ONS statistics released yesterday and published by the Telegraph suggest that we are prioritising heels over meals when it comes to how we shop.

According to the data, the average family is spending £6.40 less on food and non-alcoholic drinks a week compared with 2007, but almost £10 a week more on clothes and shoes.

One of the reasons for this may lie in our continued love affair with fast fashion. According to Defra’s Sustainable Fashion Roadmap, we’re purchasing around two million tonnes of clothing annually but, with a fifth of the market said to be made up of low-cost, short-lifetime garments, we discard over one million tonnes every year.

This is a problem for two main reasons (and many more besides): -

1)     Discarding clothes because they’re poor quality simply means we have to buy more – and this costs money we just don’t have

2)     The clothes we discard are sent to landfill, contributing to an ever-growing mountain of cast-offs

Whatever the reasons, it’s a depressing thought that we feel forced to make this kind of trade-off. I like to think that if it came to a choice between a good meal and a good look, food would win out every time. But like many things in life, I know it’s not this simple.

Luckily, there’s an antidote to fast-fashion which could go some small way to helping tackle this predicament – Swishing. It’s one of the world’s fastest-growing ethical fashion movements. More than 10,000 women a month visit the Swishing website from all around the world and thousands of items of clothing are swished at parties every day. Not a penny changes hands and glamour is the name of the game.

Swishing works on so many levels, from the fun and frivolous where it allows us simply to indulge a love of fashion and glamour without the guilt, to the practical, where it helps us replenish and refresh our wardrobes without the financial burden.

While it’s clearly not the whole solution (and it would be flippant to suggest that it is) there is a convincing environmental and financial payback associated with Swishing. And with this comes huge potential.

With London Fashion Week drawing to a close and the first ever Swishing Week complete, perhaps it’s time to shake things up and challenge fast-fashion once and for all?