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Slow Clothing: Finding meaning in what we wear
Slow Clothing presents a compelling case for why we need to change the way we dress, to live lightly on Earth through the everyday practice of how we wear and care for our clothes. In an era dominated by passive consumption of cheap and synthetic fashion, Jane Milburn arrived at the Slow Clothing philosophy by refashioning garments in her wardrobe to provide meaning and story. Jane tells her journey to Slow Clothing and provides ideas for you to easily implement. Slow Clothing reflects our own style and spirit, independent of fashion cycles. We buy thoughtfully, gain skills, and care for what we wear as an embodiment of ourselves. We - the wearers - become original, authentic and resourceful. We believe secondhand is the new organic and mending is good for the soul. In return, we are liberated and satisfied. Slow Clothing brings wholeness through living simply, creatively and fairly.
- GenresSewingNonfictionFashion
192 pages, Paperback
Published November 9, 2017
3 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 1, 2022
Interesting, informative, educational and practical! Great projects.
November 19, 2025
5⭐️ Saffron bookclub 2025 ✅ .. really enjoyed this creative champion of upcycling, recycling, reusing and reducing. She makes a good case for reducing how many new pieces we buy and examining how we buy and where we buy them from with a more critical eye.
Clothes are the cheapest they have been since 1989. They shouldn’t be this cheap. If they are this cheap then it’s costing someone dearly.
Overconsumption: Australasians are the second largest consumers of new textiles - averaging 27kg per year per person. Only Americans consume more, at 37kg. In contrast, India, where so much of this stuff is made, averages 5kg.
All that water and energy used to create these throwaway clothes, all these microplastics released into the environment that sustains us, the loss of knowledge and skills when we hand clothing over entirely out of our own hands. We are doing a disservice to ourselves and to the communities that receive our waste.
So that brings us to the title of the book, slow clothing, a nod to the slow food revolution, that hopefully brought us authentic food that was better for us, better for the producers and by extension, better for the planet.
Milburn makes a powerful argument for authenticity whatever that might mean for you, encouraging us to embrace our inner creatives and make clothing truly our own.
Upcycling, making things from scratch, reusing things in the pursuit of these original creations (grandmothers had a button box for a reason) is the main method she pursues in order to create personal expression.
But for those who can’t or won’t pick up a needle there are other ways suggested - pick natural fabrics, they are better for you and use far less energy to produce. Buy clothes designed and manufactured locally. Have a clothes swap for a good cause from time to time.
Don’t put clothing in the bin, try to give it a second life in some capacity.
“Slow clothing is a way of thinking about and choosing clothes to ensure they bring meaning, value and joy to every day. It is about thoughtful, ethical, creative and sustainable ways of dressing while minimising our material footprint on the world “
👏⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Clothes are the cheapest they have been since 1989. They shouldn’t be this cheap. If they are this cheap then it’s costing someone dearly.
Overconsumption: Australasians are the second largest consumers of new textiles - averaging 27kg per year per person. Only Americans consume more, at 37kg. In contrast, India, where so much of this stuff is made, averages 5kg.
All that water and energy used to create these throwaway clothes, all these microplastics released into the environment that sustains us, the loss of knowledge and skills when we hand clothing over entirely out of our own hands. We are doing a disservice to ourselves and to the communities that receive our waste.
So that brings us to the title of the book, slow clothing, a nod to the slow food revolution, that hopefully brought us authentic food that was better for us, better for the producers and by extension, better for the planet.
Milburn makes a powerful argument for authenticity whatever that might mean for you, encouraging us to embrace our inner creatives and make clothing truly our own.
Upcycling, making things from scratch, reusing things in the pursuit of these original creations (grandmothers had a button box for a reason) is the main method she pursues in order to create personal expression.
But for those who can’t or won’t pick up a needle there are other ways suggested - pick natural fabrics, they are better for you and use far less energy to produce. Buy clothes designed and manufactured locally. Have a clothes swap for a good cause from time to time.
Don’t put clothing in the bin, try to give it a second life in some capacity.
“Slow clothing is a way of thinking about and choosing clothes to ensure they bring meaning, value and joy to every day. It is about thoughtful, ethical, creative and sustainable ways of dressing while minimising our material footprint on the world “
👏⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews