Green Fashion is the latest trend. Everywhere you go there are new boutiques popping up selling new sustainable clothing that will help reduce pollution and fight global warming. At least, that's the general sales line. In reality they are just profiteers cashing in on environmental concerns and promoting yet more overconsumption.
First, before getting into specifics, I should note that the entire idea of "fashion" itself is consumerist. Fashion means following trends and continually buying new clothes in order to be cool or "in style." God forbid you are caught dead wearing last year's style, or wearing something out of season! The entire idea of fashion is antithetical to being green. Being green means reducing consumption and reusing things as much as possible, the whole reduce, reuse, recycle concept.
Popular environmental sites frequently publish articles about new "green" clothing or footwear. This is often very expensive and the environmental benefits are sometimes questionable. Here's one example of expensive trendy shoes with nicknames like Barack and Biden. This is the type of thing I might expect to see on The Onion and I wasn't immediate sure this wasn't a spoof. Here's another ridiculous example, they have $150 T-shirts and $2,600 Blazers! Save the world baby!
If you want your clothing to have less of an impact on the environment, the answer is easy. Wear your clothes longer, and repair or patch them when they get old or damaged. Once they reach the end of their usable lives, save as much of the material as you can, which you can use to repair other clothing down the road. Some of the material might be useful for other purposes as well, especially for those with sewing skills. As I mentioned elsewhere, reduction and reuse are much more effective than recycling.
In families there has long been a custom of passing down clothing from one child to another as they grow. Because children grow quickly, this means the clothing often has little use and can be used for many more years by younger children, as they grow into it. For families with few children, the clothes can be sold or given away to neighbours who have their own children to clothe. To facilitate this even more, there's no general reason why many clothes can't also be passed down from girl to boy, or boy to girl. T-shirts, jeans, button up shirts, coats, hats and many other items are frequently just as suitable for one gender as another. Used or vintage clothing is another great source of supplies, and again helps with reuse.
There is a benefit to making clothes with reliable, long lasting, low-impact material. If quality materials can be grown or produced locally in a sustainable way, these can be used as supplies for local clothing manufacturers. There is no need for speciality, high-end retailers to sell special "green" clothing. If the longevity of existing clothes is extended, and the pool of clothing reused for a much longer time, then the amount of new clothing required is greatly reduced, making smaller-scale local production more feasible.
In the end, the vast majority of so-called "green" fashion is too expensive for the majority of people, let alone anyone in the third world, though I'm sure it makes some rich people feel like they are doing their part for the environment. It promotes consumerism and excessive turnover in personal wardrobes. It is wasteful, and largely unnecessary. I'm sure it's very profitable, but that sure don't make it green.
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4 comments:
Nice post. I agree with you.
What a nice blog you have..thanks for all this information
I think you've gone a bit overboard with this one. Sure, the three Rs, with the emphasis on reduce, is the goal, but eventually you are going to have to buy a new pair of shoes or a jacket or whatever. In that case, isn't it a good idea to find something sustainable? And often, that is not going to be the cheapest thing you can find, but the most well-made, because that will last the longest.
LCinLA, you're right we will still new new clothes and foodwear from time to time, and yes, these should be sustainable and well-made so they can last a long time (to increase reuse.)
In most cases, this will likely mean products manufactured locally, from materials grown locally in a sustainable way. They won't be cheap, but they shouldn't be super expensive either. But trendy $500 eco-shoes made by sweat shops in China and shipped halfway around the world, do not, I think, qualify. :)
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