Slowness in Fashion

Mainstream fashion system is experienced in an unsustainable cycle with the global supply chain. It is an unsustainable system not only because of its effects on the environment and ecology, but also because of the unfair working conditions which put a social distance between the employer and the employee. This structure, which has greedy characteristics with its production and consumption rates, due to its `fast' cycle on a global scale, recreates a `throwaway' consumption culture every day which causes a waste problem that cannot be solved by the linear production model. Together with this, the non-transparent global supply chain builds the modern slavery system in the third world countries by applying hard labour conditions and violating human rights. Slow fashion movement, which has emerged as an alternative to this course, builds an ecological, sustainable and ethical sense of fashion for design, production and consumption relations. Slow fashion promises a hope for the search of a more humane and ethical future, for the production of long-lasting, enduring, unique, and eco-friendly goods that have been made with care for local values and have respect for craftwork. Slow fashion promises these by also making relationships between the designer, producer and consumer transparent. This book consists of eleven chapters discussing the following issues in the context and socio-politics of slowness: The social justice system of fashion, the social and environmental effects of supply chain, the probability of creating a cyclical economic system rather than the linear cycle of production and consumption, the creative waste management strategies, the role of slowness in association of design and craft, the responsible consumption understanding created by slowness as opposed to the illusion of hedonic sense of consumption and happiness, our emotional and sensual relationship with clothes, and the role of education for the creation of a sustainable fashion system. Contributing authors: Duygu Atalay, Otto von Busch, Hazel Clark, Irem Yanpar Cosdan, Alex Exculapio, Erica de Greef, Alison Gwilt, Alastair Fuad-Luke, Solen Kipoz, Sanem Odabasi, Alice Payne, Yuksel Sahin, Nesrin Turkmen