快时尚尚未降温又迎来慢时尚

Move Over Fast Fashion, Here Comes Slow Fashion 快时尚尚未降温又迎来慢时尚

A few years ago, Maxine Bédat — who is now in her early 30s — looked in her closet. It was full of clothes, but she had nothing to wear.

“And that was because it was a closet full of fast fashion that was falling part, that was based on hyper-trends from one season to the next.”

“Fast fashion” means clothes that are inexpensive but look like the latest designs from top fashion houses. Well-known fast fashion stores include H&M, Forever 21, Zara and Topshop.

One reason for the success of fast fashion is social media. A report by the investment research firm Bernstein found that Millennials — people born in the 1980s and ‘90s — want to wear a variety of clothes in the photos they post on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. As a result, many businesses that offer trendy, low-cost clothes are growing. 

Slow fashion

But some Millennials are not happy with the rise of fast fashion.

Maxine Bédat, the woman with the closet full of clothes but nothing to wear, calls fast fashion “exhausting.” She says she was tired of always shopping for what was in style. Instead, she says, she wanted to buy fewer clothes that she could wear over and over. Other people wanted the same thing, she says.   

“I just saw a post today from one of the biggest bloggers, and it’s ‘what is her favorite white t-shirt?’ And I think that’s really, you know, telling about where we are today. It’s not just about having something new every single day, but what is something that’s beautiful, and what is something that’s quality, and what brands do we want to be wearing that reflect the values that we hold?”  

So Ms. Bédat and a business partner, Soraya Darabi, started a “slow fashion” clothing company called Zady.

“Slow fashion” means clothes that last a long time. They are often classic colors and shapes, and are made from natural materials that are biodegradable over time.

The terms “fast fashion” and “slow fashion” are related to “fast food” and “slow food”: fast food is still popular in the U.S., but many restaurants increasingly offer higher-quality, more expensive and relaxed meals.

Like slow food, slow fashion also aims to use sources that are good for the environment and workers. Maxine Bédat says people in her generation want to know where their clothes come from and who is making them. Their interest comes in part after a clothing factory collapsed¹ in Bangladesh in 2013. Over 1,000 people who were making cheap clothes in poor conditions died.  

To answer Millennials’ demand for information about the products they buy, Ms. Bédat’s company, Zady, includes details about the history of the brands. It also describes the process by which the clothes are made. Ms. Bédat says Zady aims to tell shoppers where their clothes come from, where they go, and how they impact the world.

Another approach: recycling clothes

The international business H&M is answering Millennials’ demands for stylish² but sustainable fashion in another way. It has created a recycling program for clothes. The program invites people to bring clothes they no longer want to H&M stores. Shoppers who donate old clothes can receive a discount on new things they buy.

H&M does several things with shoppers’ old clothes. They sell some clothes again. They turn some clothes into other useful items, such as cleaning cloths. And they reduce the rest to fibers³ that can be re-used as building materials, for instance.

An H&M spokesperson wrote in an email to VOA that the program aims to help the environment. “We have a clear vision to avoid and minimize⁴ waste that goes into landfills,” the spokesperson wrote.

H&M reported that in 2014 it collected over 7,600 tons of unwanted clothing. That is about 38 million t-shirts.

Words in This Story

hyper – prefix⁵ excessive or extreme

trendy – adj. currently⁶ popular or fashionable

biodegradable – adj. capable of being slowly destroyed and broken down into very small parts by natural processes

sustainable – adj. involving methods that do not completely use up or destroy natural resources

1 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

2 stylish   

adj.流行的，时髦的；漂亮的，气派的

参考例句：

• He's a stylish dresser.他是个穿着很有格调的人。
• What stylish women are wearing in Paris will be worn by women all over the world.巴黎女性时装往往会引导世界时装潮流。

3 fibers   

光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质

参考例句：

• Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
• Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。

4 minimize   

vt.使减（缩）小到最低，极力贬低，最低估计

参考例句：

• To minimize the risk of burglary,install a good alarm system.安装可靠的报警设备以减低被盗的风险。
• To minimize the public expenditure of this country.把该国的财政支出减少到最低限度。

5 prefix   

n.前缀；vt.加…作为前缀；置于前面

参考例句：

• We prefix "Mr."to a man's name.我们在男士的姓名前加“先生”。
• In the word "unimportant ","un-" is a prefix.在单词“unimportant”中“un”是前缀。

6 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。