Green Cotton

From Somewhere at UK RE Fashion Awards 2008

Last Thursday night, British fashion icons, celebrities and pioneers of the eco-fashion movement gathered at the RE: Fashion Awards in London to celebrate innovators in this ever-growing industry. As Green Cotton reported, this event was the first of its kind: an awards show solely dedicated to celebrating the best in organic, sustainable, fair trade, ethical fashion. Participants included models and British “It-Girls” Daisy Lowe and Pixie Geldorf, as well as designers Vivienne Westwood and Preen.

Many beloved British designers and clothing companies were nominated for awards like RE: Designer of the Year. This honor went to From Somewhere, a sustainable fashion label that manufactures its runway-worthy designs from recycled fabrics and surplus textiles. Izzy Lane received both the RE: New Designer of the Year Award along with the Estethica Prize, while Adili was named the RE:Retailer of the Year. For a full list of winners, check out the official RE: Fashion website.

Events like this are integral in helping introduce eco-fashion into the mainstream; hopefully this is the first of many! Lucy Shea, director of Futerra Sustainability Communications, was quoted on the RE: Fashion site, saying, “Britain is leading the ethical make-over of the fashion industry… tonight’s winners are tomorrow’s household names.”

Let’s hope that holds true, and continue to support ethical fashion worldwide! What do you think of the British eco-fashion industry? How do you think it compares to that of the U.S.? Any favorite designers you’d like to share? Let us know! We’d love to hear from you.

By Erin Dale

Second World,  a non-profit fair trade organization in Lowell Mass is running a Fair Trade Festival, called the New England Culture Fest next Saturday September 6 from 2pm – 10pm. Come check it out!

As part of that festival, Second World is running a Fashionably Fair Runway Show. Featured designers include:

Nomad’s Hemp Wear is an eco-sustainable clothing company based out of British Columbia (BC) producing two eco-fashion collections a year, mostly for their own stores in BC.

Norden Art Company Ltd a company that grew out of a desire to provide an equitable wholesale relationship between independent artists in Nepal and international retailers. Designs are unique and colorful designs inspired by the latest trends, yet carefully crafted from hand woven fabric by artists in Nepal.

Princess Cornflower is an organic fibers clothing company specializing in classic, feminine appeal and vintage-inspired designs.

The Emancipation Network a clothing line that is made by fair trade with a purpose. The Emancipation Network empowers people whose lives have been shattered by slavery, or who are at extremely high risk of being trafficked. Their products are labeled Made By Survivors.

While I must say that none of these designers were featured at Eco-Collection in Las Vegas, they are definitely doing some interesting work. The common thread throughout all, is the fair trade component. As such, they are not necessarily using organic or sustainable fibers, but they do promote fair trade. Hemp Wear is eco-sustainable and so is Princess Cornflower however.

Second World aims to create long-term partnerships between consumers in the North American market and producers in developing regions.

WHAT: New England Culture Fest
WHERE: Lowell, MA (across From 172 Middle Street, Lowell, MA 01852)
WHEN: September 6 from 2pm to 10pm
FASHIONABLY FAIR RUNWAY SHOW: to start at 7:45pm sharp

A tremendous line up of very cool, artists and musicians will also be at the fest – from Samba Tremeterra to The Juanito Pascual Flamenco Quartet, La Tuza Mexican roots music, as well as interactive Salsa Lessons,the tribal rock and fire dancing of Incus, the ladies of Vadalna Tribal Dance Company and many other world class acts. All are ‘in honor of a more sustainable, vibrant, and unified world’ according to Second World.

By Erin Dale

While blatantly stereotypical, it is difficult to deny that many women love shoes. We revel in tales of footwear fantasy: the famed 5,000 pair collection of Imelda Marcos (and Celine Dion’s attempts to match it); custom-made fairytale slippers that could take you anywhere (glass for Cinderella, ruby for Dorothy); Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw spying a pair of Manolo Blahniks and purring, “Hello, lover.” And Alicia Silverstone’s Cher wasn’t Clueless about finding her sole mates: “You know how picky I am about my shoes, and they only go on my feet.”

Of course, some can afford to be pickier than others. But whether we’re shopping for Christian Louboutin heels or look-alikes by Jessica Simpson, couldn’t we all stand to be a little pickier about how our shoe shopping choices impact the environment? If you care about keeping your – stylishly-clad – carbon footprint low, read on to find some of the most fashionable, eco-friendly footwear on the market.

Mohop (see above for shoes)

Who: Chicago-based footwear company created by architect (and earth-loving vegan) Annie Mohaupt, who began designing shoes as an experiment.
What: Environmentally sustainable wooden shoes. The soles are made out of recycled tires, and production uses only eco-friendly wood, glues, sealers and inks. All pairs are customizable by simply changing the ribbons that tie them on. Easy to care for—the wooden platforms can be cleaned with olive oil, and the ribbons are hand-washable. Ribbons come in sets of multiple palettes: brights, pastels, neutrals, even stripes.
Where: Find them on their website and in select boutiques nationwide.
Cost: A pair of cute platform wedges with a set of ribbons will set you back $298; keep in mind that, thanks to the interchangeable ribbons, you’re really getting several pairs in one! Also, prices vary depending on sole style; for instance, the plywood heels are less expensive than the wedges.

Form & Fauna

Who: California shoe company whose mission is to “create, but not at the expense of nature.”
What: Stylish shoes that meet every criterion on an ethical checklist: recycled and/or sustainable materials, fair trade, made in the USA, cruelty-free (from the high-quality, toxin-free Italian synthetics to the water-based glues). You can read the complete list here.
Where: Form and Fauna and 11 different stores
Cost: The “Paris in Spring” style retails at $295. As part of their mission statement, Form & Fauna advocates buying less of things, and their heels are built to last.

Patagonia

Who: Environmental clothing and sporting goods authority that “believe[s] in using business to inspire solutions to the environmental crisis.”
What: Though known for their active wear and sports gear, Patagonia also has an extensive footwear collection, some of which is surprisingly fashionable. Try the ‘Gilia’ ballet flats, or leather-rubber-and-jute ‘Alkali’ sandals. Keep in mind that while the company is committed toward sustainability, these shoes aren’t perfectly green: the soles are 15-20% recycled, and vegans should note that they are made from pigskin leather.
Where: Patagonia
Cost: A little less expensive than their trendier counterparts: The ‘Alkali’ costs $80; The ‘Gilia,’ $85.

Terra Plana

Who: U.K.-based, award-winning sustainable footwear company.
What: The cutest eco-friendly shoes—ever. Sustainable? Check. Recycled materials? Check. Cruelty-free? Well… the Terra Plana Worn Again line uses leather, but it’s recycled from old car seats. To me, that’s the grandfather clause, and it’s better to use that leather for shoes than to just throw it away. The Vivo Barefoot shoes are made from chrome-free leather, vegetable-tanned leather, or ‘E-leather’ (“a unique blend of leather and textile fibers intimately ‘re-woven’ and finished so it is practically indistinguishable from good quality leather”). And these designs are made from many recycled materials: in addition to car seats, Terra Plana uses seatbelts, bicycle tires, parachute silk, reclaimed denim, even tweed jackets!
Where: Terra Plana and Worn Again
Cost: Depending on the style, of course, expect to pay anywhere from $50 to $200.

These are just a few of the great shoe companies that can help you “green your sole.” For additional eco-friendly footwear options, try directories like Planet Shoes or EcoMall.com. What are some of your favorite ethical shoe companies? Would you wear any of the designs we featured? Let us know what you think!

Photo: organic silk lingerie at keetsa.com

By Brit

Silk is one of the most unique, and one of the oldest fabrics in the world.

Much of the silk produced today is made from the cocoons spun by the larvae of the Bombyx mori moth, the mulberry silkworm. When a silkworm hatches from it’s egg, it ravenously consumes fresh mulberry leaves for just over a month, growing from a tiny speck to a fat caterpillar. The silkworm then begins spinning a cocoon of silk filament. In 2-3 days the silkworm can spin a continuous thread up to one mile long around itself, at which point it plans to begin it’s metamorphosis into a moth.

The silk producers have other ideas: they boil the silkworms in water, and the cocoons are unreeled onto spinning wheels which twist several filaments together to make fibres. These fibres are then woven into silk fabric.

This, clearly, is not a happy ending for the silkworm, and that’s just one of many issues with wearing silk.

One mile of filament sounds like a lot, but it takes thousands of silkworms, and many pounds of mulberry leaves to make a dress. 1 acre of mulberry trees produces over 11 tons of leaves, which will feed 240 lbs of silkworms and their cocoons, and will yield just 37 lbs of raw silk.

Like other commercial crops, the mulberry trees occupy land, consume water, and require “a plentiful supply of fertilizers” to produce a high yield of leaves. And growing a plant that bugs love to eat means controlling the bugs that you don’t want to eat it. Mulberry trees are sprayed with pesticides to kill the many other insects who also think that they are tasty.

Chemicals can also be used on the silkworms to increase the amount of silk produced. Methoprene is an insecticide and hormone disrupter which may be applied to silkworms to slow their growth rate and extend the time they spin silk.

Once a luxury fabric reserved for Chinese empresses and emperors, today silk is an mass-production industry with intense pressure on prices. While high-quality, handmade silks are still used for gowns and high-end designer clothing, most silk manufacture is a maximum-output-for-minimum-input business. Most silk production takes place in China, and a significant amount in India; neither country is known for workers rights. When Forever 21 can turn out pure silk dresses for under $30, labor concerns come to mind for the people working in the silk factories.

As well as labor concerns, health issues also afflict silk workers. Silk workers who process raw silk often suffer from asthma and respiratory diseases caused by a fine dust from the gum that binds the strands secreted by the silkworm, and a host of unpleasant skin problems.

So what’s the alternative?

Organic Silk

A lot of garments are sold as being made from “organic silk”. But currently, there is no formal standard in the US or anywhere else for organic silk. Moves have been made towards a standard so organically produced garments can be labelled as such. There’s a precedent in organic standards for raising crops, and for raising animals, so presumably organic silk would involve growing the mulberry trees organically, without chemicals, and raising the silkworms humanely and without hormones. But as there is no standard, the term “organic silk” presently doesn’t mean anything.

Peace Silk

Mahatma Ghandi criticized the wearing of silk for the killing of silkworms. Some silk producers allow the silkworms to hatch into moths from their cocoons, then spin silk from the cocoons in a way similar to spinning wool. As the moths hatch, they chew a hole through the cocoons which makes reeling the silk in a continuous strand impossible. Peace silk is not as strong as conventional silk, but has a softer texture. One caveat: commercial silkworms have been selectively bred to make silk, and only make silk. All a Bombyx mori moth can do is mate, and die. They have vestigial wings, they can’t eat, and only live for a few hours after hatching. There’s no flying wild and free.

Wild Silk

Wild silk is more in line with animal rights. It is considered vegetarian, and is debatably vegan. Other species of wild moths spin silk cocoons, and once the moth has hatched, the cocoons are collected to make silk. The moth lives it’s natural life with no human interference - it has no need for the cocoon once hatched. Wild silk’s color, texture and lustre varies greatly with the species of moth, the leaves eaten, and the spinning and weaving methods used.

Most wild silk is produced in by small companies, co-operatives or individuals, and companies like Indigo Handloom integrate fair trade, fair wages and refusal to buy products created by child labor. With a similar philosophy, Amana, a British company, makes printed dresses and camisoles from wild silk which sell out infuriatingly fast; and Norwegian company Fin designs sleek, uptown garments which will keep their appeal for enough seasons to justify the higher price.

Recycled and Vintage Silk

A vintage silk dress, if it’s free from rot and stains (which sadly never come out) is a great investment. Silk, when cared for, can last for thousands of years - silk textiles over 4000 years old have been found in Chinese tombs.

Vintage silks lend themselves perfectly to recycling and re-working. These dresses, made from 1950s silk parachutes, seem positively youthful! And a search of the treasure trove of talent that is Etsy throws up many beautiful and ingenious ways to recycle silk into dresses, pillows, purses and accessories, like these slip dresses which I covet to wear to a summer picnic. And perhaps karma will stop the bugs – the silkworm’s distant relations - from biting me?

In sum, on the plus side, silk is durable (not to mention beautiful), lasting a really long time (up to thousands of years if preserved well!) and yet the resources needed to make silk are significant: from the water and pesticides to maintain mulberry trees, to the killing of silkworms to get the silk – all combined are a high cost. Organic silk does provide one alternative, but since that process is not yet certifiable, there are no guarantees that the process is pesticide-free, humane or resource conscious. Recycling old silks seems like a great alternative. Since the fabrics rarely degrade, it makes perfect sense to re-use and re-style.

Tell us what you think… What is your take on silk? Do you wear it and do you think it can be green? greencottonblog@gmail.com

Source: CS Monitor, courtesy of MAS eco-factory Depicts a rendering of the lingerie factory in Sri Lanka (now complete) runs on renewable energy and employs 45,000 workers.

CS Monitor announced last week the completion if the first ever eco-sustainable apparel factory in Sri Lanka. Built with evaporative cooling technology, solar panels and hydro power, the factory is the first of its kind in Asia (and perhaps even worldwide), setting a new standard in apparel manufacturing.

One problem with organic and sustainable garments today is that the fabrics may be green, but so often the manufacturing is anything but (not to mention a majority are still made in sweatshop conditions). The MAS factory solves this problem by greenifying HOW the clothes are made and dramatically reducing the carbon footprint of that part of the process.

With energy-efficient task lighting, low-emission permitting glass (which cuts down on heat transfer), and traditional applications such as courtyard design and tree plantings, the factory is an oasis of low carbon production amidst an industry of profuse waste (e.g. see Cambodian garment factory dumping its refuse in its backyard for passersby to scourge for materials).

Costing 25% more than the average garment factory, the MAS plant will cut and sew lingerie for a number of labels. So far according to the authors, there isn’t a mass retail company out there yet that has developed a full sustainability standard that accounts for the garment across every step of production.

We have the organic certification, but so often that is for the fabric itself and may exclude steps in the production process that occur after the certification. Furthermore, carbon footprint is not a factor separately considered in that certification process. For example, a garment may be made with organically grown cotton, but if coal-fired boilers and poor treatment of waste- water or toxic dyes are used later on, then the garment ultimately has a huge carbon footprint and potentially damaging effects on the environment.

As Linda Greer, a Natural Resources Defense Council senior scientist who specializes in toxic chemical pollution in textiles production notes,

‘true sustainability requires independent certification, extensive consumer-education campaigns, and a desire and ability to review entire supply chains.’

I could not agree this statement more. With certification we move toward a more informed consumer base as well as regulated supplier market, and move away from haphazard ‘green and socially responsible’ labeling with little meaning.

We all know that green-ification of goods costs more and without the strict certification and labeling in place and high levels of consumer awareness, it is very difficult to justify those additional costs. So the question is, how is it that a company like MAS is able to afford and/or justify such a substantial up-front investment?

According to the author, ‘economies of scale is one answer’ but in addition, MAS will arguably save money in the long (and even short run) in energy costs. Furthermore, by being the first to commit at this level, they will gain credibility and loyalty among consumers who are increasingly Green and socially conscious.

Just as Gary Hirshberg, CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farms, reflects in his new book ‘Stirring it Up,’ nearly all of the green decisions he and his company made in its 25 year history proved economical and beneficial for the business in the long run. I might add, in an era of rising fuel costs, how can sustainable, energy efficient architecture and systems not be beneficial? By leveraging energy efficient solutions such as solar, hydro and other technologies, MAS will be ahead of the pack in less than a few years if energy prices continue on their current track.

See CS Monitor for more information.