Eco Fashion
January 23rd, 2006 by Mollie
I received this article from my sister. She found it in the business section of the January 2006 Southwest Airlines Spirit magazine while flying to California. The article, written by Ellise Pierce, is titled Eco-Chic and discusses the new wave of clothing that is both fasionable and environmentally friendly.
Designers are wanting to incorporate ethics into the production of their clothing lines. This means that more designers are wanting to have the production of their garments made by employees whose human rights are being respected in the work place, are paid fair wages in exchange for their work, and given a safe environment in which to complete their work. The communities where the garment production is taking place is also considered through various work structures such as co-ops and the health and well-being of the environment.
This movement is very exciting because it is a move towards making it a standard that clothing is produced in a way that positively affects human rights, local communities, and the environment. This is becoming widespread enough that organic fibers are regularly being incorporated into clothing that is not even advertised as being environmentally friendly. Organic cotton is so much better for your health because farmers do not spray the cotton with pesticides or other chemicals. This is something that we really want to support since pesticides and chemicals can be extremely harmful to your health and to the environment and can seep into your skin when wearing any garment made from non-organic cotton even though you may have washed it. Rebecca Luke of, Sustainable Style Foundation, says that the creation of a rating system for clothing is in the works, with the purpose of creating a standard that rates how well a “particular garment has incorporated sustainability in the areas of human rights, environment, diversity, governance, and community involvement”.
This was a really informative and easy to read article. I summarized much of what it said, but if you “want to get away” and the January issue of their magazine is still in the small pouch located under your tray and directly in front of your knees, I would definately recommend reading it.
Websites the article lists as being “green”:
January 23rd, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Thank you especially for giving us the links to these websites. I am very interested in buying from companies that adhere to these ethics, and I am excited to check them out.
January 23rd, 2006 at 7:59 pm
psst… the links need some fixing I think.
January 23rd, 2006 at 8:26 pm
okay they are all way out of my price range, and my coolness range.
Maybe we should start a company? Sticking to the cheapest socks and under shirts and underwear we can make.
January 24th, 2006 at 9:06 am
Thank you for letting me know that the links were not working. They are fixed now!
As for affordable clothing that is environmentally friendly and fair to the laborers that make the garments…I don’t know that it exists.
Using organic cotton, building factories that are safe and environmentally friendly, and paying fair wages to employees is expensive. They say that if organic becomes the standard and alternative environmentally friendly energy becomes standard then the cost will go down, but in order for those things to happen (and who knows if the cost will go down even if it does happnen) people need to regularly be purchasing “ethical” goods.
I know that design is part of the cost, but not all of it. If we could figure out a way to make simple clothing, that is made according to our standards for the environment and human rights, I would be all for it. I would even design it.
How do you start something like this?
January 24th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
Hi. Thanks for sharing all these links, many of which I did not already have.
I write the blog for hipandzen at http://hipandzenblog.com, and thought you (and your readers) would like to know not only about the blog, but that blog readers can get an additional 5% off all purchases with a code on the homepage of the blog.
I wrote a post recently about supply and demand for greener products. There are definitely some items you can get affordably, but your commenter is right that to go mainstream, there needs to be a broader availability of affordable green items:
http://workerbees.typepad.com/hipandzen/2006/01/supply_and_dema.html
We also have a pretty good blog roll of what we call hip & zen blogs. I’ll be adding this site (and probably others I find from your list above.)
Thanks again!