You see it in the shops and you see it online. It’s the cheap clothes, cheap bags, cheap accessories and the ever launching new styles, every week. With the frequent sales and offers, the prices are so low they seem almost free.
But nothing is ever free. If it seems like it, the costs are hidden and someone else is paying a price.
Fast fashion is a recent phenomenon that we nowadays take for granted. Less than two generations ago it was unheard of. Fast fashion means mass production, cheap materials, quick turnover in immense volumes and a lot of waste. Above all, it means low wages. And it’s simple math, a t-shirt that sells for €5, means someone, somewhere was paid practically nothing to achieve this price. The discussion usually focuses (rightly) on the environment, but the biggest story is that the workers pay. And eventually, we pay too when that t-shirt falls apart after three washes.
Fast fashion is designed obsolescence, it is clothes and accessories designed to be thrown away. And that’s not an accident, it’s the whole business model.
Slow fashion is the exact opposite.
It means quality over quantity, a choice to make things last. It means materials that last. It means fair wages and safe working conditions, building lives and communities that can thrive. It means making things that we keep for years, not weeks.
Slow fashion isn’t cheap because there are no corners being cut. Instead, it is honest and fair, one pays for what one gets.
The fashion industry is one of the biggest polluters in the world. It uses huge amounts of water and creates massive amounts of waste. All the unsold items end up in landfills, all the quick-bought and quick-discarded clothes end up there too. And again, above all it exploits workers in developing countries.
Slow fashion isn’t a perfect solution, but it’s a step in the right direction. It’s beginning to be mindful of our true needs and choices. It’s a way to build better, choose better and buy less.
First of all, we use materials that already exist, decommissioned ferry life rafts for our fabrics and recycled PET for our straps and zips. No new resources and no new waste.
Secondly, we make our bags by hand in our Athens workshop. Not in an anonymous factory with anonymous workers in an unknown location. We choose to work with people who care about, and they care about their work.
Then we build our products to last. Marine-grade materials are tough, they’re designed to survive the ocean and all weather. If they can do that, they can handle everyday life too.
Finally, we repair our products for free and offer product-take-back program. If your 3QUARTERS bag breaks, we can fix it. If we can’t fix it, we’d like to recycle it ourselves. We don’t want you to buy a new one, we want you to keep the one you already have.
Slow fashion is a choice, and choices are more important than needs.
It’s choosing quality over quantity, it’s choosing honesty over hype, and it’s choosing to buy less, but buy better.
We’ve made that choice. Every bag we make is a small stand against fast fashion.
All about our Sustainability Practices
