$78 for a long sleeve tee?

That’s the price at Reformation. But at H&M the same style costs $9.99. 

Ok, so the obvious choice is H&M… right? Be careful. That low price comes at a high environmental cost. 

Brands like H&M are part of fast fashion, which prioritizes quantity over quality — mass-producing cheap clothes with harmful and unsustainable materials. Brands like Reformation are slow fashion, which focuses on sustainability and consumption awareness. 

But what exactly are the key differences? Is that  $78 long sleeve worth it?

It all starts with the materials…

Slow fashion focuses on using high-quality materials with low environmental impacts. Materials like linen are usually biodegradable or easy to recycle. Slow fashion brands also utilize recycled materials to reduce waste. On the other hand, fast fashion uses synthetic materials that release harmful chemicals over time instead of decomposing. 

Slowing the trend cycle down…

Time and care are taken into the design of the clothes. Instead of releasing thousands of styles of clothes a week, slow fashion brands focus on releasing small collections of timeless clothes. Releasing clothes slowly, means that slow fashion isn’t catering to  small micro-trends that may only last a month or two. Instead, they are focusing on making pieces that never go out of style. Small batches also mean that less clothing is going to waste; in fact, the clothes might even be pre-order only with companies making only as many clothes as consumers will buy. 

Caring about the makers…

There are 75 million garment employees across the world.  Of those, 2% earn a livable wage. In order to make their fashion “cheap”, brands have to cut corners, which includes lowering labor costs. Images of sweatshops of third world countries may come to mind, but the U.S. is just as guilty. In Southern California — one of the largest garment-producing regions in the U.S. — the Department of Labor found that 80% of the contractors — were violating minimum wage and overtime laws. Not to mention the harsh working conditions and human right abuses that often happen in garment factories, leading to a decrease in worker wellbeing. 

In contrast, slow fashion brands are known for their fair labor practices. Cotopaxi is a popular outdoors brand whose entire line — from raw material to finished product — Fair Trade Certified. This means that all their suppliers have been verified by third party organizations to have fair working conditions and environmentally responsible production. Cotopaxi also does their own audits and makes their suppliers agree to a code of conduct. While it makes their garments more expensive, it also means the workers they depend upon are earning  a living wage and enjoying fair working conditions. 

Keeping it local and going back to our roots…

Another part of what makes fast fashion so harmful is the amount of carbon emissions it takes to ship the materials from one side of the globe to another. Industry experts believe that 90% of all clothing spends some time traveling by ocean, which doesn’t even cover the route that the raw materials may take before it gets to the factory. 

Slow fashion focuses on local production. Using materials from close-by and selling products to their surrounding populace reduces carbon emission and makes for a more sustainable market. This practice harkens back to pre-globalization and pre-industrialization. People used to make clothes and materials for their community, and then get them mended by their community. Think tailors, seamstresses, and cobblers. Slow fashion is trying to go back to that norm by focusing on community consumer bases that — by spending their money locally — in turn, build up and strengthen their own economies.

Making the industry circular… 

Circular Fashion is the idea that fashion should follow a circle. Clothing items are made, sold, repaired, and then resold to the manufacturer to be reused and made into new products. Reformation aims to be completely circular by 2030. To do this they first use mostly recycled fabric to make their clothes. Then they sell clothes to the customer, which are repaired and loved, until the clothes get resold to Reformation to be transformed into a different garment. In this way, no new fabric or materials are being used; they are using what they already made. 

So, is slow fashion worth it?

At the end of the day, new clothes are a necessity. However, the way we produce those clothes can have an impact on our environment and in turn, the health of the human race itself. By focusing efforts on slow fashion, people are able to fulfill their needs without harming the planet. Not only do consumers get locally made clothes with sustainable materials, they get long-lasting garments made by people who are able to work in livable conditions. It’s an all around benefit. Even though slow fashion may cost more, it’s an investment. Instead of buying an item that lasts 2 years, it’ll last 50. More bang for your buck. Although consumerism and trends is the norm now, it hasn’t been in the past and doesn’t have to be for the future. Slow fashion is the future.