Along with our partners the V&A Watershed, we’re hosting our first Slow Fashion Festival in Cape Town. Join us on 17 August from 10am – 4pm for a day of slow fashion experiences (and some music and dancing) at the Watershed.  

As you might know, we’re passionate about promoting a new approach to fashion. The current fast fashion system overproduces clothing for a hyper consuming world. We no longer cherish our clothes – we dispose of them easily as they have become cheap to replace. As we approach 2030, we understand the urgency to meet the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Slow fashion is aligned with SDG12: responsible consumption and production. The current fashion system drives inequality, pollution and carbon emissions. To reverse these, we need to act with urgency to change the current fashion system.  

At Twyg, in collaboration with Our Better Nature by the V&A Waterfront and V&A Watershed we are showcasing circular, slow, responsible and ethical fashion. The Slow Fashion Festival will leave you inspired to start, or continue, your sustainable fashion journey. You will be equipped with helpful information, usable skills and a new life for the clothes you own. 

Several crafters and skilled menders will be hosting workshops and demonstrations at the Slow Fashion Festival, and will be on hand to guide and inspire participants in the art of repair. Attendees can also expect music and dance experiences. Here is our programme: 

 Programme

Mend and repair

Bring along your clothing that is in need of love and care, and join Twyg’s skilled menders and repairers who will be on standby to assist you to repair your clothing. We like to chat and share our stories of fashion, clothing and sustainability. Taking care of the items you already own is an act of love for the planet and the people who made them. By mending items we give them a new life, saving them from the landfill and learning a new skill while doing so.  

Clothing swap

Bring up to 10 items from your wardrobe that you may have outgrown. They need to be clean and in good condition. Swapping clothing is one of the sustainable ways to keep clothes in circulation and to lengthen their lifespan. After donating your items in return for tokens, you can shop from our preloved library, contributing to the system of responsibly rehoming items. 

How a swap works 

• Bring a maximum of 10 clean, unbroken, good condition clothes for colder days.⁠ 

• We check and won’t accept clothes that smell, have holes, are pilled or dirty.⁠ 

• You can swap for the same number of clothes as the good quality clothes that you bring.⁠ 

• We will have a donation box for U-Turn. 

 (Because this is a special event as part of our Africa Textile Talks, there will be no charge to participate in this swap.)    

Other activities

Make a zero-waste T-Shirt with Cape Town Craft Club: Andie Reeves will demonstrate how to make a zero-waste T-shirt.   

Kawandi quilting demonstration: Thimbles will be on-hand to demonstrate how to hand quilt using your scrap organically dyed fabric.  

Build your own mending kit: Make your own mending kit with us. Our skilled mender, Michelle Jones-Phillipson will advise you and help you create a kit that you can take home with you.

Panel Discussion: “How Watershed fashion tenants operate a sustainable fashion business, sustainably.” We are very excited to be talking with Our Earth Age, Helon Melon, Research Unit, One of Each, and Artclub and Friends Jackie May will moderate.  

Discussion: Join Siviwe James and Erica de Greef from AFRI as they unpack how and what we know about traditional African fashion clothing and its sustainability.  

Presentation: Safiyya Karim the country co-oridinator of Fashion Revolution South Africa will present the organisation’s new Transparency Index. The Fashion Transparency Index analyses and ranks 250 of the world’s biggest fashion brands and retailers based on their public disclosure of human rights and environmental policies, practices and impacts, in their operations and in their supply chains.