{"id":174,"date":"2022-09-28T04:46:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T04:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/?p=174"},"modified":"2023-02-17T17:02:04","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T17:02:04","slug":"slow-down-sashay-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/writing\/features\/personality\/slow-down-sashay-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow down, sashay on"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Nowi Burgos, clad head-to-toe in vintage pieces, strikes a pose in Bali on Saturday, November 24, 2018. The slow fashion movement encourages buying habits that support fair labour practices and reduce waste. (Photo by Iris Young\/SAIT)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A closet full of clothes and not a thing to wear\u2014it\u2019s a problem of Carrie Bradshaw proportions, but nothing that a trip to the mall or online shopping can\u2019t easily fix, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to the age of instant gratification, where disposable income is king and fast fashion, its kingdom. At present, the global fashion industry is valued at US$1.55 trillion and employs over 300 million around the globe. And yet, it\u2019s a false Utopia that most of the population is yet to acknowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research shows that only two per cent<\/a> of fashion workers earn a living wage, while more than US$500 billion a year is lost in underutilized clothing. The latter equates to approximately 30 per cent of mass-produced \u2014 a.k.a. fast fashion \u2014 items going unsold and ending up in landfills. Moreover, the fashion industry causes 10 per cent<\/a> of the world\u2019s carbon emissions, while current manufacturing processes are responsible for a third of industrial water pollution and 35 per cent of the microplastics found in the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With fast fashion as one of the environment\u2019s biggest threats, the solution seems obvious: When the problem is fast, go slow. Indeed, slow fashion encourages consumers to be more conscious of the processes and resources involved in the fashion supply chain and ultimately make more sustainable and ethical buying decisions. Slow fashion is not limited to a stringent eco-philosophy. Instead, it encompasses a handful of buying practices that support fair labour practices and reduce waste (at the very least), such as buying garments made of natural and sustainable materials, shopping local and independent, and repurposing thrifted or vintage clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But like most significant changes, slow fashion has been, well, slow in gaining real momentum. Among the movement\u2019s biggest challenges is, of course, economics. Fast fashion costs less and is, therefore, more accessible across income brackets. However, saying that slow, sustainable fashion is \u2018classist\u2019 and \u2018only for the privileged\u2019 is a misnomer that Style FIGJAM aims to obliterate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, it takes a special kind of courage to go slowly against the grain and take on big-brand, fast fashion, one affordable vintage piece at a time. It\u2019s\u00a0the kind borne out of passion for an industry that doesn\u2019t always deserve it and a genuine concern for the earth\u2019s welfare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is this particular brand of courage that Nowi Burgos has in spades, channelled into building a brand as practical as it is daring and as sustainable as it is stylish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, Burgos doesn\u2019t capitalize on the eco-friendly rhetoric\u2014and she doesn\u2019t have to. Her discerning eye unfailingly leads her to sartorial treasures where few have the tenacity to look. These finds make up Style FIGJAM\u2019s capsule collections, which she painstakingly styles, models, and photographs herself. Blink and they\u2019re gone\u2014that\u2019s how unique these collections are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Style FIGJAM<\/a> is Burgos\u2019 latest, most ambitious, and most enduring clothing brand to date. And what a strange brand it is! FIGJAM, an acronym for \u2018Fuck! I\u2019m Good. Just Ask Me,\u2019<\/em> was something Burgos picked up from a book. She then built her brand around the confidence of this statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The statuesque Nowi Burgos styles and models Style FIGJAM collections herself. (Photos used with permission from Nowi Burgos\/Style FIGJAM.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to empower men and women alike to dress how they want to dress and not shame themselves for sticking to a budget while looking good at the same time,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burgos has been selling clothing online since 2008, but her initial foray into vintage buying and selling was accidental. Facing supplier problems and heavy customer demand, she sold thrifted clothing from her closet. It was a hit. Soon, she met another dilemma: She couldn\u2019t satisfy her customers\u2019 requests for restocks as these were one-of-a-kind vintage pieces\u2014something she failed to disclose at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt like I cheated my clients because I couldn\u2019t tell them that those items were thrifted. I think, in my head, I feared they will dislike the brand and myself altogether because I was selling them thrifted finds. I was heavily criticizing the opportunity before it could officially take off,\u201d Burgos said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In time, the conversation on environmental challenges amplified, and so did Burgos\u2019 awareness of the fashion industry\u2019s effects on the planet. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize until then that my usual weekend thrifting activity could also help mitigate these effects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a Sunday night, and Charly Villano, a long-time Style FIGJAM shopper, eagerly awaits Instagram uploads of the new collection. \u201cThe first person to call dibs on a garment gets to buy it, so if something catches my eye, I can\u2019t hesitate. You snooze, you lose,\u201d Villano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounds like a simplistic system, but the friendly competition it fosters seems to work well with Style FIGJAM\u2019s intimate clientele. \u201cAt first, I was envious of other sellers with thousands of followers. But over time, I\u2019ve realized that since I was doing this as a side hustle, with plans of switching it to an actual stream of income in the future, I might as well enjoy the pace,\u201d said Burgos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also guarantees that Style FIGJAM\u2019s objectives remain at the forefront. \u201cThe people I\u2019ve met and who have supported the brand are creative and passionate and understand what it means to go slow [fashion] and the impact it has on one\u2019s well-being and the environment. The last part is something a bit difficult to fathom for others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Burgos remains optimistic: \u201cI think I\u2019d like people to become more self-aware of their buying patterns, their intentions for going slow, and how they can incorporate it into their daily lives. Fashion is still a form of self-expression, and going slow does not mean abandoning the stuff that makes you happy \u2014 it\u2019s more of self-expressing with intent and value.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nowi Burgos proves that slow fashion is for everyone, one thrifted piece at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personality"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":510,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}