In the UK a lot of kids still have to wear uniforms; now they can wear pure polyester made from PET pop bottles. It would be nice if it was a local industry, with visions of Scottish weavers fishing bottles out of the ocean, spinning them into yarn, weaving the fabric and sending it off to Saville Row, but no, it is made in Taiwan and tailored in Europe "to avoid the use of child labour."
Mark Southcott of
School Colours told the Guardian the jackets and trousers look and feel like any manmade fibre clothing, but every stitch was once part of Coke's familiar hourglass bottles."We have to use clear plastic because colours weaken the fibre"
Just don't tell mom
about the antimony.
::Guardian...
Often when we post about a company crafting something from recycled PET (polyester) someone will let lose a rant about antimony. And they aren’t, as some might assume, opposing the dollars and cents economy. Rather, they are concerned about a naturally occurring, brittle, silver-white metal that can be used as a catalyst in the polymerisation of polyester resin.
Lauded
Cradle-to-Cradle ecodesigner and toxins campaigner
William McDonough. has been on Antimony’s case for years. His company MBDC
says of the stuff: “Along with being a carcinogen, antimony is toxic to the heart, lungs, liver and skin. Long-term inhalation of antimony trioxide, a by-product of polymer production, can cause chronic bronchitis and emphysema.” ...
Smelly feet have an amazing grip on Western society. They bring out the oversensitive teenager in us, and those who ignore their own smelly appendages break a powerful taboo. Which leads to a product design trend that is most definitely Un-Treehugger.
Unbelievably, (in retrospect), manufacturers once toyed with the idea of reducing foot odor by treating stockings with the biocide known as
TBTO, the now banned marine antifoulant. TBTO is now widely recognized to have powerful endocrine distrupting effects at low concentrations: making female
marine whelks grow penises, a phenomenon known as
imposex.
From standpoint of dishing out market magic to body odor-obsessed Westerners, it's no surprise that colloidal ("ionic") silver, and now even "nano-silver" treated stockings, are being offered to the general consumer, as well as to more narrow medical market, where there is actual clinical value.
...
We go on about clotheslines and about how great they are for the environment. The technology of them is pretty basic and one wouldn't think there would be much room for improvement, but in fact one loses clothes-pins, and it can be a lot of work putting out the clothes. Now a Canadian inventor has reinvented the clothesline with a system that makes loading a clothesline 60% faster and removing the clothes 90% faster, and you never lose a clothespin again. We saw it in action at the
Cottage Life Show and were impressed, that such a basic thing as a clothesline could be improved so much....
Thanks to the mild climate of Sydney I luckily spend three quarters of the year wearing shorts. And I try to cycle commute. This results in embarrassing wear points developing where buttocks meet bike seat. I patch my shorts for as long as is feasible (see pic after fold), but sooner or later new shorts are required. So when Nau launched their spring line, including the Confidant Shorts with a reinforced seat the shout went up. Hallelujah! Clothing for the real world. A review of these and other Spring garments after the fold....
We love libraries here at TreeHugger. They’re a perfect example of a
Product Service System (PSS) where you get the service of an item without having to own it and all the cost and upkeep time that requires. In the past we’ve discussed
Toy Libraries and
Tool Libraries. But it seems we’ve forgotten to mention Clothing Libraries.
The ones I’m familiar with are like the
Belmont Clothes Library in Western Australia. A volunteer run organisation with over 1,500 fashion garments on its books it loans out, for free, male and female apparel to unemployed people, so they can look smart for crucial job interviews. We were reminded of this when reader Joe F. left a message on our Q&A post on
Green Business Suits. Joe is offering his collection of pre-loved business suits to a worthy organisation, like Belmont. Anyone know of something similar in the USA that Joe can donate his suits to?
...
Dyson is currently clarifying that a wind and solar clothing rack concept stems from a Dyson-branded design competition and is not a Dyson product protoype. Darn. But given how quickly the internet community embraced this design, that may just change. Websites and bloggers have been singing the praises of the clever "Air-line", submitted by Mr. Daniel Fitzgerald of Swinburn University. Will Dyson take the bait and take advantage of the creativity it has sponsored?...
The end of that tag line is: Fashion (and were afraid to ask). "
The A to Z of Eco-Fashion," an article from
Ecologist Online is a simple and straight forward guide that every shopper should read and commit to memory before hitting the street, and this month's sales. It starts at A, for "A year in fashion" with the observation that eco-fashion has changed from a trend into a movement because consumers are more concerned than ever. Consumer research shows an unprecedented rise in interest in the provenance of clothing: who makes it, how is it treated and what is the manufacturing process. In fact, over half (23.1 million) of Britain’s shoppers think that ethical production of the clothes they buy is important, according to one study (that's under C for "conscious consumerism").
It gets technical, with the details of junior buyers, lead times and multi-stakeholder ethical trading initiatives and triple bottom lines. By the time you have gotten through hemp, natural dyes, organic cotton, polyester and vegetable tanned leather, you will feel that you can apply for a job in the industry. W is for "Wash Less, Wash Green": buying fewer but better-made clothes and wash at 30°C instead of 40°C, air dry instead of tumble, iron only if necessary and use eco-friendly detergents. It ends with Z for "Zegna", the super expensive Italian brand that has committed its company to become environmentally friendly (pictured: their solar powered jacket). T is for twenty minutes well-spent. ::
The Ecologist
For more on eco-friendly fashion, check out our guide on
How to Green Your Wardrobe. ...
Japanese telecommunication company Oki Electric has just announced it will work with Teijin Fiber’s Eco-Circle process to recycled their worn corporate uniforms back into new uniforms. By March 2009 Oki plans to recycle “approximately 2,000 uniforms, equivalent to a gross weight of 1.2 tons and it has calculated that this process will immediately reduce its CO2 footprint by 3.7 tons.”
Eco-Circle [Flash Warning!} can take products, where the polyester content is higher than 80% (and hasn’t been blended with wool, acrylic and/or polyurethane), sort out the polyester from the zippers, buttons, etc, and reduce the fibre back to its molecular level, so that a fresh batch of high grade polyester can be produced. Which is a pretty smart technology because ......
Image Credit:
Human Inbox.
Via::
Ecotextile News. We’ve told you about the impacts of cotton versus viscose
here. Recently, the findings of a new life cycle analysis
(LCA) comparing a linen and cotton shirt were shared at
Premiere Vision by the French company
Masters of Linen. The LCA considers all stages of the life cycle of linen from the growing of flax to the processing, spinning, weaving, finishing, garment manufacture, care during the use phase and the recycling of worn-out garments.
The LCA shows that the major eco-benefits of linen are in the agricultural stage. The study claims that a shirt made of linen has a more sustainable eco-profile than the same shirt made of cotton. ...
Thirty.
Fit for the pages of GQ, eco-chic men can get even chicer with international clothier, Bagir.
The company – which clothes one in six British men – has just taken post-consumer waste to a new level through its EcoGir Recycled Suit.
...
It's official darling, buying new clothes is so out of fashion. All the smartest women are trading names of dressmakers, dyers, shoemakers and cleaners. They are tweaking, pinning and reviving old clothes to make them look up to date. It's a reaction to the disposable fast fashion rage (and London
Fashion Week?). The lifespan of a cheap garment is about six months--apparently charity shops are turning down these clothes because they don't survive more than three washes. Even Vivienne Westwood says: "I offer no choice but to ask for the end of indiscriminate consumption. If you have to choose something,
save up and choose well."
How to do it...Change the buttons on your coat, add trim to a plain skirt, put a belt on a smock top or dye it black. Mix new with old, re-line old coats, take out the shoulder pads, take shoes to the shoemakers to be fixed up.
...
We’ve covered this topic before, but to be honest I hadn’t realised just how big the issue was. Probably because backyard clotheslines are a cultural icon in Australia. The adjustable rotary clothesline, known as the
Hills Hoist, is such a part of our psyche it is exhibited in national and state museums, and was even incorporated into the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games. By 1994 some 5 million Hills Hoists had been sold, which is pretty impressive considering its country of origin only had 5.2 million detached houses at the time.
So it comes as a shock that America is resisting something that we take for granted. Mind you, as one of only three countries in the world holding out against metric, and the only developed country not signed up to Kyoto, I suppose one shouldn’t be too surprised. But, when
Project Laundry List inform us that electric clothes dryers use 6 % of residential electricity in the United States, while the US Department of Energy rate them as the
second biggest muncher of household energy, maybe that aversion needs redressing....
At last week's
Estethica exhibition, part of
London Fashion Week, there were many familiar faces, but as we greeted old friends we also welcomed new talent. One of those that particularly stood out was young designer
Mark Liu, a recent graduate of the Textile Futures course at
Central St. Martins. Liu's collection firstly stood out for the beautiful fabrics and delicate detailing. However, it was only on closer inspection that we discovered these details are not after thoughts, but are integral to the production of the garment. Mark Liu has a bold ambition and that is to cut waste out of fashion, one pattern at a time. He certainly is nifty with a pair of scissors. ...
The most interesting trend at this year's London
Fashion Week is the number of small companies working with disadvantaged groups in the production of eco clothing. Not only are these young designers saving the planet for us, they are also making new, productive lives for people in trouble. Whew! The least we can do is buy their stuff.
Dialog, a new label from two art student graduates, takes old and traditional fabrics from Asia and revives them as modern accessories. They work with community development projects in Hong Kong and train the women in skills such as sewing and making trim for the handbags. Their signature is a recycling technique from Malaysia that incorporates small origami folded squares of mixed fabrics. The bags are made out of recycled fabrics from Malaysia and Viet Nam....
It's always fun to try and chart the new "bright lights" of the fashion scene and we have found one: Julia Smith, and her small company "Conform". First noted here when she won the
Global Mamas competition at Topshop, where her made in Ghana batik dresses flew off the hangers. Now she is designing on her own in England so that she can control all aspects of the production. Her fabrics are all organic or sustainable materials. She uses hemp/wool tweeds and soy/organic cotton jersey. The antique bronze dress (pictured right) is a rich,deep colour and is a combination of hemp and silk, with a long row of cream coloured buttons down the back. The suit (left) is a Scottish tweed with a brightly patterned lining of hand-printed batik cotton from Ghana.
She calls her company "Conform" because she acknowledges that we have to conform but she gives it all a slightly non-conformist twist. Her tailoring is purposely masculine with a feminine side to it. She wants her clothes to make women feel confident and comfortable in a man's world. ::
Conform...
In part two of our interview with Yvon Chouinard, the maverick businessman talks about politics and the irony of living simply in a consumer society. He also rebuffs his brand’s “Pata-Gucci” reputation and explains why he’s started pouring cheap wine down the toilet. ::
TreeHugger Radio
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just
listen/right-click to download. Catch
part one here.
Full text after the jump....
Images by H&M, Photographer: Daniel Jackson
H&M, the Swedish high street store, has yet again made it into the TreeHugger news, just on time to spread some love for Valentine's day (check out
Green Valentine for other great gifts). After
applying the EU eco-label and
the launch of their organic cotton collection last spring, H&M has launched
Fashion Against Aids to spread awareness about HIV this month. Well-known artists such as Rihanna, Chicks on Speed, Good Charlotte, Henrik Vibskov, Jade Jagger, Justice, Katharine Hamnett, My Chemical Romance, Rufus Wainwright, Scissor Sisters, The Cardigans, Tiga, Timbaland and Ziggy Marley have each designed a 100% organic cotton T-shirts, tank tops or hooded sweater. Judging by the sold out racks of clothing the first days of the launch (at least here in Barcelona), the campaign is a great success....
It's London Fashion Week and treehugger is hitting the catwalk--in the interests of
research of course. Off to the hip, grimy east end and a queue of hundreds waiting to get into the Junky Styling show. Located in an old warehouse turned bar, with the electronica music throbbing, it was the hottest, raunchiest fashion of the night.
Junky Styling is
known for its edgy recycled clothes, mainly made out of old men's suits bought from second hand stores. The designers love using pinstripe and tweed and making these masculine fabrics into fabulous evening wear. There is no combination or re-creation that they haven't thought of. They can transform anything into a sexy dress or skirt for that wild party that you are yearning to stand out at. One dress (pictured) was made out of the cuffs of men's jackets layered into a tube with shoestring straps and complete with the gold buttons. Another was a red long dress, with black zippers covering the bodice and flowing on top of a red skirt. Yet another was made from green army jackets, with a red collar. ...
Grammy nominees this year will be treated to more than just expensive watches and exotic trips in those outrageous bags of swag. Amid all of the pre-partying and pampering going on at this year’s 50th Grammy Awards, green goods are making their way into the scene at
Green with Music ‘the first ever, all-green gifting retreat and Ayurvedic Spa’ for Grammy nominees, providing a green treat for all those artists brave enough to battle LA traffic. While checking out the green goods, attendees also got to people watch and mingle with celebs spotted in the crowd, including Omarosa, and the members of Evanescence (who liked it so much they came by both days).
The event was held February 8 & 9, 2008 in the lobby of
the South Collection building Elleven, the first and only LEED Gold certified, eco-chic residential building in California. Most of the green companies were based in Los Angeles and, interestingly enough, were predominantly companies that are relatively new. This gave great exposure to smaller, eco-friendly companies that are just getting their wings....
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the
if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
Over the last year there has been a relative rush of books on eco and ethical fashion published in the UK. We think this is an excellent indicator of the public’s awareness of how, what, where and whom produced the clothes in our closets. First was Tamsin Blanchard’s 
Here's an ad campaign for Adidas new eco range, Grun, that is bringing together quite a few green concepts into one curious melange. First we've got the product--Adidas has a a new line of 
Japanese designer Chie Imai has created bolero jackets for her fall '08 collection that mix fur from chinchillas with recycled polyester fabric from 
