Andre Joseph Gallant

A great post from KAT at the Eating Liberally blog tells of a new fashion trend emerging in these eco-aware, economically troubled times:

Fashion may seem frivolous, but we all need to wear something, just as we all need to eat. And it’s official now–there’s a Slow Clothing movement, à la Slow Food, which celebrates things that some of us have been doing for decades: everything from foraging for second-hand finds at thrift shops and flea markets to making your own clothes from scratch or repurposing items. The movement also includes high-end, sustainably produced textiles and fashions from artisans and designers like John Patrick.

via Farmers + Fashionistas = Sex and the Country? | Living Liberally.

While there isn’t an international organization raising money and throwing workshops/parties in Italy, slow fashion fits right in with all the other citizen farmer, benevolent capitalist and social entrepreneur movements that are en vogue.

Supposedly, Sharon Astyk’s 2006 essay had something to do with starting this movement. And there’s an interesting article at the Christian Science Monitor, which mentions Astyk, that’s framing the issue.

Slow clothing, like the rest of the slow movement, could be a difficult issue to slip into, but it’s an important one given the massive commodity chain that is the fashion/clothing industry.

The current economic downturn has certainly had its victims, and not even the fashion industry is safe. Marc Jacobs’ fashion week showcase invited 1300 fewer style mongers than usual and some designers opted out of the major soiree scene and showed out of their studios, according to reports. Many industry watchers are noting the prevalence of halftones in the Fall 2009 lines: it seems grey equals drab, drab equals recession and recession equals millions without jobs. 

Other designers are bucking the recession blues  by  turning out shoulder-padded, gold lame outfits as fast as hobo flapjacks. Well, even though sustainability is a super buzz word, we can’t expect everyone to keep up with new trends.

Back to the slow thing. 

Around the construction site we would often joke about starting the first slow building movement. For us it had little to do with craftsmanship, equity or similar fair and just qualities. For us, it meant afternoons spent lounging in the sun as our tool belts reclined under recently framed hip roofs.

But some have been considering slow building for a while:

So, it’s time for slow building. Like slow food, it should celebrate the process, regionalness, and history, reward reflection, and most of all interalise change. I want skyscrapers that take a thousand years to finish, new towns that are built a street a year, demolition a room at a time.

Slow development is on the minds of burgeoning and overfilled communities nationwide, and it better not get brushed off the table once this housing crisis sorts itself out. As far as a thoughtful building movement is concerned, I think we’re already most of the way there. The fast world calls it remodeling while the rest of us call it upkeep.