As a part of Earth Week at UT, the Office of Sustainability hosted its third annual “Slow Fashion Show” on HHS plaza on Thursday, April 20. The show featured clothing that was thrifted, second-hand and handmade.
The ‘slow’ fashion movement has increased greatly over the past few years after the downsides of ‘fast’ fashion have been uncovered.Fast fashion relies on low wages and terrible working conditions to mass produce items that contribute to polyester pollution. Fashion focuses on up-and-coming trends that are likely to go out of style within the next season which demands the creation of more clothing every season creating a never-ending cycle.
On the other hand, slow fashion focuses on giving clothes a longer lifespan either through thrifting, creating new pieces out of previously worn items or fabrics and buying classic pieces that will outlast the trends.
The Office of Sustainability hosted the Slow Fashion Show showing off sustainable looks and featuring items from The Free Store. The Free Store is a non-profit organization at UT offering sustainable thrifted clothing at their store on 915 22nd St. and at on-campus pop up events. Every item is completely free.
The Free Store is a community-based resource for students, staff and faculty. It relies on donations from the Knoxville and UT community of gently used clothing, textile materials, shoes, tote bags, accessories and unopened cosmetics.
One volunteer at the fashion show, Mariah Laus, has found stylish pieces and entire outfits at The Free Store.
“I probably have gotten 40 pieces or more from The Free Store … the store gets so many fast fashion pieces and I don’t want to contribute to that cycle when I can buy it secondhand,” Laus said.
Mak Harmon is the social impact coordinator with the Office of Sustainability and overseer of the Free Store.
“The Free Store is a wonderful way to reduce landfill waste here on campus by taking donation, but an added bonus to that is we get to meet student, faculty and staff basic needs,” Harmon said.
The fashion showed outfits styled from The Free Store and items students have made themselves to emphasize how slow fashion can be stylish and fun. Additionally, students were able to choose items from a selection of items from The Free Store and paint a UT tote bag.
Some of the outfits featured UT gear, floral dresses, corduroy pants, vintage sweatshirts and sunglasses all found at The Free Store. Details such as patches, accessories and hand painted designs added unique features and completed the looks. Other items had been creatively mended with unique stitching and patches to give items a second life. Hand-crochet sweaters were a popular item due to their colorful and customizable designs and cuts. There were over twenty complete outfits featuring an array of styles and diverse looks.
The Office of Sustainability has helped UT embrace the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Some of these SDGs include no poverty, zero hunger, responsible consumption and production, industry, innovation and infrastructure.
UT offers a wide variety of courses aligned with SDGs such as HIUS 365: Food and Power in US History and ALEC 485: Global Sustainable Development. The Free Store supports the Sustainable Development Goals of no poverty as well as responsible consumption and production.
For more information, make sure to check out @utksustainability and @freestore_utk.
Source : The Daily Beacon
