Eco Fashion
What is eco-silk?
Peace Silk vs. Eco-Silk
I have been trying and trying to find an eco-friendly wedding dress for my September wedding, and it was much much harder than I anticipated. There are a variety of organic companies that sell dresses, and a few designers have environmentally conscious choices, but let me tell you, the options are slim. Heaven forbid you want something that fits your body style, or that you’ll actually look good in! I finally found a few choices I was comfortable with on Etsy. I typed in “organic white dress” and found a myriad of pretty little options. Still not much compared to a bridal store, but it was something. It at least got me to the point where I realized I could get it custom made. Since I have such specific requirements I had to get it custom made. I chose a design I liked from the J. Crew Wedding catalog then set out to find an eco-friendly silk to have the dress made from. Little did I know how hard it would be to find an honest vendor that really knew what their stuff (and wasn’t trying to rip me off). I found the easiest choice was to find a vendor, and let them give me a price and to provide them with fabric I’d researched.
I originally asked for organic silk, and was startled to see the price and people throwing the word “peace silk” around left and right. I knew it was time for me to ‘get educated’ about the fabric I wanted for my dress. Peace Silk is a type of unbleached, natural silk, where the silkworms are allowed to live out the entirety of their lives. Ordinarily with silk, only a few of the worms are allowed to fulfill their natural lives and emerge from their cocoon. With Peace Silk, all of the worms are allowed to fulfill their natural lives, and the silk from the cocoons is harvested. It is also referred to as vegetarian silk or Ahimsa (non-violence) silk. Tussah silk is also very similar to peace silk, in that the moths live out their natural life and their cocoons are harvested after they’ve been vacated, however Tussah silk refers only to wild silk worms. The color of Tussah also tends to be a bit darker due to a different diet than cultivated silk worms.
Eco-Chic Expo Seattle
Now for a local, small business and community centric alternative to the Seattle 2010 Go Green Conference. Seattle’s Eco-Chic Expo is being held on Saturday, May 1st, at the Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center located in Northeast Seattle. A self described “interactive green lifestyle event”, the event is put together to provide the general public with an interactive day of tips, tricks and products to help people live greener, yet fashionable, lives. The Expo is free to the public and features a number of local companies dedicated to sustainable lifestyles. › Continue reading
Green Silence
Exercise is great for the body, but with the right adjustments, we can off-set the waste we produce in powering our TVs and Mp3 players that help satiate our need for a distraction from the fact that we’re working out, as well as the tools we use for the work out itself (i.e. treadmills). That’s how we normally think of waste anyways. Another form of overlooked waste is something much closer and far more vital to most aerobic workouts, namely, what we’re wearing.
Courtesy Maloney & Fox
A company that’s been heralded as a champion for the cause of athletic footwear with a less noticeable carbon footprint is none other than the local Brooks Sports, inc. Amongst their line up of shoes is one that would catch the eye of any avid environmentalist, the Green Silence. Like similar companies going eco with their shoes such as the New Balance eco shoe and biodegradable Simple brand shoes, these shoes are tapping the athletic market. The shoes, consisting of over 75% post-consumer recycled material, also boast a biodegradable insole and collar foams. For a more detailed listing of features, go here.
PeopleTowels: No they’re not made out of people…
I still remember what I initially thought when I first heard about PeopleTowels. I’m rather ashamed to admit it was something along the lines of “What, are they made of people?” Thankfully, no. They’re made for people, to empower people to cut back on the over consumption of paper towels. As co-founder Linda Lannon puts it, “It is the opposite of a paper towel, it is a PeopleTowel.”
Don’t pretend you haven’t walked into a public bathroom, either at a movie theater or at work, and cringed at the sight of the trash can literally overflowing with crumpled up paper towels. Even the air only blow driers use up a ton of energy and don’t get your hands properly dry anyway. Every once in a while you’ll see the waste-conscious, roller hand towels. But even then, I’ll always wonder whose germs I’m spreading over my freshly soaped and scrubbed hands.
The solution? PeopleTowels: the smart, personal, reusable hand towels. They’re conveniently small, roughly nine by nine inches. They’re well designed and brightly colored. They’re certified organic, fair trade cotton, made with 100% natural and nontoxic eco-friendly dyes. Absorbent, light weight and fast-drying, they come in a number of bright, fun, eco-chic designs. My personal favorite is the “this is not a tree” design, which really brings the point home. By using a PeopleTowel for one year, your actions alone are saving an entire quarter of a tree, conserving 250 gallons of water, and reducing landfill waste by 23 pounds. Those kinds of numbers add up pretty fast. › Continue reading
It’s Time to go Green
That sounds corny, right? It gets worse though. I almost said that as a response to somebody at a bus stop asking me if I had the time. It wasn’t without reason though, and it’s not as if absurd environmental phrases are constantly running through my head. The real reason is that I have a fairly decent-sized assortment of watches for somebody on a college student budget. Occasionally, one of them stands out – like today. A friend of mine, after noticing it and passing a quick compliment, noting my interest in green technology, suggested I check out a series of watches from the Citizen brand.
I
was never a believer when it came to solar-powered watches. Self-winding watches perform a relatively similar task albeit with some inaccuracy and cut the battery out of the equation completely. But it’s not that I thought this long-existent technology wasn’t feasible, I simply hadn’t heard much in terms of innovations in the market so I was never reminded about it and didn’t have enough initiative to give it much thought. The technology is relatively simple as these watches use solar panels not unlike those found in other common items like solar-powered calculators, the only difference being that a much greater amount of energy is than stored. I continued to be a skeptic though. I had always felt that these watches wouldn’t be at par with the ones I already owned. An inflated ego from a minor compliment and an all-to-human feeling of having to reciprocate for it forced me to give this concept some more thought and take the advice.
Destroying Clothes- Brand Managmenent and the Apparel Industry
It really is quite a dilemma, the question of brand and style management and environmental stewardship has been at the forefront of controversy since the H&M and Walmart clothing destruction and disposal incident. This conjures up a similar dumpster diving topic of food disposal by grocery stores and restaurants, food safety concerns can pose some justification while the destruction of clothes can be more difficult to explain.
Given that people are dying of exposure around the world and there really doesn’t seem to be any cause to destroy perfectly good clothes, there are two issues one must consider- Brand management and the fragile economy of clothing manufacturing. In some ways they can be interconnected although one is detrimental to a company, the other can doom an industry.
Brand management to some is not an excuse, but in our society it is a necessity. Much like the regulation of food production to maintain pricing, people starve as a consequence, however, it is needed to maintain the industry. If a brand is de-valued, it can bring about the death of the company. If you had just purchased a new jacket at a store for $100, and then started to see that same jacket being worn by homeless, showing up in large quantities at second hand stores and charities, it would probably disappoint you or make you feel like you got ripped off (you paid decent money for something that others are getting at a heavy discount or even free). Not only does it sabotage the ‘style’ (style inherently involves an exclusivity factor or comparison with ‘stylish’ people), but it de-values the item knowing that you over-paid for it. This will cause a collapse in the brand as no one will want to pay that much for their items if they can get it cheaper elsewhere, or know that ‘societal unsavory individuals’ will be wearing them at the same time.
The other, and probably least recognized issue is the affect on the clothing industry as a whole. This has been a particular problem in very poor regions of Africa and South America. The infiltration of charities giving away free clothes has destroyed any hope of a local industry and sadly closed down the manufacture of traditional style clothes. In areas of true extreme poverty, where the chance of death from exposure is a real risk, these practices have indeed saved lives. It is the collateral damage from an over-abundance of these items which has spread throughout these areas that wreak havoc on the local clothing industry.
Reusable Shopping Bag Choices
Shopping bags have really come a long way. Baskets turned into paper grocery bags, which then gave way to disposable plastic bags, and now up next in the evolution of the shopping vessel is the stylish reusable tote bag. A lot of cities are beginning to tax disposable plastic bags in grocery stores, and rightly so in my opinion (just see my post on the Pacific plastic trash island to see why), and with pocket size replacements that can go anywhere, there really are no more excuses.
So lets get into it:
Flip and Tumble
Material: Ripstop Nylon
Size: The size of a peach folded, carries 2x the amount of a common plastic shopping bag. (12″ x 14″ x 5″)
Cost: $7-$12 depending on quantity
Why: The smallest and easiest to crunch down to fit into your purse or backpack
They have a wide palate of colors/prints, and the single long padded handle strap allows you to shoulder the bag. Also check out their produce bags.
Baggu Bag
Material: Ripstop Nylon
Size: Folds into a flat 5 “x 5″ pouch, carries 3x the amount of a common plastic shopping bag (15″ x 25″ x 6″)
Cost: $6.50-$8 depending on quantity
Why: Cheapest and highest capacity, but doesn’t fold as small
Wide range of sizes and colors, two wide loops for shoulder carrying. Also check out their high-capacity bags for less trips.
Envirosax
Material: Lightweight polyester, bamboo, linen and fine grade hemp
Size: Rolls into a 4″ x 1.5″ pouch, carries 2x the amount of a common plastic shopping bag (19.5″ x 16.5″ x 5″)
Cost: $7.50-$26 depending on quantity and material
Why: Wide range of materials as well as styles
Popular designs, graphics, colors and styles for children as well as diverse materials make Envirosax worth checking out.
Etsy Find:
Material: Recycled/Re-used T-shirt
Size: 16″ x 17 1/2″ with a 3″ gusset – roll up secured with an elastic band
Cost: $24 custom orders accepted
Why: Unique, no new materials used, great example of reuse.
Very cool look, fully lined and handcrafted. Etsy is going to have many one-off, custom and unique bags to select from.
Finisterre UK Surf Clothing
As a Christmas gift this year I received a surfing video from a friend which got me not only dreaming of surfing, but also of some of the great surf gear out there. This being winter for us up in the Northern Hemisphere, warm clothes and green wetsuits are required to ride our eco-friendly surfboards.
A company called Finisterre, based out of the UK, is doing great things in the world of surfing, and really for all outdoor activities. Also founders of Offset The PLC, they are working to reduce the amount of waste found in consumer goods today. Less raw material waste, production waste, transport waste, and ultimate disposable waste.
“After a certain point the correlation between material goods and happiness breaks down to such an extent that it is questionable as to whether a relationship actually exists.
So again we find less is more.”
With company values like that, along with truly eco-friendly products, and a One Percent for the Planet member, they earn five stars with me.
Neogreen Insulated Lunch Totes and Kozees
I usually tote my lunch to work in a re-used paper bag, but by the end of the week that bag ends up looking pretty haggard. Thankfully the guys over at Neogreene heeded my call and sent me one of their new eco-friendly insulated lunch tote along with a waterbottle cozy.
Many of you may remember my article a little while back about green neoprene technology, where I first mentioned Neogreene and their laptop sleeves. They have since expanded their line to include lunch totes, water bottle cozies and wine bottle carriers in a spread of color combination’s.
Aside from how green they are, they are also very cool looking and well constructed. I have to be honest in saying the shapes are a bit feminine for me (rounded corners and such make them look a bit like womens handbags) but my girlfriend loves them. I’m not giving up the cozy though- it is perma-plastered to my stainless steel kleen kanteen.
As you may have noticed, all the products have animal names. These are endangered species, a reminder that GreenSmart now donates 10% of net profits to the World Wildlife Fund and other environmental organizations.
Design Within Reach Eco Design Water Filter
I do despise bottled water, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to drink artesian spring water. Lucky I came across this beautiful and elegant water pitcher by Design Within Reach (DWR). I do own a Pur water filter pitcher, but I have never liked all that plastic (and large disposable plastic water filters). DWR fills this need beautifully with a water pitcher that is fit for your table (even with the filter elements in it).
Water is filtered through Iouseki stones and Binchotan charcoal, creating fresh, mineral-rich water. While not necessarily the greenest, the stones come from the mountains in Kanazawa, the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, on the Sea of Japan coast. The charcoal filtration elements are specially prepared for potable water use, and also works as a deodorizer to create odor-free water.
Shoes that Biodegrade, even in a Landfill?
I was shocked, just as you might be after my last article on how long things take to biodegrade. It seems to be biodegrade month here on The Chic Ecologist, so I am very happy to be reporting on a company that has developed a way to allow their product to biodegrade in a non-compost environment – particularly a landfill.
Sustainable shoes are starting to gain some attention from Toms and Reef, to even New Balance, larger shoemakers are getting into it. There have been a few pioneers in this industry, shaping it as they go, one of these brands is Simple.
Simple Shoes are coming out with a new line of shoes called BIO-D with a biodegradable outsole and midsole with an impregnated pellet mixture containing millions of tiny microbes to ensure it’s journey to dirt. Like their existing line of ecoSneakssustainable footwear, they are made with materials such as recycled car tire bottoms, hemp uppers, organic cotton linings, recycled plastic bottles (PET) shoe laces and foot beds, and water-based glues.
The process only begins in landfill or compost-like conditions, so they will not be a pile of dirt in your closet overnight. Because they can degrade in both anaerobic (without oxygen) and aerobic (with oxygen) conditions, they actually will break down in a landfill.
