How I became an advocate for slow fashion

This blog did not start off as a slow fashion or mindful living blog at all. In fact, it started out as a regular old fashion blog. The thing I thought that would set me apart was showing my readers where to get cute and inexpensive clothes. Basically boujee on a budget.

I was all about that forever21, Walmart fashion and I was so excited to show my audience that they didn’t need expensive, brand name clothes to be fashionable. (Which I still agree with)

However, my views have changed dramatically. One of my first “slow fashion” posts was called What is slow fashion and why it matters. So if you’re curious as to what this “slow fashion” thing is that I’m talking about, I suggest you check out that post. I won’t be going into any history in this post, just my own honest experience.

I was inspired to write this post after I came across another’s journey to slow fashion and wanted to share my own. You can check out that post right here.

How I became an advocate for slow fashion

Confession: I used to be a shopaholic.

I’ve been obsessed with clothing and fashion for as long as I can remember. I used to change my outfit 4 or 5 times a day. It got so bad that my mother actually had to take all the clothes out of my room and only allow me one outfit per day.

But I just loved dressing up and making new combinations and trying out different styles. However, this led to a very unhealthy relationship with fashion.

I don’t know if I can blame the media, magazines, TV or maybe it was a combination. But for me, I always had to have more and it always had to be on trend.

Looking back i honestly don’t think I was dressing for anyone but myself. It made me happy. Made me feel worth something.

I never came from a wealthy family and never had much f my own money growing up but that never stopped me from spending every penny I got on clothes. This meant that I was always on the look out for cheap, inexpensive items (hello love affair with forever21 and Walmart)

I bought what I couldn’t afford and what I didn’t need. Fashion was a disposable thing that I could purchase time and time again for insanely low prices. And therefore, there was no immediate consequence to my actions. For me at least.

Then came Slow Fashion:

My journey to slow fashion started a few years ago actually. I was minding my own business, scrolling through Pinterest when I came across a post my friend had pinned all about where to find “ethical fashion”. At this point I’d never really heard of ethical fashion and so naturally it peaked my interest and I clicked on the post.

The post itself was lovely and much like the posts I write now. It started off by explaining that ethical fashion was clothing made in sweat-shop free factories and their employees were treated and paid fairly. This all sounded lovely and my initial thought was literally just “Oh, that’s cool. Good on them for doing that.”

When I scrolled down farther to the list of places to get ethical fashion my heart dropped into my stomach. I could not believe it cost that much. I was honestly devastated. And so I clicked out of the article and went on my merry way, not really giving it a second thought.

I think what that post failed to do was talk about the downsides of the fast fashion industry. If all you know are the positives to slow fashion then that’s all it is: a good thing. But I didn’t realize that on the other side it was so much worse.

And it would be a few years before I learned about the true impact of the fashion industry.

I can’t pinpoint exactly what made me decide to take another look at but the idea came back to me long after that first initial encounter with ethical fashion. When my curiosity took hold of me and I just couldn’t get the idea out of my head I decided to do a little more research.

And what I found truly rocked me to my core.

By now I’m sure everyone and their mother has heard of, if not seen the documentary “the true cost”. If you haven’t, you need to go and watch it right after this post. It should still be on Netflix.

This documentary does a frighteningly wonderful job at show casing the humane and environmental impacts that the fashion industry ha on our world.

And I quickly decided that nobody’s life or the health of our planet was worth that $5 t-shirt from Forever21.

I quickly through myself into the topic, re-branded my blog and never looked back. Well that’s not true. It’s hard completely changing the way we consume fashion. And to my initial pain point: It is more expensive. There’s no way around it.

But here’s the thing: ethical fashion is charging what fashion should cost. If the garments are made responsibly and the employees are paid a living wage.

Fast fashion cuts corners everywhere they can. Barely paying employees anything, disregarding their carbon footprint, wasting resources, using the cheapest materials etc, etc.

The cycle goes on and on. It has to stop with us. With me. With someone saying: no. And giving a voice to those who can’t speak.

That is why I’m an advocate for slow fashion. It’s 2019. We’re all far too educated, aware and “woke” to keep going down the path that we’re going down.

I don’t believe that “slow fashion” has a final destination. It’s more of a never ending journey. We’ll always keep learning, trying and improving.

Just remember that doing something, is better than doing nothing.