What On Earth To Wear--Catching Up To Slow Fashion

Jane Milburn is one of numerous authors advocating
for fair, just and environmentally sustainable apparel.

"Why worry so about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they flourish: they neither toil nor spin; yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

- Jesus (Matthew 6:28-9, paraphrased)

According to an article in Forbes magazine by Christopher Marquis, the average American buys a new article of clothing every five days. And the writer cites a McKinsey study finding that 90% of what is in our closets is discarded well before being worn out.

Marquis further notes , "The rise of this fast fashion has created large-scale environmental and social side-effects...  In China, India and Bangladesh, once prosperous rivers have been destroyed by factory wastewater discharges; they have now become biological dead zones full of carcinogenic chemicals. Additionally, the tiny plastic microfibers that fall from synthetic clothing during the laundry process are flooding our water supply and food chain.”

According to current Global Apparel Industrial Statistics the US ranks the highest in the world when it comes to money spent on apparel, $351.35 billion annually. China, with over four times as many people, is second with $313.82 billion, and India is third at $101.39 billion. It is estimated that the total amount spent in the global apparel industry in 2024 will reach $1.79 trillion. 

A counter Slow Fashion movement, a takeoff from the slow food movement, recognizes the environmental and human costs involved in the manufacture of cheap, mass produced clothing, and has been advocating for an alternative mindset and lifestyle. They urge consumers to focus on timeworn values like creativity, durability, sustainability and justice when it comes to their clothing choices.

More and more voices are urging us to take an inventory of what's in our wardrobes, noting both the excessive number of garments we own and all of the impoverished countries identified on our clothing labels. And then to begin practicing more repair, refurbishing and reusing of our clothing, along with buying more sparingly and only from sources that reflect our values.

Some may argue that having clothing manufactured in far off places like Bangladesh and Pakistan and in nearby impoverished countries like Guatemala and Honduras, at least provides employment for people in poverty, in spite of it often being produced in unsafe factories and under sweatshop conditions. But wouldn’t additional investments in the production of goods needed by their own citizens be far better? And ironically, huge quantities of our castoffs end up being baled and shipped for resale in some of these same countries, further devastating their economies.

A related issue that merits attention is the jewelry industry, which according to Jewelry Market statistics is valued at $69 billion in the United States, around 20% of the total global jewelry market. As someone who grew up in a faith community that avoided this kind of ornamentation, and supprted values like simplicity, modesty and economy, I can appreciate this expression of a simpler "slow fashion" life choice, and find myself asking, “What would a 21st century Jesus wear?"

In a 1927 rally for independence in India, Gandhi raised over 90,000 rupees from a gathering of poor citizens of that country who contributed some of the few treasures they had, their prized jewelry, for a cause they believed in, the liberation of their people from colonial rule. 

This kind of generosity could be liberating for us all, an example we should all pay attention to.