We recently attended a presentation where fashion businesses presented their answers to an increasingly competitive and demanding consumer market. Sustainability was an underlying theme, as it is in many sectors these days. However, one specific talk's topic was speed. One of the largest fast-fashion e-commerce companies was delivering a presentation on how they planned to make fashion even quicker. How they could take up the newest trend, draw ideas, develop patterns, source material, sew it, and sell it in a couple of days. We felt as if we had run a marathon simply listening to it.
In terms of sustainability, we believe digitization was their winning argument. This event taught us that the well-known fast-fashion has evolved into faster-fashion, and it's all a contest to produce ultimate speediest. In other words, someone is attempting to push our consumption level even more.
It is no secret that fast fashion, along with many other businesses, has produced an instant gratification attitude. According to the famous Marshmallow test, one of the most significant characteristics for success in life is the capacity to wait pleasure! In this sense, it appears that the fast fashion business is purposefully working against our well-being while masquerading as the latest "must have" that we can't live without.
Is it even feasible to make fashion about something other than fading fashion? Could it ever be trendy to have less and use what we have in ways that represent our personalities rather than simply following the newest trends and identities from Paris,Italy?
Hopefully, at least for those puppies that served as fashion accessories to make the clothes at Tod's 2017 Fashion Show seem charming. We don't want them to become a fashion fad and become the next thing with which we grow our throw-away civilization. There is one fundamental issue that overshadows everything else: it requires resources to produce products, and the resources that are not finite take time to regenerate by Mother Earth; even puppies take time to produce.
The underlying concern is also, who will bear the repercussions if our throw-away culture continues to grow? Who are we to blame? Big brands to get us to buy? Or are we to blame for our inability to resist? And how can companies live and prosper if customers aren't enticed to buy more than they need?
It's a complex situation. But, on the other hand, it's time to examine who set these old-fashioned fast-fashion standards and why we're still following them.
Perhaps the answer is speed after all, but instead of speeding up, we should consider what comes from slowing down, such as quality, workmanship, and items that you want to retain for a long time. These are the ideals that future enterprises should be based on, as well as those that are already in place. And kudos to those who already do. Because there are methods to make money without harming people or the environment in the fashion industry; it's simply a question of being creative.
Finally, we only have one planet with the traits to be dubbed Mother, so let us attempt to keep her around.
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