We're all familiar with the idea of fast fashion in the clothing industry - but what’s much less discussed is its prevalence in the Interior Design industry, too. Once you apply the fast fashion lens to design, the parallels quickly emerge. Like the countless items of clothing you can find in stores and online, every day we see design or lifestyle products and materials that are: 

• low quality 

• cheap 

• made overseas 

• widely distributed 

• based on fleeting trends 

• destined for landfill, sooner rather than later 

• essentially fast fashion 

As interior designers, we’re proactively steering our clients and our projects away from these kinds of products and materials; we want to make choices that will benefit our clients and our environment in the long term. I had the pleasure of moderating a panel at Artisan on Sustainably Made Design recently, alongside a group of impressive women in our industry who are equally passionate about encouraging better, more thoughtful design: Paivi Piotto, Professor Beck Davis, Clare Kennedy, Shari Lyon and Karina Seljak. Each one has blazed a trail in their own area of sustainably minded design, and it was incredibly inspiring to hear their insights on how we can encourage ‘slower’ and more responsible choices across the board.  

Here are some of my key takeaways:  

CHOOSE OBJECTS THAT FEEL GOOD

Particularly in today’s economic climate, one of fast fashion’s obvious drawcards is affordability. We know that when making a personal purchase for their home, most people can’t afford for every item to be of the highest quality. Karina talked about the importance of using different approaches for the different objects in your life: which ones are most important to invest in? What expensive new items could be substituted with a high-quality second-hand alternative? When it comes down to it, does it really feel good to be surrounded by things that were made cheaply?

Rather than cycling through trendy products year after year, purchasing more thoughtfully is what helps to craft a more authentic personal style – and the fact is, well-made objects will make you feel better in your space.    

CONSIDER THE TRUE COST OF A PRODUCT

If sustainable, locally-crafted objects occupy one end of the spectrum, at the other end is the sea of ultra-cheap products that can be found online. It’s easy to be bewitched by the sheer affordability of $2 items of clothing or $10 pieces of furniture - but it’s important to pause and consider the fact that if the price is that low, the product is likely to be full of hidden costs.

To purchase responsibly is to consider whether the products you buy are made under labour conditions that resemble modern slavery, manufactured through practices that are highly detrimental to the environment, or contain toxic substances that might put your health at risk (at Studio Spillane, the Red List is an eye-opening resource we’ve been using to cross-check the materials of the products we specify). The dollar sign shows only a sliver of a product’s real cost – and unfortunately, the lower it is, the greater its ethical, environmental and health impacts are likely to be.  

ASK MORE QUESTIONS

When it does come to investing in a high-quality piece, it’s so important to be aware and informed of the materials and where they come from. Green-washing is very common, but delving into the products’ supply chain and ‘ingredients list’ often tells a very different story. Paivi (who co-owns ebb & flow design) says she wants to see clients asking more questions about where their products come from and how they’re made – because she’s ready with the answers. If buyers are interested in the story, the source, and the DNA of their purchases, they’re more likely to invest in high quality, locally made products.  

USE THE LOCAL ADVANTAGE

For local makers who are competing with giant fast fashion organisations, it often feels like a severely uneven playing field – but at Fluxwood Lighting, Shari has noticed some important advantages to being a local business. She finds that the ability to offer personal, responsive customisations is a valuable asset that big overseas companies can’t match. It means her clients receive a product that exactly meets their needs, and as a result, they value it even more.

Paivi also shared that when it comes to customisations or repairs for their furniture, Australian-made products can be seamlessly and affordably transported to and from the maker - while those bought from overseas require a much longer and more expensive process (not to mention a greater carbon footprint).  

REMEMBER THE POWER OF AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

When buyers can understand where a product comes from, meet the person who made it, or customise it to their taste and needs, they’re able to establish a stronger connection to it. Beck talked about the concept of “emotional durability”: when we have a personal connection to an object, we're more likely to invest in it, care for it and repair it, therefore extending its functional life.

I’m sure we can all relate to that feeling of becoming attached to something we’ve bought directly from a maker, or something we found second-hand and refurbished, and it’s fascinating to think that this can add yet another layer of sustainability to well-made and responsibly sourced pieces.  

THINK AHEAD

While it’s important to encourage individuals to make more thoughtful purchases, for those of us in the built environment industry, we know that large construction projects can have a huge environmental effect, for better or for worse. For Clare and Five Mile Radius, they find that there’s much wasted opportunity in buildings or fit outs that were constructed with little consideration for reuse or recycling.

Small changes can make a big difference: even opting to screw-fix materials together instead of gluing them will allow those materials to be more meaningfully recycled or repurposed down the line. It’s about pausing to consider how our decisions will affect a space and the people in it in 10 years’ time, and sharing knowledge about how we can all make those responsible choices now. 

One thing we all took from the panel discussion was that more awareness, education and discussion about sustainable practices can only lead to better outcomes for everyone. I'm thankful to our clients, our team and the wonderful practitioners in our industry who are working towards this goal with us.  

You can watch the panel discussion in full here.