Slow Fashion Movement Picks Up Speed in Iceland
Many things have slowed down in Iceland since the island economy collapsed in 2008. Fashion is not one of those things, I learned at this weekend’s Reykjavik Fashion Festival. Still, two women are taking it slow, embracing the "slow fashion movement" to be exact, and trying to instill integrity, honesty and respect into design. Their show had one of the most talked about shows and collections at the RFF. When I first heard that the house of Ella was a proponent of “slow fashion” I immediately asked, “what is slow fashion?" Is it like slow food? Small-scale, sustainable, high quality? Designer Katrin Maria Karadottir and Creative director and founder Elinros Lindal explained to me that that's exactly what it is. They walked me through their movement like grownups explaining something complex (algebra, fusion, the Kardashians) to a child. At the end of our chat I came to see that slow fashion (and slow things in general in the hands of women like Elinros and Katrin could be the future of Iceland’s economic prosperity. Fashionista: What exactly does slow fashion mean here in Iceland?