Eco-friendly living has been a growing concern in the recent years with the image of the world melting like butter in a hot pan lingering in many minds.
This weighty ‘E’ word over the years has both challenged people into changing their lifestyle for the greener and has frightened people to stick to their guns to be as unchangeable as ever. In some parts of the world eco-friendly living has even become mainstream, trending as a hot-and-now thing to do. Take Vancouver for example. On an everyday people level many of us, at some point, have purchased at least 5 different fancy patterned re-usable bags. Our cupboards are probably packed with shiny tin water canteens and pretty travel mugs. The eggs found in refridgerators are most likely free ranged and we may or may not have picked up their greens at the local farmers market. We also have a fair share of those who take this trend and turn it into a lifestyle. They may have a small chicken coupe, a veggie garden, a compost system and maybe even a beehive in their backyard. But this is all very well known since it has become popular to take an eco-stand. So what’s the next cool green thing to do?
What many people over-look is, ironically, what they wear. A good portion of your morning is dedicated to how you present yourself to the world. ‘Original individuals’ can cringe at that statement all they want but what everyone wears is completely determined by what’s available and that can contradict your green-fairing ways. After all, as much as one may desire to prance around in the buff for the sake of a greener world, the options out there for the clothed and law-abiding seem somewhat limited. But now that has changed.
Sustainable fashion is growing into the new hot-and-now thing to explore and designers are certainly taking up a green hand to find ways to create wearable clothing with the least amount of earthly impact. While eco-fashion has been at the forefront of European design for years, it has finally made its way across the ocean. There has been as much diversity as there is in the fashion industry. These designers make their clothes from eco-friendly materials like hemp, silk, organic cotton and tencel made from eucalyptus fibre and some designers salvage scrap fabrics or left over sheets off the discarded fabric rolls.
Why would sustainable clothing be important anyway? It goes without saying that much of your closet was probably made in China. Including factories, transportation, outsourcing workers and materials and how they are treated, the waste levels in the fashion industry are huge. Then there’s the growing of the fibres itself. Cotton being the soft fiber that we all know and love, grows in a protective capsule throughout the world. Fertilizers, pesticides and other synthetic agro-chemicals are used to help the cultivation of this plant. Then it has to be picked and transported to a cotton mill where its spun and woven into fabric. At this point it should also to be noted that the textile industry is one of the most toxic of all industries. The chemicals used to produce textiles stays in the fabric itself which in turn could present harm to our own personal health. Our skin being very porous and all absorbs these chemicals when clothing comes in contact with our skin. If this is a surprise to you, please don’t start stripping now. You won’t start choking or develop prune skin-like symptoms immediately upon reading this but it is something to think about.
The eco-friendly options are out there and Vancouver made a point of this by showcasing local and international eco-fashion talent last week by hosting its 3rd Eco Fashion Week. Creative director Myriam Laroche is hoping to reinvent the rules of fashion and that in due time, consumers will seek out the information about products before they buy so they can make informed decisions. At the show the audience was well assured that while being eco-friendly style was not compromised. While under strict eco-criteria (everything had to be locally sourced, organic, natural, grown without toxic methods etc) designers presented a variety of urban clothing that united a greener future, beauty and fashion. Models strutted down a green-as-possible runway wearing elegant, edgy, chic, shocking and pleasing pieces.
Where your clothing comes from is just as important as where your food comes from. Shopping at Whole Foods we know that the devastatingly pricey apples and carrots were selected carefully from an organic farm but what about our very own socks? We wear it everyday. How were they made? Where did it come from? Who made them? What is in this material? It is so close to our skin, to our bodies and yet, even though we give ourselves a good look over every morning seeing what we wear, we don’t really think about what we’re wearing.
Some eco-friendly designers:
