It's not just us humans who are constantly under stress, the fashion industry is too. Goods should be produced and sold as cheaply as possible. The working conditions in many places are terrible and the materials are often harmful to the environment. Something doesn't add up... Slow fashion - relax and take it easy!
We are all familiar with stress and excessive demands, whether in our professional or private lives. "Just slow down" is often given as a tip to turn your back on the accumulated stress for at least a few hours and concentrate on the essentials again. It's not just us who need to shift down a gear, the fashion industry also urgently needs to slow down!
Ads such as "Fashion trends 2018 - affordable" or "These are the most important fashion trends of the season!" give an idea of how fast-moving trends are. "Fast fashion" is the name of the fashion business. Expensive designs from the catwalk are offered as inexpensive copies in the stores in order to meet the new "must-haves". All as quickly as possible, of course! So a shirt in the trend color red can be bought cheaply in the next store. But what if soon everyone will just see red and have enough of it? No problem! The old shirt is stowed away or thrown away, because the new one is already waiting for you in the store. The same fashion game every season. But what's behind this cheap mass production? The problematic aspects of "fast fashion" are highlighted below:
- Toxic chemicals: In the "Toxic Yarns" study carried out by Greenpeace, hormonally active chemicals were found in 63% of all the garments examined (including those from Zara, Only and Levi's). In addition, some azo dyes, which can release carcinogenic amines, are used for dyeing.
- Unfair working conditions: Around 80 billion items of clothing are produced worldwide every year. Suppliers have to contend with ever shorter delivery deadlines due to production pressure, which results in wage cuts and ecologically irresponsible practices.
- Danger to animals and the environment: Toxic chemicals can be dangerous not only for us. These are discharged into the environment through factory water and accumulate in sediments, the food chain, fish and wild animals.
- Around the world: The clothing enriched with the chemicals is supplied to markets around the globe, including to EU countries that ban the chemicals in their own textile production.
- Role of the buyer: When new clothes are washed, the chemicals enter the wastewater and thus contribute to water pollution.
Fortunately, "slow fashion" is slowing things down. "Slow fashion" means a change towards more responsibility and respect for people and the environment. It also attempts to create an awareness of the product. Slow fashion pursues the following values and goals:
- Environmentally friendly production and selection of raw materials. For example, natural, plant-based dyes are used to reduce the consumption of chemicals.
- Sustainable production and high-quality workmanship, e.g. through the manual manufacture of products.
- Fair trade, where suppliers receive a living wage.
- Use and durability of clothing: This not only includes garments made from organic and recycled materials. Used clothing also counts as "slow fashion"!
- Products often have a regional origin with a short production chain. All steps in the production chain are visible and therefore transparent. Most of the supply chain is also independently audited or visited by the clothing brand itself.
What is the situation at NIKIN with regard to "slow" or "fast"? At the moment we are still "fast", but we are constantly developing in the right direction by looking for ever more sustainable materials. This has enabled us to replace acrylic with recycled jeans and our textiles are largely made from organic cotton. Our socks are also made from 80% bamboo. In addition, NIKIN works partly with companies that are GOTS and Fairtrade certified. So we are well on the way to "deceleration".
