Hit 50 custom jacket orders this month and I'm calling BS on the whole 'slow fashion saves' narrative

I've been designing jackets out of my studio in Portland for three years now. This month I finished my 50th custom order, which sounds like a lot but I'm actually using more synthetic blends than ever. Everyone preaches natural fibers and hand stitching, but my customers keep coming back for the washable polyester linings that actually hold up in the rain. My return rate dropped from 12% to 3% after I stopped using cotton lining. Am I the only one who thinks the eco-purist angle hurts small designers more than it helps?

3 comments

3 Comments

keith27413d ago

Polyester linings aren't the problem, it's designers charging premium prices for sweatshop-made synthetics and slapping a 'sustainable' label on them that gives the whole movement a bad name. Real slow fashion means using durable materials that don't end up in a landfill after two washes, not just following a purist checklist.

charles72012d ago

dude it's just clothes at the end of the day. yeah some brands overcharge but who's really stressing this hard about polyester linings of all things

fiona_carr2612d ago

Yeah but not all polyester is created equal either! There's recycled polyester and newer synthetic blends that actually hold up way better than they used to, it's not all cheap garbage. I just think we gotta judge fabrics by how they're actually made and how long they last instead of just saying "polyester bad.