This article makes the case for the inextricability of queer and slow fashion movements, especially when it comes to the queer fashion industry. In Ecce Homo Wear, we wholeheartedly believe that any endeavour, even an entrepreneurial one, must be intersectional in nature to be truly queer and as such, we couldn’t identify as a queer company, if we weren’t environmentally conscious.

The rising awareness of both the impact of the global climate change on our everyday lives, and of the inescapable interdependence of humans and non-human animals that the Covid-19 pandemic has made explicit, has generated recently a great deal of buzz around the concept of slow fashion, a term with evolving and multiple meanings. So, what is all this fuss about? What is the difference between slow and fast fashion? And what all this has to do with queer fashion anyway?

Slow fashion stands in sharp contrast to fast fashion. The later term loosely refers to the globalized mass-production of extremely cheap and low-quality garments encouraging this way over-consumerism in response to the latest fleeting trends. The dark side of these competitive prices and plethora of products that fast fashion industry offers is the use of cheap labour and resources, without any respect to environmental protocols and labour laws in a greedy attempt to quickly maximize profits.

In other words, these huge fashion brands, indifferent to their social and environment impact, are among the major global polluters, and human, animal, and environmental rights abusers hiding behind the glossy façade of advertising and inconsequential Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives that merely function as a greenwashing screen. When it comes to the respective clothes, these are usually sloppily designed, made of synthetic materials, like polyester, with poor stitching and finishing, intentionally produced to be soon disposable ending up in landfill after a short period of use.

On the contrary, the slow fashion movement urges us to approach fashion in a holistic manner by paying close attention to the multi-layered interconnections among producers, consumers, and the global ecosystem. The environmentally conscious business model it advocates puts an emphasis on both sustainability and fair labour practices.

On the one hand, the use of eco-friendly, organic, recyclable, and ethically sourced materials -like cotton- without harmful chemicals and dyes, and the reduction of energy and water usage are among the most important of slow fashion’s commitments. In this context, a slow fashion production ensures the quality manufacturing of the garments in order to lengthen their life by being able to endure repeated wearing and washing. The clothes are edgy and fashionable, yet classic, timeless, and versatile for them to remain relevant for years to come. Regarding the manufacturing process itself, slow fashion translates to a less wasteful production chain by stocking less items, slowing down the production schedules, creating small-batch collections and zero-waste designs, often taking the form of an in-house and vertical production with full control over the supply chain.

On the other hand, providing sustainable livelihood to the employees in an inclusive and nonexploitive work environment is non-negotiable. In an attempt to support the local economy in which is embedded, a slow fashion brand opts for both using local workforce and resources within a transparent production system, and making its products available in affordable and competitive prices.

The philosophy behind slow fashion is based on the possibility of a more ethical way of producing, consuming and ultimately living, and it is precisely at this point that it intersects with the goals of the queer and feminist movements, especially the eco-queer and eco-feminist ones. A queer slow fashion brand, like Ecce Homo Wear, develops undergarments with a cultural, social, and political imprint in collaboration with the queer community itself whose aesthetics and sensitivities tries to reflect it. In this perspective, the queer customer is no longer a passive one, but someone who is encouraged to make more conscious, informed, responsible, and purposeful purchasing decisions. To put it differently, in Ecce Homo, we want our customers to feel personally invested in their undergarments as an essential part of their gender and sexual expression and identity.

Our motto is ‘there is no queer without environmental consciousness’. For more information on Ecce Homo’s take on sustainability, please visit 

https://www.eccehomowear.com/sustainability.en.aspx