Melbournians Slowing Down Fast Fashion

I have done something silly. And I happen to know for a fact that I am not the only one. You may well sympathise.

If you have purchased a cheap and cheerful top in a last minute panic and realised (post-wear) that it was poorly made and would be lucky to make it through one more wear, you are not alone.

Fast fashion had reached astounding heights. Trends, which once lasted years, now last mere months or even weeks, as the internet means emerging trends spread around the globe in a matter of days. Fast fashion companies like Spain\'s Zara boast that they can take a trend from inception to design to store in 12 days. From runway to retail in under 2 weeks. Before you know it, the trend has reached the masses and lasts only a short period before it becomes done to death and daggy - hence no longer desirable.
The trend spotters move on - to the new latest and greatest.

Generation Y have grown up surrounded by consumerist values of excessive consumption, coveting the new and giving little thought to the real cost of the things they wear on their backs. Shopping has shifted from becoming a pleasurable necessity to a full time sport, where the winners are big business and the losers are all of us as cast away last season\'s must haves end up in landfill. Not to mention the mostly women and children working in offshore sweatshops to produce the goods we consume.

Now at the risk of sounding like a fully fledged hippy (which I am, minus the poncho), I must mention that this attitude is changing. The slow fashion movement is gaining momentum with a notable minority of young minds.

There is a quiet revolution happening. Former L\'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Week Director Karen Webster is completing a thesis on the question of social conscience in the fashion industry. Others, like Melbourne\'s Tullia Jack, are focusing their attention on the real effect the fashion industry has on the environment, people and the global economy in a broader sense by looking at the effects of production and consumption of trash fashion.
This movement is the focus of a soon to be launched street fashion website focusing on vintage, recycled and handmade fashion. The site features people who are endeavouring to minimise their effect on the environment by using preloved, locally made pieces, but still manage to retain their fashionable edge. How will the trend spotters handle that?

Check it out at
www.wardrobewonderland.com