Illustration by Axelle Rose Zwartjes for Refinery29.

Nuw was founded on the philosophy that staying fashionable does not necessarily need to harm our planet. Unsustainable and unethical practices are not the fashion we want to be involved in! Here at Nuw, we are committed to helping people transform their wardrobes into something they are proud to show off.

The world of sustainable fashion can be a little scary because it is such a fast-growing industry. If you've just taken the plunge to break up with fast fashion, it might be tricky to navigate this world. From ethical brands to garment workers, there's a lot to understand - but don't worry, we've got your back. It’s not too late to start now. No matter how tempting shopping at affordable big-name stores is, it is important to do your part in finding articles of clothing that represent what you stand for.

So, the big question: how do we make our wardrobes sustainable and ethical? The first step: to understand the lingo and the slangs used in this sphere. Being well-informed will help you make better choices as a consumer that you will feel happy about. Sure, dipping your feet in the world of sustainable fashion can be daunting, but we’re here to help!

Slow Fashion and Fast Fashion are common terms that have become buzzwords in today’s mainstream media. They are usually put in juxtaposition with each other: portraying slow fashion as the perfect alternative to the evil that is fast fashion destroying our planet and disregarding the labor rights of our fellow humans.

Fast Fashion

According to the Oxford English dictionary, fast fashion is ‘inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends.” The connotation of fast fashion is usually negative in the media: it is common to see the word associated with unethical business practices and single-use clothing discarded after one wear, or one season-- at most.

In reality, it’s a highly contested umbrella term that has come to mean everything from a rapidly growing segment of the fashion industry, to describing the speed of the fashion supply chain from design to shop floor, and ultimately a way to express (with discontent) the rising level of consumption that has lead to fashion landing itself a top spot as one of the world’s most polluting industries.

High Street

Oftentimes, fast fashion is sold on the ‘High Street,’ the common name for the main shopping street in any town or city and is a term generally used in the UK and Ireland. This has become synonymous with mainstream retailers (often fast-fashion brands like Zara, H&M, Penney’s, and New Look) because often the largest brands and biggest mass-market clothing producers have their flagship store on the main ‘high street’ in each location. The term may not be so familiar to those of you based in the US where you might refer to it as ‘main street’ or just by the street name. High streets are evolving as more and more brands trade solely online with no physical stores but the name is still attributed to those cheap, trend-evolving brands, often with unsustainable practices.

Slow Fashion

Slow fashion, on the other hand, is associated with ethical and sustainable fashion. It means buying better quality garments less often that will last for longer, and values fair treatment of people, animals, and the planet. Slow fashion producers are focused on clothing made to last, physically and trend-wise: producing high-quality garments with ethically-sourced materials whilst maintaining the minimum environmental impact. Most of the time, slow fashion brands do everything in-house to be in full control of the production process and ensure it meets their mission: from sourcing the materials to making the garments, hence why it is certainly more expensive than fast-fashion brands optimized to churn out new collections for the masses every week. If you want to know more about slow fashion, check this detailed article out from The Good Trade!

Instead of creating styles that follow new trends each season, slow fashion producers strive to produce garments that will endure time. For this reason, slow fashion can be considered pretty costly, but there’s always alternatives like thrifting or upcycling to show some of your old clothes love! Be careful though: just because something is labeled ‘slow fashion’ does not necessarily mean the same thing to everyone as there is no golden standard to be ‘certified’ as sustainable and ethical, so it is important to do your own research, like on Good On You! Good On You is an app that gives you the ethical and sustainability ratings of brands using their own guidelines-- Nuw has written all about it here. This is certainly not a solution for everyone, but a small step in the right direction nonetheless for those who wish to be mindful of their fashion consumption.

Circular fashion

Slow fashion is also related to circular fashion, defined as clothes, shoes or accessories that are designed, sourced, produced and provided with the intention to be used and circulate responsibly and effectively in society for as long as possible in their most valuable form. Circular fashion is about designing waste and pollution out of our clothes, and ensuring they help regenerate natural systems at the end of their (long) lives. It is a similar concept to slow fashion in the sense to lessen the environmental impact as the cost of fashion.

Garment workers

Garment workers are the people who produce fashion, whether that’s for smaller companies to the brands we know on the high street. Fast-fashion companies tend to have factories in developing countries where production costs and garment worker living wages are low-- that’s how they afford to sell clothes at such a low cost in Europe and North America.

It is a well known fact that working conditions for garment workers, especially in developing countries, are appalling, exacerbated by non-existent and loosely enforced labor laws in those countries. Usually people working in garment factories are unable to form unions at risk of unemployment, so their rights are violated and not well protected. Take this very recent example, of workers being locked in a garment factory associated with Primark in midst of pro-democracy protests in response to a military coup in Myanmar.

Rana Plaza

More often than not, these people aren’t doing their job in satisfactory conditions, working long hours to meet production demands in unsafe environments without ventilation with next to no pay. One prime example of cutting corners for the sake of cutting price is the Raza Plaza Disaster in Bangladesh where the factory collapsed due to unacceptable conditions. Although they may be paid the national legal minimum wage (and this is not always the case), it is often not sufficient to sustain themselves with that amount of money. However, minimum wage is not the same as living wage.

Living Wage

A living wage refers to a theoretical income level that allows an individual or family to afford adequate shelter, food, and the other basic necessities. The goal of a living wage is to allow employees to earn enough income for a satisfactory standard of living and to prevent them from falling into poverty. It is saddening that most workers do not earn enough to afford the bare minimum and even more infuriating that child labor is unfortuanely common in the garment sector. The conditions they work in are referred to as slave labor by the European Parliament. Sustain Your Style has a great article exploring abhorrent working conditions of garment workers. It is alarming that the same trend is occurring closer to home: only last year, factories associated with Boohoo were accused of slave labor and unsafe working conditions right here in the UK.

Dark Factories

These illegal factories not following employment laws are known as dark factories. Dark factories here do not mean fully automated production lines needing no human intervention, but factories located right in the UK where labor exploitation is taking place. Oftentimes, dark factories employ illegal workers or recent immigrants from Asia and Eastern Europe with limited English unaware of their rights - meaning workers don’t always have a choice to leave and are forced to accept low wages.

Subcontracting

Big fashion brands often subcontract to factories in developing countries - Ethical Trade

A fast-fashion company might promise that they did not violate any rights and provided dignified working conditions to their employees in addition to sourcing their materials sustainably, but it is often hard to know for sure because fast fashion brands often do not produce their own clothing, instead subcontracting the work out to overseas factories, often for the lowest price. This gives brands little oversight or control over the conditions their clothes are made in and is one of the many reasons we call for more transparency in brand supply chains.

Greenwashing

Fast fashion brands are slowly becoming more aware that the industry needs to change and some are beginning to review their processes, however these changes are not always legitimately sustainable. As we see a shift in people becoming more conscious of how their own consumerism is affecting the planet adversely, so many brands are marketing to persuade their consumers that they care about sustainability as well. This is called green marketing, when brands use marketing and public relations strategies to shed their products in an environmentally-friendly light when in reality, it’s not. Essentially, these brands use untruthful marketing to deceive consumers into thinking they are getting garments that are truly sustainable and ethical.

The term greenwashing was coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986, back when most consumers received their news from television, radio and print media – the same outlets that corporations regularly flooded with a wave of advertisements that suggested that these corporations were engaging in environmentally sustainable practices when in reality, they weren’t. The combination of limited public access to information and seemingly unlimited advertisements spreading greenwashed messages presented these corporations as caring environmental stewards, even as they were engaging in environmentally unsustainable practices.

Femwashing

Well-known feminist slogans on t-shirts. Fashionunited.co.uk

Femwashing (also known as femvertisement in a more general sense within the marketing sphere) refers when fashion brands produce items of clothing (often graphic t-shirts) that spread feminist messages such as ‘We should all be feminists’ or ‘This girl can...’ when in reality the brands producing such products do not really support feminism, at least with their business practices. Let’s look at statistics: 80% of garment workers are females. More often than not, clothing bearing empowering messages are made by female garment workers who are not paid a living wage, nor are they allowed to collectivise for better wages. Feminist t-shirts churned out by these big-brands don’t necessarily mean it was produced by a feminist supply chain put in place to empower the workers-- the ultimate (and unfortunate irony). There is the double-standard of promoting feminist messages but brands not doing the work, or following through on this message.

Thrifting

The many delights to be found in a thrift store. Gyasi Williams Kirtley.

Thrifting and upcycling are simple ways to ensure that your wardrobe is sustainable with the least possible environmental impact. Avoid throwing your garments into the landfill. Instead, donate, sell, or recycle them! Donating your garments to a charity shop gives the pieces you’ve thoroughly enjoyed a new life - a longer life whilst giving you feel good-hormones after helping a charity you love and brightening up someone’s day all in one go. Head into any charity shop, and they will be glad to accept your donation. For a start, try shops like Oxfam and Barnardos. During the time of the pandemic, head on over to Thriftify for an online thrifting experience where most of the sellers are charities. As only 20% of donations are actually sold on the charity shop floor, make sure they’re of re-sellable standard! If not, you could always upcycle your garments.

Thrifting is soft on both your wallet and the planet-- in exchange, you get a peace of mind that you aren’t contributing to the climate crisis for lightly worn clothes and lightly used accessories. It’s also a fun experience of sifting through buckets and racks of colourful garments only to find a lil treasure of cuteness for a bargain. If you aren’t a fan of heading out for a shopping spree, Depop is also a strong contender to shop sustainably from your couch or on your bed. What’s great about Depop is you could also make some bucks from doing some spring cleaning as users can put their gently used fashion items on sale. After giving your clothes a new home, you can once again enjoy shopping for new clothes (sustainably, of course), guilt free!

Upcycling

Practice your crafts skills and try upcycling! Once you’re bored with your jeans, perhaps cut them off for the summer heat. You’ll save a couple bucks and be satisfied with the masterpieces you create. If you’ve decided you can no longer upcycle, try repurposing your old textiles: maybe it’s time for a new cleaning cloth? If you really want to be self-reliant, take it a step further and try making your own clothing! Maybe it’s time to take up knitting or crocheting in your spare time as part of your self-care routine. Once you finish your first piece, you’ll be proud and glad of your first ever self-made clothing! If you have a sewing machine, take a trip to the craft store to get some funky fabric to work your magic on it. This way, you’ll have a unique piece to show off or sport on a night out (once that’s possible). Don’t trash your worn clothing as well with some tears and fallen buttons-- maybe you can sew them up to make them new again! If you’re not particularly apt with your hands, don’t worry-- instead, try Clothes Doctor or Sojo if you’re in the UK.

Recycling

If you really can’t hold off making something useful with your clothes anymore, keep in mind that of clothing bins like Clothes POD in Ireland or clothes swapping initiatives Love Not Landfill in the UK. No matter these initiatives, it is important to know that more action is needed: without discouraging the cycle of overconsumption and waste, these solutions do not get to the heart of the problem.

Nuw

Finally, don’t forget about Nuw! Maybe you don’t want to permanently part with your clothing, but also want to be within the sustainability movement. Simply download the Nuw app on your smartphone from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store and get started by uploading photos of some of your underused garments! After that, start lending and borrowing clothing from those in your community. Perhaps your least-favourite dress will be perfect for someone’s day at the park :) Who knows? You might find the perfect swimsuit for your next beach day with your date! Having Nuw is like having an enormous collective wardrobe.

Nuw is also available for permanently swapping fashion! Your clothes won’t just sell on Depop after weeks? Worry not! 25% of listings on Nuw are swapped in the first 24 hours! As much as you’d love to donate your clothes for a great cause, you don’t have much cash to spare as you need to revamp your wardrobe after a spring cleaning? With Nuw, your clothes are your currency! Swap clothes with others. That way, you make someone’s day, and you also end up with a smile on your face with some fabulous clothing, going away knowing that you just participated in circular fashion!

The 15 Sustainable Fashion Terms You Might Not Know