Latest news with #slowfashion
The Independent
08-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Independent
From fast fashion to ‘conscious style': Can we break the cycle of overconsumption?
In a world where the algorithms dictates desire, it's easier than ever to shop without thinking. A single swipe on TikTok can trigger a chain reaction – from viral trends to overstuffed closets to the textile landfills of the Global South. But as the fashion industry races ahead at breakneck speed, a growing movement of thinkers, innovators, and educators are hitting pause – and asking us to do the same. Leading the way is Aja Barber, a writer, activist and author of Consumed, whose work has been pivotal in exposing fashion 's entanglement with colonialism, capitalism and climate breakdown. 'I had to have a real cold turkey watershed moment,' she says. 'I found I had a massive amount of clothing I couldn't just dump at a charity shop knowing what I now know about the colonialist waste stream that flows into Ghana.' A mindful wardrobe starts with one step Her solution? A year-long process of reselling, gifting, and consciously downsizing her wardrobe. 'That process made me not want to buy anything,' she reflects. 'It really helped me break the mindset that you can just buy something and it'll make you happy.' Barber's philosophy is clear: consuming less doesn't have to mean living less. 'I can assure you, I'll be unpacking consumerism for the rest of my life, and that's okay because we can do that in community and it can be really fun and exciting,' she says. 'But everyone has to slow down. Whether it's a cold turkey thing or two weeks where you just say, 'I'm going to wear what's in my wardrobe.'' Reading, reflection– and reconnection This shift – from buying more to buying mindfully– requires time, education and space for reflection, all of which our current culture of speed conspires against. For Barber, part of the answer lies in literacy – not just reading labels, but books. 'We have to become more of a reading society,' she says. 'Because when we slow down, that's when we start to think deeper on these issues.' It's an idea echoed by Dr Stine Hedegaard, course leader for MA Fashion Marketing & Sustainability at London College of Fashion. Her students are in a unique position: future marketers being trained to sell in a world that urgently needs to consume less. 'We focus on a critical evaluation of this contradiction,' she says. 'We explore who is responsible for fashion's sustainable transition –government, brands or consumers – and that reflection impacts their own habits.' At the core of her curriculum is the link between fashion and biodiversity. 'Consumption practices impact the environment, nature, people and communities,' she explains. 'The goal is to educate students on fashion's dependencies on natural resources and how that contributes to biodiversity loss, and in turn discuss how marketing communication may to a greater extent inform consumers of this connection. We see a significant mindset shift when students understand how fashion impacts nature. It's still a niche topic – but it's growing.' That connection to nature is vital, and it may also be a quiet form of resistance. 'People who spend more time in nature absolutely consume less,' Barber insists. 'When your hands are in the earth, something changes in your brain chemistry. You're connected.' Rooted in the elements: A new way to dress It's this spirit that drives Amanda Charles, founder of Made of Water, a swimwear brand born from the icy tides of the Cornish coast. Her community of cold-water swimmers isn't driven by style trends – they're driven by the sea. 'Our community is everything,' she says. 'Made of Water grew from a group of women meeting at sunrise to swim in freezing seas. That experience of braving the elements created a sisterhood – and changed the way we see clothing.' Her suits are made from ECONYL®, which is regenerated nylon from ocean waste, and are tested in the Atlantic, not a lab. 'We don't chase trends,' Charles explains. 'We use social media to share stories, not sell. It's about showing real people who live slowly and dress with intention.' Closing the loop: Technology meets textile waste But there's another side to this conversation: innovation at scale. While many individuals are rethinking their wardrobes, the industry's infrastructure remains rooted in waste. Enter RE&UP, a textile-to-textile recycling startup with bold ambitions. 'The world can't regenerate fast enough for the way we're consuming,' says Keith O'Brien, who leads global brand marketing. 'Recycling textiles means we're not just shifting the problem – we're closing the loop.' RE&UP's technology breaks down blended fabrics like cotton-poly, which is a notoriously tricky task, and turns them into high-performance materials. Their latest partnership with Puma signals a turning point: a practical path to circular fashion that doesn't sacrifice quality or style. Yet O'Brien is clear: there's room for everyone. 'From biomaterials to regenerative design, every effort counts. But the dream is a world where nothing is non-recyclable.' From individual choices to systemic shifts Back at the grassroots, Barber remains focused on personal action. 'If every person just bought one secondhand item instead of new, that would be monumental,' she says. 'Then it grows. Suddenly your wardrobe is mostly secondhand, and now you can afford to support an ethical designer.' Her advice for anyone feeling overwhelmed? Start small. She laughs: 'Before you know it, you've got a compost bin and you never shut up about it.' In an era of climate anxiety, fast fashion, and endless scrolling, it's easy to feel detached from the natural world. But could that disconnection be driving our desire to consume more – especially when it comes to what we wear? We're conducting a short survey to explore how our relationship with nature affects our fashion habits, and whether social media plays a role in shaping our choices. It takes just a few minutes, your input is completely confidential and will help provide insight into modern attitudes on sustainability and consumption.
South China Morning Post
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Meet Odd Muse founder Aimee Smale: the 28-year-old ex-Asos buyer built a multimillion-dollar ‘affordable luxury' clothing brand from her bedroom, but is it really ‘slow fashion'?
Aimee Smale was only 22 years old when she launched her own clothing brand, Odd Muse, from the comfort of her bedroom amid the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Modelling her own designs and piggybacking off of TikTok's rapid growth at the time, Smale managed to use social media to market her 'affordable luxury' brand. Odd Muse founder Aimee Smale in the brand's Miami Mood collection in May. Photo: @aimeesmalex/Instagram Since its launch, Odd Muse has become a staple for fashion influencers, peddling an 'old money' aesthetic and quality pieces. The brand, known for its dedication to slow fashion, has gone viral more than once and even made a splash when debuting at London Fashion Week in 2023. Advertisement Today, Odd Muse is a multi-million dollar business with two stores in London's Covent Garden, and SoHo in New York City. The brand also has over 500,000 followers on TikTok and over 960,000 on Instagram at the time of writing. Here's everything you need to know about Aimee Smale. She was a fashion student Aimee Smale in a Bentley. Photo: @aimeesmalex/Instagram Raised in Essex, England, Smale is the first of her family to attend university, according to an interview with The Times in February. She mentioned that it was her father, who ran his own shop selling kitchen appliances, that inspired her to become an entrepreneur herself. 'I've got such fond memories of my father starting his business and taking things into his own hands,' she said. After Smale graduated from Ravensbourne University London in 2021 with a degree in fashion buying and brand management, she began working as a fashion buyer's assistant at Asos, the fast fashion retailer. She stayed in the position for a little over a year while saving money through designing logos for small businesses. Aimee Smale with a rack of Odd Muse clothing. Photo: @aimeesmalex/Instagram 'I was earning USD$26,000 a year at Asos, and I thought I would give it a shot on my own. I had no expectations other than it would be nice to match my wage,' Smale told Business Insider last year. Focusing on slow fashion
The Independent
15-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Independent
Rooted in style: How nature is rewilding our relationship with fashion
Fashion was once about the thrill of the new, wardrobes bursting with outfits. Now, desire sits uneasily beside responsibility. We're learning to live with fewer pieces and slower choices, creating deeper connections – to each other, and to the land beneath our feet. This feature, the first in a six-part series reimagining fashion's place in our lives, begins in the wild. Because if fashion has long drawn inspiration from nature's patterns and textures, it has also helped devastate its ecosystems. The question is: can nature now teach fashion a new way to be? Design activist Kate Fletcher believes that time spent in the natural world may not only restore our mental health, but transform how we dress, consume, and connect. She says: 'Spending time in the park, in the woods, lolling about at the edge of a stream gives us an anchor point — a place of connection to the ecological systems that support our lives, including our fashion lives." For Fletcher, a pioneer in sustainable fashion and author of Fletcher's Almanac, nature isn't a mood board; it's a teacher, a disruptor and a kind of quiet resistance to the constant churn of consumer demand. "It gives us experiences of fashion that are not about shopping for new clothes,' she tells me. 'But about other places, possibilities and ideas of clothes that help us better see where we are and what else is there." Fletcher invokes Robin Wall Kimmerer's celebration of the Honourable Harvest in her best selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. This set of guiding principles recognises that all plants and animals are part of a wider web of life, and that we should only take what we need, use in full, have minimal impact on the land, replenish what is taken, honour with gratitude and always interact ethically and respectfully with the natural world. She explains: 'Whatever we do take, we have to be prepared: the Earth will ask something of us in return.' In this view, fashion becomes not an expression of seasonal whim, but an act of gratitude and accountability. 'Disconnection breeds disassociation,' Fletcher says. 'People find it easier to harm what they have no relationship with.' That same disconnection – from soil, from seasons, from each other – is what community-focused innovator Tina Wetshi, co-founder of Colechi (a collective and research agency actioning sustainable development in the fashion industry), sees as the root of fashion's dysfunction. 'We've dehumanised the supply chain because we've separated ourselves from the people who make things,' she explains. 'But humans are social beings. We're supposed to live in community.' Colechi's work centres on that: community, collaboration and storytelling. Wetshi says: 'Working with nature isn't just about plants and materials. It's about understanding Earth, and understanding ourselves.' She recalls a visit to Fernhill Farm, which is a regenerative site in Somerset, where she saw first-hand how the land could heal and replenish itself. 'Watching the collaboration between people and nature changed the way I thought about value,' she says. 'When you really understand the time and energy it takes to grow fibres, you start to see an acrylic jumper differently. Wool becomes not just a better material – it becomes the obvious one.' If the speed of fast fashion numbs us, the slow rhythms of nature, and craft, can awaken us. Wetshi lights up when she talks about You Can Knit With Us, Colechi's joyful weekly knit club. 'Time slows down,' she says. 'You're just there, vibing to a playlist, making something with your hands. It's rare in London. It's precious.' This tactile slowness has deep consequences. 'Knitting makes you understand labour. That clothes are made. Not just bought. We need to add the steps back into the story.' Therapeutic ecologist Dr Georgina Gould, clinical lead at Dose of Nature, a registered charity established to promote the mental health benefits of engaging with the natural world, sees this too — in the people she works with who are overwhelmed by modern life. 'People are racing through life, disconnected from themselves, their values, and their communities,' she says. 'Nature gives us a moment to stop. To notice. To feel.' Prescribing time in nature isn't radical. I fact, it's ancient. But in an age of scrolls and spreadsheets, it can feel revolutionary. 'Nature helps us to access our true selves,' Gould continues. 'We stop being who the screen wants us to be, and instead find who we are. That's when real change happens — to our habits, our desires, and our sense of enough.' So what does it mean to bring nature into our wardrobe? It's not just linen shirts and earthy palettes. It's intention, repair and relationship. 'Visible mending is a radical act,' says Wetshi. 'It says: I care. I've noticed. I've chosen to keep, not discard.' Fletcher echoes this. 'Clothes sit at the interface between body and world. 'They help us know things. They can let the world in, or hold it at bay. They are sensory tools — and we need to honour that role.' What emerges from all three voices is a shared belief: fashion, at its best, is not consumption. It's participation – in a wider system, a community, and a planet. 'Fashion and nature aren't separate,' says Wetshi. 'Fashion is rooted in celebration, creativity, and culture — and those are all part of nature too. If we shift the mindset, if we remove exploitation, we can make fashion something else entirely. Something beautiful. Something healing.' In an era of climate anxiety, fast fashion, and endless scrolling, it's easy to feel detached from the natural world. But could that disconnection be driving our desire to consume more – especially when it comes to what we wear? We're conducting a short survey to explore how our relationship with nature affects our fashion habits, and whether social media plays a role in shaping our choices. It takes just a few minutes, your input is completely confidential and will help provide insight into modern attitudes on sustainability and consumption. Colechi Video Credits
News.com.au
01-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Wardrobe malfunction that helped inspire 26-year-old's entire business
The cost of living crisis has made most people reevaluate their spending, and a young Aussie has pointed out the common cheap act that is costing us more in the long run. Maddie Langshaw, 26, was earning more than $100,000 working full-time in social media and marketing when she decided to start her slow fashion brand Audrey Atelier. It wasn't just her love of fashion that spurred on the decision — she said she also came to the realisation fast fashion was a rort. 'It feels cheap in that exact moment but the cost builds,' she told 'Whether it's the constant need to replace poor quality items, or the environmental damage, or just the mental clutter of owning too much that doesn't mean anything.' Ms Langshaw said the danger with embracing fast fashion was you were always left wanting to buy more. 'It encourages this mindset of constant consumption, where clothes lose all meaning. It's not fashion, it's waste,' she said. 'It's also emotionally draining, because it keeps us in a loop of wanting more but never feeling truly satisfied.' The fashion designer understands the perils of fast fashion because she's been a consumer in the past. 'I definitely fell into it in the past, buying things just because they were cheap or trendy. But over time, the charm completely wore off,' she said. 'The clothes didn't last, and honestly, I didn't feel like me in them. Now, my wardrobe is 90 per cent thrifted or second-hand. 'If I do buy something new, it takes me at least five or six rounds of research. I want to know who made it, what it's made of, and whether it's something I'll love long-term.' Ms Langshaw argued that fast fashion created the illusion that more was better and clothes were disposable. 'It's a trap that keeps us buying and never feeling fulfilled. Once you shift the mindset out of it, you save more money long term and invest in pieces that you have forever,' she said. She's also had some horror experiences with fast fashion, where the lack of quality led to flat-out wardrobe fails. 'I've had seams unravel after one wear, things shrink beyond saving, and fabrics pill within days,' she said. 'Once, I wore a dress to dinner and the hem literally came undone mid-meal. I remember thinking, 'Why am I putting my money and energy into clothes that don't respect me back?'' she said. 'I have removed the majority of the fast fashion brands from my wardrobe due to this, the fact they don't ever last infuriates me, and over time I spend the same for less cost per wear thrifting.' Ms Langshaw isn't the only one rethinking how she's spending her money on clothes — and she wouldn't have started her business if she was. Her marketing background helped her notice a big shift in consumer habits, with Aussies being more 'conscious' about where they spent their money. 'I think there's this amazing shift happening. Fashion isn't just about the look anymore, it's about the story,' she said. 'Conscious shoppers are choosing meaning over mass production.' Ms Langshaw's been thrilled but unsurprised to see how shoppers have embraced her brand Audrey Atelier, where a blazer might cost $150 instead of $30 from a retail chain, but it is created to last. 'Even with tighter budgets, people want to feel good about what they're buying; they want pieces that last, feel considered, and come with a story,' she said. 'It's not about buying more, it's about buying better. Audrey Atelier connects with that craving for intention. 'It's a small, quiet revolution, and I'm so proud to be part of it. I have had overwhelming support from the community, with most of the buyers saying they want to support small, slower fashion.'
Irish Times
29-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
The Irish diaspora setting up and running businesses abroad
Setting up or taking over a business anywhere is bound to have it's challenges, let alone doing it away from home. But these Irish abroad have done just that. Along the narrow, cobbled streets of the artisanal quarter of Cusco, Peru, is an atelier called Hilo, home to a slow fashion brand founded by Irishwoman Eibhlin Cassidy in 2003 in the historical centre of this ancient Inca capital high up in the Andes. 'Being part of a supportive community has helped me build a local client base, which adds to the many international clients who visit the store,' she says. The Fermanagh woman's business, which she describes as 'elevated everyday wear with a twist', was the only creative business on the street at one stage. 'It's now where Cusco and international creatives open up shop. It is full of little cates and artisan boutiques.' READ MORE Mark Saunders is known for rescuing Laulhère , the oldest and last authentic French company making berets who supply the hats to French military, armies in Senegal, Chad and Kurdistan and police in Dubai – and that's not including the berets sold in the fashion industry. The Dublin man has lived in France for the last 30 years and has settled in the southwest of the country. The most recent step in his career has been to take over Christy Hats, the oldest and largest hat-making company in the world with a history dating back to 1773. 'We made all the Peaky Blinders hats and 250 for all the crew members (of the drama series). We made hats for Downton Abbey and more than 30 movie productions,' he says. Saunders says brands like his are 'on the verge of extinction, but I hope Christys will see another 250 years. I love what I do and taking on these challenges is how I keep motivated. I am 56 now and see this as the last chapter in my career.' Beijing Correspondent Denis Staunton recently spoke to the Irish companies based in China, as well as Peter Markey, who chairs the Irish Chamber of Commerce in China. Markey first went to China 30 years ago and has spent much of the past two decades in Shanghai, where he was a partner at EY until he retired in 2018. He says the attitudes of the two nations can often benefit off one another in unexpected ways. 'The Chinese have this reputation of working crazy hours and all the rest of it but that's not the whole story. They quite like going out for a nice dinner and having fun with people. 'That's really when the Irish attitude to having fun and letting the hair down a bit can really help with developing relationships.' Ruairí Doyle has settled in Canada, though he had no intention to move from Ireland again after a three-year spell working for Google in London. That was, however, until an opportunity arose with Press Reader in Dublin in 2017 and the rest, as they say, is history. The job brought him to Vancouver and, in 2022, the Rathnew native was appointed chief executive. Now, he is enjoying the outdoor lifestyle in the thriving west-coast port city with his wife, Kim, and their two sons. 'It can be challenging at times, with me being from Ireland and Kim being from Quebec. We don't have the support network of grandparents around. We do our best to instil a bit of Ireland and a bit of Quebec into the boys. We have hurleys and sliotars in the garden and maple syrup and cretons in the fridge.' Meanwhile, columnist Laura Kennedy, who is based in Canberra, Australia, writes about the age-old saying that absence – or in this case, distance – makes the heart grow fonder and how she has relearned to be Irish and how to value the places she didn't appreciate before. This bittersweet part of emigration is shared by the expats down under that Padraig Collins spoke to. Fildelma McCorry has been in Adelaide since 1999 and says she is there to stay. During last November's election campaign in the Republic, Fine Gael leader Simon Harris said during a debate that he was 'gonna get people's children back from Australia'. McCorry was not impressed, though: 'They always say that.' She says one of her daughters could spend a year studying in Dublin as part of her course, but the cost would be far too high, as despite having an Irish passport, she would still be considered a foreign student. 'Until they make those things open for diaspora children, it [everything the Government says] is just rhetoric, it's just talk.' And, for the few weeks it was, Patsy McGarry l ooked at the role of the Irish diaspora in electing Pope Leo XIV. Sure you'll find the Irish everywhere!
