The Congressional Slow Fashion Caucus was established in the US House of Representatives on June 27. Among its founding members are Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington), Chellie Pingree (Maine), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (California), Grace Meng (New York), Julia Brownley (California) and Jerrold “Jerry” Nadler (New York) – all of whom belong to the Democratic Party.
The idea behind the Caucus is to promote natural fibers over synthetics in the manufacture of apparel so as to prevent the shedding of microplastics and restore some of the farming and manufacturing jobs that the American textile industry has lost over the past couple of decades. This translates into the promotion of slow fashion over so-called fast fashion.
The latter, of course, is the province of online DTC brands like Shein and Temu, which for months have been coming under fire in the US Congress and in the EU. It stands to reason, though, that the Caucus would also be directed against many retailers and sports brands, not to mention suppliers and NGOs.
Adidas spent ten years producing apparel with plastic recovered from the sea by the environmental organization Parley for the Oceans. Nike says it uses recycled plastic water bottles for its Flyknit uppers and some of its polyester. Puma does the same in its First Mile collection, whose name is borrowed from that of a recycler in the UK. In its latest Sustainability & Impact Report (2023), Under Armour notes that 10 percent of the polyester in its apparel and accessories is recycled. Last year, the Italian manufacturer Thermore introduced insulation derived from PET bottles recovered from the ocean.
These are only a few examples of a nearly universal practice. In brand marketing and corporate reports alike, the industry’s players like to trumpet their use of recycled plastic, and their stated goal tends to be the circularity of plastic use, not its elimination.
That said, recycling itself is not at issue. According to Representative Pingree’s webpage, the Caucus seeks to reduce “the use of virgin materials” and encourage the use of “more plant and animal-based fibers, such as cotton, flax, hemp, wool, and alpaca.”
The Caucus enjoys the support of the International Wool Textile Organisation (ITWO) through its US branch, the American Wool Council, as well as groups like American Circular Textiles (ACT), ThredUp, the Climate Reality Project, the Garment Worker Center, Remake, Apparel Impact, Pennsylvania Fibershed, the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), Goodwill, Accelerating Circularity, the Fibers Fund, The RealReal and Custom Collaborative.
