Slow Made Style | How To Support Sustainable Fashion

Handcrafted Unique Tales…

Slow made is the biggest trend sweeping the fashion scene at the moment since jeans became a must have wardrobe staple, so many years ago. Whether it’s buying from makers or markets, sustainable fashion starts with supporting those who make it happen, the creators!

Slow Made Style | How To Support Sustainable Fashion

Slow Made Style | Look For Transparency

One of the biggest issues in the fast fashion world at present is around the lack of transparency on product processes and production. Sustainable fashion means that the entire journey of a product from the raw materials to the end customer is available and accessible for customers to find and understand what they are buying, and ultimately supporting. As a consumer, look for brands, makers and designers that offer more transparency into their pieces, production and people who are all a part of the result. For my label Katie Marvel for example, I am a big advocate of sharing the mistakes and lessons throughout my journey in order to share my knowledge and experience with others. It’s also to create a relationship with my audience, customers and to create trust through the transparency of my hand made process.

Slow Made Style | Invest in The Cost

Cost is an important factor in helping you to identify sustainable fashion, there are some exceptions to this but by and large if the cost is too good to be true, that’s usually because it is. Fast fashion companies make use of cheap and often unethical labour. There are some exceptions to this rule though, such as fashion giant Kmart. Kmart was reviewed by Tearfund in 2019, and scored very highly. This means it’s a win-win for consumers and the people involved in the production process.

The opposite is often true too. The cost of a hand crafted couture fashion gown will tend to be priced far higher than a gown sourced overseas. If you are prepared to support sustainable fashion, especially when it comes to special occasion garments and accessories, the cost to create these unique wearable art pieces is much higher than through the cost of mass-production processes. However, the benefit for you as the customer is you receive a unique item of higher value.

Slow Made Style | Join The Conversation

Online is where most makers and creators will tend to promote and sell their hand made pieces. Whether it’s purchasing an item or simply joining in the conversation and showing your interest and enthusiasm for the designers and brands that you love, all helps to promote sustainable fashion by increasing demand and placing more value on suppliers of unique hand crafted pieces. Because of this, the time it takes for manufacture can often be longer than traditional mass-made production processes. Making each accessory or garment by hand often is executed by one person in many cases, such as my label Katie Marvel where I have the role of marketer, photographer, designer, and model. This means my collections are not as big, or as frequent. However the benefit for consumers is that supporting sustainable fashion means receiving items that will take you through the months, seasons, and years. Both quality and design are of a higher standard, so they can be worn and enjoyed for much longer than mass-made fast fashion pieces.

Katie Marvel features special occasion pieces that step outside the current trends, and pay homage to classic elements of beauty and design, with inherent aesthetic appeal. There are so many benefits to the new fashion revolution for everyone involved. Support small, support local, support slow made style!

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