautiful advertising, the catwalk glamour and the billion-dollar business lies a world that those inside the industry do not want you to see and definitely do not want you to talk about. Companies that make our beautiful clothes are leaving behind a toxic trail.
The facts are alarming.
The clothes we buy in Europe, America and elsewhere are all a part of the global chain of toxic problems.
Two-thirds of the clothing items tested by Greenpeace contain hazardous chemicals. And when these garments are washed, they release those substances back into rivers, lakes and seas around the world. This makes us all part of the problem.
But we can also be a part of the solution. Around the world, activists, fashionistas, designers, bloggers & models are joining together as a part of a global “Detox” campaign, united behind a common belief that beautiful fashion shouldn’t cost the earth. The Detox campaign aims to use people power to make brands accountable and tread the path of a fair business.
Over half a million people have taken action challenging big brands including Zara, Levi’s, Victoria’s Secret to take responsibility for their toxic footprint and eliminate all hazardous chemicals from their supply chains and products. And these corporations are listening. From luxury houses to fast-fashion retailers, big brands are paying attention to the global call for toxic-free fashion.
Brands are looking for alternatives to toxic chemicals, trying to provide fair conditions for their workers and come up with innovative ways to gain the trust of the consumers.
In 1991 Nike came under fire for the low wages and poor working conditions at one of its Indonesian factories; consumer protests and boycotts, as well as heavy media attention, drove the company to make some serious changes to its supply chain. This and other tragic incidents (most recently the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh) forced the industry to take stock and shape up.
Twenty-four years later, that same multinational athletic-wear giant is one of the world’s most sustainable companies. And while Nike and other apparel companies still compete to drive down costs and increase margins, they also now compete to boost their reputation as good corporate citizens – and win conscious consumers’ hearts, minds and pocketbooks.
Patagonia’s Responsible Economy campaign is one example of a brand continually demonstrating to consumers how sustainability is sewn into its corporate DNA. Other companies have cleverly innovated to raise consumer awareness of their part in a garment’s life cycle, such as Levi’s Care Tag for Our Planet and Water<Less, Waste<Less, and Wellthread collections.
Even big names like Gucci and Calvin Klein want in on the sustainability game, and mainstream labels like Stella McCartney and Puma are re-imagining what style can stand for (faux fur and environmental profit and loss accounting, anyone?). The trend towards sustainability in the fashion industry is clear.
A small thing that each one of us can do is be a part of a mechanism that would lead to a solution to a big problem, a worldwide problem. By shining a light on the situation, we can accelerate changes that are taking place.
Why do we need to come together?
As individuals, we can choose how we want to make an impact. But when we choose to have a collective impact through informed actions, we can make a real difference. Let us bring our movements together and work together for change – if there’s anything COVID taught us is that we are all in this together.
“We have so much power to change the world by just being careful in what we buy.”
The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.
Now, it’s time for each of us need to come forward, be more aware, make conscious choices and voice our opinions. We should also pay more attention to the brands when you buy because 'Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want.'
Slow Fashion Season is one such platform that gives you an opportunity to become more informed about the entire scenario and be a face of change. The Slow Fashion Season was born in 2018, by a small group of friends and colleagues working for the Netherlands-based NGO CollAction, who pledged themselves not to buy any new clothes for three months. While their decision was merely a challenge among friends, the reasons moving them were felt and acknowledged by a large, and expanding, crowd of consumers all over the world.
The first year, the Slow Fashion Season gathered 2.500 enthusiasts, who stopped buying for three months. The number kept growing the year after and, throughout three years of action, from 2018 until 2020, the Movement reached a total of 30.000 people.
The real beauty of the Slow Fashion Movement is that we move towards the same goal while coming from different backgrounds. 120 ambassadors from all over the world, 16 local groups and 44 global volunteers: we all have different stories, culture and believes; we all have very different approaches and relationship with fashion; we all have different possibilities and, thus, we all work on ourselves in different ways.
Here are 5 main reasons which would become your motivation to join the Slow Fashion Season which has a theme of Fashion Detox for this year:
1. Take a stand:
If you are into sustainability and a green lifestyle, it is time to take a step further and become a campaigner.
2. Become an opinion leader:
We need people spreading the voice, not (only) about the Slow Fashion Season itself but the issues mining the Fashion Industry as well. By becoming an opinion leader you can raise awareness around the environmental impact of fashion and make a difference in your community and, eventually, on the world.
3. Highlight alternatives to the current system:
While it is forbidden to buy any fast fashion, better options are available, and we are not speaking of vintage only: have you ever try swapping clothes with your friends? Do you know what “shop-your-wardrobe” mean? Joining the Slow Fashion Season means you can explore creative alternatives to the “normal” way of buying clothes, which is also an exercise for your mind and creativity. It will force you to give new life to your wardrobe, rediscovering so many forgotten pieces that deserve a second chance.
4. Psychological detox effect:
Shopping is today a hobby more than a necessity - a very dangerous hobby indeed. By detoxing your mind for three months, you’ll find yourself thinking about clothes in a very different, and healthier, way.
5. Put pressure on decision-makers and force them to change:
Apart from personal reasons, the Slow Fashion Season is a great way to create change and give a better future to everybody.
Furthermore, the fashion detox will help to tackle clothing waste as a result of overproduction. Around 300,000 tonnes of clothes goes to landfill in the UK yearly. It will also help you to save money, increase wardrobe creativity and love your clothes.
The motto of the campaign is to make people aware that they have plenty of clothes already to sustain the period of 3 months without buying anything new and when they won't buy, they'll move towards, upcycling, mending, swapping and thrifting, which they usually don't. And all this while, we will continue educating people about slow fashion, conscious consumerism and how they could contribute through their individual steps.
So, the idea is to bring the attention of people towards the issue who do not understand what actually goes behind the clothing. Only when awareness rises, can we expect a revolution, for which there is still a long way to go.
Eventually, when brands realise that people are educated about clothing, are becoming conscious consumers, they will start taking sustainability seriously and will care for the people and planet and they will try to produce according to the demands and not surplus.
A revolution does not happen when society adopts new tools. It happens when society adopts a different mindset.
By buying nothing new for 3 months you detox yourself from the ‘addiction’ that many of us have around fashion. Join us and take a stand against fast fashion with Slow Fashion Season!
There is still a long way to go but our successes so far prove that when we join together, change is possible. Our message- Those brands and suppliers that are transparent about their progress and take credible and authentic action have an opportunity to win people’s trust and loyalty. Those that choose to bury their heads in the sand or try to greenwash their way out of the situation face an uncertain future. Choosing slow fashion together with 20.000 others sends a powerful message to the fashion industry: fashion with pollution and unfair labour conditions is not normal. Together we make waves!
So join us in the quest to make the fashion industry a more accountable one and since all of us love fashion, let’s make it more beautiful which does not have to cost the people and planet because it’s people power that can save the future of the industry, one step at a time!
