The Wish of Melissa de Valera for 2017 : let’s slow down! And take time for dreaming…
What I wish the most for this new year 2017 as a slow fashion designer for Takla Makan, is that all of us take time so that the focus can shift back to the human factor and to interpersonal communication.
Finding the time to think before we act, the time to dream, allows to reconnect with our humanity
Being in a constant rush, requesting that things be « done yesterday, » and having more needs than time available… It’s all a sign of how much our battle against the clock can degrade our quality of living, our relationships and our deep self.
The raise of the SLOW Movement (Slow food, Slow tourism, Slow schooling) shows how more and more people understand the responsibility we have, as human beings, to put awareness in our actions and consciousness in what we consume. The slow movement is a real soft revolution in which it would be good that all of us participate.
Having been an ethical fashion designer for the past 15 year, my own responsibility for this life is quite clear: If I create, it can be « slow fashion » only…
Fast Fashion vs Slow Fashion
At first glance, fashion seems to be the exact opposite of sustainable development… But what fashion?
« Slow fashion” is the new name for the vision of a sustainable fashion which allows the conscious consumer to create his own style by choosing garments that are made to last and created in respect of the environmental and human factors.
This vision has allowed the blooming of designers which commit to a timeless fashion of quality, produced in ethical conditions, for the people who make the garments as well as for our planet.
Whereas “fast fashion » acts like fast food: one doesn’t really want to reflect about it…
One just buys that cheap little dress which sticks to the trends dictated by women’s magazines. Nevermind if it is stained by the tears of exhaustion cried by a slave at the other end of the planet, nevermind if its colors have contributed to contaminated the groundwater of the countries where the West has moved its most polluting activities.
The dirty inside of fast fashion seem so far and so well hidden that one doesn’t feel concerned.
Slow fashion is fashion with a conscience
By choosing slow fashion, we reconnect with an intimate and personal way to dress, more womanly (or manly: they dress too!). We manifest our commitment by contributing as conscious consumers to a better world.
Wearing ethical fashion, it’s a small action, but is means so much!
dressing ethical: a way to blossom in our own personal creative style
Who wants to be led by the nose?
The goal of the fashion industry is for people to buy themselves a whole new wardrobe each season, to enslave us with the last « in vogue » diktats, even if what’s fashionable really doesn’t suit us!
Acceptance of our own beauty, maturity and creativity, this is what the slow fashion attitude grants us.
This wake up call makes it possible for us to dare associating colors and shape, accessoires in an inventive way which reflect our own personal style.
Buy, yes, but only beautiful pieces that you will like for more than fifteen days: being a fashion victim is so totally out!
Wearing meaningful clothes, it’s like wearing a second skin which helps us feel so good, another « self » full of hope in the future of humanity…
Supporting Slow Fashion is choosing quality over quantity
It’s quite obvious: fashion created in harmony with nature and mankind is not made to tear after three washes, but to last long in our wardrobe. The fabrics selected are all natural or recycled. The cut itself can be carefully thought of so as to be adaptable in size and to go along with the evolution of our body shape along the years…
Making sure that quality and ethics are there necessarily comes with a slightly higher price, but this shouldn’t deter you: Don’t think of the buying price, but of how this price is divided by the many times où will wear a garment which truly suits your style and will be with you for long.
Buying ethical fashion ultimately proves to be worthwile!
Slow fashion makes us more responsible
Taking care of garments, that’s a well shared responsibility! The people who design slow fashion do it with much care, the people who produce it too, as it’s not manufactured in the hell of mass consumption factories.
The end consumer too has to take care of the creations he purchased: It implies getting to know about the materials, reading labels, in particular wash and care instructions.
By taking good care of our garments, we treat them with respect, et with them the whole lot of people who contributed to its existence.
The reward of such a conscious attitude is that the creations we pick and wear regain their true worth.
the Slow fashion attitude will last: when you try it you stick to it
Once you have put yourself into question et once you bring more awareness to what you choose to wear, it’s difficult to go back!
So yes: Slow Fashion is a trend that will last!
