In a world where there is increasing climate change, overconsumption and environmental degradation, Twyg’s Slow Fashion Festival encourages attendees to swap and mend clothes to keep them in circulation for longer. Our thoughtfully curated festival fosters a culture of caring for our clothes.
We have become disconnected from what we wear, feeling more inclined to throw away or donate damaged pieces than to mend them. A major contributor to this issue is fast fashion, which offers affordable and trendy pieces that are inexpensive to replace once their poor quality becomes apparent. The slow fashion movement was created to counter this, aiming to create a system where our fashion choices can be kind to the planet and its people.
Twyg’s Slow Fashion Festival offers an informative but fun way to engage with this movement and an opportunity to collaborate with organisations like the Fashion Revolution, African Fashion Research Institute, Cape Craft Club and Thimbles. This year, the event has taken place in partnership with 44 Stanley in Johannesburg and in partnership with the Watershed at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, with our next festival scheduled for 14 September at 44 Stanley.
By 2030, we need to have achieved the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established in 2015 to address global challenges like climate change and poverty. The slow fashion movement aligns with SDG12, which focuses on responsible consumption and production, urging us to use and produce sustainably to reverse the damage done to our planet. Our Slow Fashion Festival is one of the ways we are driving change in the current fashion system.
Mending
In partnership with the V&A Waterfront, we encouraged participants to assemble their own mending kits on 17 August at the Watershed
We can respect and appreciate our clothes and the natural resources and people who made them by taking care of them properly. Skills like darning and patching were a routine part of life before the age of hyper-consumption, and reclaiming these practices is a radical act of sustainability.
One of the stations at the Slow Fashion Festival invites attendees to create their own mending kit and learn the art of repair. Bring an item that needs mending and spend some time sitting and stitching with others. Some mends call for a professional, such as King Cobbler, the family-run shoe expert at 44 Stanley. Others call for a new life altogether through upcycling, as demonstrated by Patch&Stitch.
Besides focusing on ethical production, brands are increasingly recognising the importance and value of considering the end-of-life impact of every item they produce. Several of these brands partner with the Slow Fashion Festival to demonstrate their commitment to the entire lifecycle of their garments. ROWDY offers rejuvenating treatments for leather items, Five8ths has a collar and cuff replacement service, and denim lovers IFUKU and Blue Canvas have a menu of ways to extend the life of your precious denim pieces to choose from.
Learning
Robyn Keyser, founder of Artclub and Friends, Raihana Govender of Mors Design and Erin-Lee Petersen share their experiences of running sustainable fashion businesses in a conversation at the Slow Fashion Festival at the Watershed, V&A Waterfront in Cape Town
The problematic elements of today’s market practices are so complex that starting a journey toward more ethical behaviour can feel overwhelming. We provide talks and demonstrations by makers and thought leaders to equip attendees with useful and inspiring knowledge.
Previous contributors include Dr Erica de Greef and Siviwe James from the African Fashion Research Institute, and Safiyya Karim from Fashion Revolution South Africa. Topics covered range from a history of upcycled cultural objects in South Africa, the Fashion Transparency Index, running a sustainable fashion business, and traditional African fashion.
Swapping
Two swappers enjoy the Slow Fashion Festival at the Watershed on 17 August 2024
What might be forgotten and unworn at the back of your cupboard could be another person’s new favourite piece. When we swap our clothes we extend their lifespan, keeping them in circulation instead of sending them to landfills. Attendees can bring up to 10 clean, good-condition items to be responsibly re-homed at our swap station. Donated items will be exchanged for tokens that can be used to shop from our preloved library.
- The next Slow Fashion Festival will take place at 44 Stanley on 14 September 2024
- Images by The Dollie House