Look Good While Helping the Environment

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While most of us might scoff at donning a cotton wedding dress, we do want others to think of us as humane, ethical and in touch with the zeitgeist. The paradigm shift has been made: we want to do our bit for the environment but still look good. It has never been an easy compromise. Until very recently, only bona-fide tree hugger companies were the purveyors of ethical or green fashion.

Consumers are demanding better products, and better treatment of the earth’s natural resources. And we are (mostly) getting it. Previous generations were content with cotton, also called conventional cotton; these days we demand organic cotton, which leaves a smaller eco-footprint on the earth.

Fifteen per cent of the respondents in a recent UK survey claimed that the use of organic fabric is ‘very important’ to them when buying clothing. Forty-five per cent of these respondents were concerned about the damage clothing production causes the environment and an even bigger percentage prefer retailers that do not use sweat shops or child labour.

But what is organic clothing, and is it worth the fuss? Also, what is the difference between organic and natural clothing? This is a good question and the answer might surprise you. Natural does not mean organic. The 100% Italian Linen skirt you sport may not be organic. Organic clothing, however, is made from natural fibres. Natural fibres include vegetable fibres (cotton, kapok, bamboo) and animal fibres (silk, wool, angora, mohair, alpaca, and cashmere). Now is a good time to learn more about natural fibres, as 2009 is touted as The International Year of Natural Fibres.

There are many different organic fabrics. Some of these are silk, hemp, organic cotton, bamboo and wool. I have always thought of silk as an organic fabric until I read about peace silk, which is also known as vegetarian silk. Normal silk worms are killed off to prevent them from harming the silk cocoons; vegetarian silk production allows moths to get out of the cocoon naturally. But this means the months break the silk threads, so workers spin the thread rather than reeling it onto a spool in one continuous strand. This type of silk is slightly coarser than what we may have become used to.

There are about eleven UK companies that certify organic farm practices, two of which are the UK Soil Association and Organic Farmers and Growers. SKAL International (Dutch) is another well-known organisation that inspects and certifies the production process.

Organic clothing is made from fibres that have not been treated with toxic insecticides, herbicides or fungicides. Prevention is the best strategy farmers have against disease, weed and insects.

To be certified as organic, farmers need to adhere to the following guidelines:

• avoidance of most synthetic chemical inputs;
• use of farmland that has been free from chemicals for a number of years (often, three or more);
• keeping detailed written production and sales records (audit trail);
• maintaining strict physical separation of organic products from non-certified products;
• undergoing periodic on-site inspections

If you want good reasons why you should buy organic, here are three: it is better for the environment; it is farmer friendly; and it is sustainable. Organic clothing does not contain any harmful chemicals, which means it is better for consumers as well as the workers who produce the products. People who are sensitive to chemicals can wear these products without their skin being irritated. Another major advantage to organic clothing is that Fair Trade policies are mostly adhered to.

You don’t want to feel guilty when reclining underneath luxurious bed linen or when dressing in a comfortable bath robe. Instead you can support companies such as The White Company that take the environment seriously.

These companies select items based on their ethical soundness and their pleasing aesthetic. The organic cotton available - grown without the use of any pesticides, chemical fertilisers and using only the most natural, ecologically friendly dyes and chemicals, have grown up during the last couple of years. These fabrics now sport gorgeous colours, which is a welcome change, and will surely compliment your wardrobe.

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 11:32 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.