Whether you're a fashion fan, or a retailer building your own fashion company, you're probably familiar with the concept of fast fashion vs slow fashion. For years, fast fashion has been associated with rapid production and low costs in the apparel landscape.
Countless companies have adopted the "fast fashion" approach to accelerate the production process, and produce new fashion collections faster than ever before. However, the slow fashion movement is beginning to gain more attention, as consumers begin to prioritize sustainable purchasing practices.
Gradually, customers are beginning to ignore apparel companies with unsustainable, mass production strategies, focusing instead on brands that promote environmental sustainability, mindful consumption, and the use of high-quality materials.
Here's your guide to the difference between fast and slow fashion, and why you should consider the slow fashion approach for your fashion company.
Fast Fashion vs Slow Fashion: What is Fast Fashion?
Fast fashion is unfortunately quite commonplace in the clothing industry. It's a business model that focuses on the rapid production of trendy clothing at low prices. While fast fashion strategies allow companies to produce fashion items at an exceptional rate, their strategy promotes excessive consumption, and waste, while harming environmental sustainability.
To ensure they can constantly apply low prices to their products, fast fashion companies often rely on cheap, synthetic materials. This increases the number of hazardous chemicals used in the production process, as well as the level of toxic components that end up in landfills.
Fast fashion focuses on quantity over quality, which means clothing items usually don't last very long. That's why the fast fashion industry is such a major contributor to the huge volumes of unwanted clothes and waste the clothing space produces each year.
Aside from using fewer high-quality fabrics, and harming the environment with a high carbon footprint, fast fashion companies are often associated with a few other ethical concerns. Many famous fast fashion companies have been charged fines, or encountered legal issues as a result of ignoring labor laws, failing to adhere to fair labor practices, and not paying their employees fair wages.
Fast Fashion vs Slow Fashion: What Is Slow Fashion
Slow fashion is a popular alternative to fast fashion, prioritized by sustainable fashion brands. Slow fashion companies take a mindful approach to production processes, creating clothing with sustainable fabrics, and encouraging the reduction of waste.
While slow fashion brands still attempt to offer clothing for affordable prices, they focus on creating higher-quality, more durable garments, designed to last for years, rather than a single season. Slow fashion companies create garments using eco-conscious or recycled materials, and often experiment with a range of ways to reduce water and energy consumption.
As demand for sustainable production methods continues to increase among fashion consumers, many popular brands have joined the slow fashion movement, from Stella McCartney, to Patagonia.
Aside from being leaders in environmental stewardship, many slow fashion companies are often seen as more ethical brands. They're often more committed to paying employees fair wages, and work hard to ensure they're partnering with vendors that share their values.
Fast Fashion vs Slow Fashion: What's the Difference
The main difference between fast fashion and slow fashion, is that fast fashion is all about producing new clothing as quickly as possible, while keeping costs low. Slow fashion, alternatively, produces more sustainable clothing at less of a break-neck speed, encouraging sustainable consumption practices in the fashion industry. Here's a closer look at some of the key differences.
Fabrics: Synthetic Vs Organic
While slow fashion companies can use a range of mixed fabrics to produce clothes, these organizations typically prioritize natural over synthetic fibers. Because slow fashion companies understand the impact that garments can have on the environment, they often use a lot of eco-friendly plant-based materials and recycled fabrics that have very little carbon footprint.
Alternatively, fast fashion companies, who are less interested in sustainable responsibility, use a lot of synthetic and man-made fabrics, such as acrylics, traditional polyester, and nylon. Not only do these materials have a negative impact on the environment, but they can often be less durable than eco-friendly fabrics, which means the clothing rapidly deteriorates with regular wear.
Production Cycles: Short Vs Long
As mentioned above, one of the biggest differences between slow and fast fashion is how clothing items are produced. Fast fashion companies produce clothing with cheap materials at lightning speed to capitalize on seasonal trends and generate as much revenue as possible. Some companies add new products to their lines on a daily basis, leading to a lot of waste.
Alternatively, companies investing in the slow fashion movement are more methodical with their production of garments. They produce clothing customers can enjoy and wear all-year round, without focusing as heavily on the latest trends. They may even work with print on demand companies, to ensure garments are only produced when a customer submits an order.
Selling Price: Cheap Vs Expensive
Notably, slow fashion products don't have to be extremely expensive, but they're often a lot more costly than fast fashion products. Since fast fashion companies can produce their clothing items in bulk, they can also sell them at very cheap prices.
Slow fashion companies use more sustainable, eco-friendly fabrics, and durable materials, which means products cost more to make, and selling prices are often higher. Fortunately, slow fashion customers are often more than happy to pay extra for products that have a lower environmental footprint. They also know their products will last longer, so they often feel they're getting more value for their money, even if they pay more initially.
Sustainability: Poor Vs Excellent
One of the reasons slow fashion consumers are happier to pay more for their products, is because they know these items are going to stand the test of time. Fast fashion items are made from cheap materials which quickly degrade after regular wear and washing.
Slow fashion companies know how to make sustainable clothing with long-lasting materials, so they can be worn year after year without losing their appeal.
Additionally, as mentioned above, these products aren't produced in bulk, so there's less waste to ship to landfills, and they generally feature less toxic materials and chemicals than fast fashion clothing items, so the impact on the environment is significantly reduced.
Why Consider A Slow Fashion Model?
Slow fashion consumers are growing rapidly. Many customers already prioritize sustainable behavior in their shopping decisions, and they prefer to purchase apparel products that are made by companies with a commitment to protecting the environment.
In fact, around 30% of customers say that before they buy clothing, they want to know their purchases won't contribute to a negative ecological footprint. Ultimately, investing in a slow fashion model as an apparel company means you can appeal to a premium segment of the clothing market, and significantly increase your revenue. Investing in slow fashion also leads to:
Better Product Quality
Slow fashion clothing items are defined by the use of long-lasting, high-quality, and sustainable materials. They're designed to stand the test of time, and minimize waste. As a slow fashion company, you can offer your customers more high-quality clothes that they can enjoy year after year.
Not only does this reduce your production costs, as you won't have to constantly replace old inventory, but it means you can deliver a better experience to your customers. If you can show slow fashion advocates that your products are long-lasting, they'll also be more willing to pay higher prices for your garments, and position yourself as a luxury brand.
Low Environmental Impact
Probably the biggest benefit of a slow fashion approach is that it allows you to operate as a sustainable fashion company. A slow fashion process shows your customers that you care about the environment, and the negative impact the fashion sector can have on our world.
With this approach to fashion, you'll lower your carbon emissions, and protect the planet - something that many of today's consumers value highly when searching for companies to support. You'll be able to appeal to more responsible consumers who want to reduce their own carbon footprint, and champion sustainable behavior.
Plus, you may be able to avoid legal issues and fines as government groups begin to crack down on unsustainable business practices.
Higher Business ROI
Finally, creating sustainable apparel products with a slow fashion strategy has a positive impact on your company's revenue in various ways. First, as mentioned above, you'll be able to charge higher prices for your clothing, and attract customers in the premium sector of the market.
Secondly, you'll reduce operational costs, as you'll be able to work with print on demand companies to create products as they're ordered, rather than having to buy products in bulk, then deal with unsold inventory. Plus, as the number of slow fashion consumers grows, you'll be able to earn the loyalty of a wide range of dedicated consumers who love your garments.
You won't have to fight as hard to prevent your customers from switching to competitors in the fashion industry, because they'll share your values and priorities.
Launch Your Sustainable POD Clothing Brand With Coolcustomize!
Slow fashion isn't just a trend in the fashion industry today - it's the future of clothing production. As consumers continue to prioritize sustainable practices among apparel companies, the demand for slow fashion is growing, and fast fashion is gradually becoming a thing of the past.
At Coolcustomize, we help companies of all sizes take advantage of the slow fashion resolution. Our print on demand services make it easy to minimize waste, while our approach to creating garments with high-quality, sustainable materials ensures you can deliver the quality your customers deserve.
Contact our team to learn more about how Coolcustomize can help you create a sustainable clothing brand that positively impacts the environment, and earns a consistent profit.
