Clothworks
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 06.17.05
100% Romanian hemp, hand printed with iron*, natural coconut buttons, no synthetic interlinings, labels printed onto organic fabric ‘scraps’. Sounds like the sort of thing that we’d be interested in. The Hemp Walnut Print Skirt at £95 ($174 USD) is just one of the products from Clothworks, of Bradford on Avon. Several impressive treehuggery enterprises emanate from this spot in the UK countryside. It’s also the home of the famed Moulton bicycle if you'll pardon the digression. We noticed that Clothworks do a line of organic cotton and organic linen fabric products for women and children, whilst also offering organic cotton sheets and duvet/doona/quilt (ah, the variances of the English language) covers for baby cots. And those said organic materials are of the certified kind. *Printing done with tannin is also available. ::Clothworks
I'd love to buy this clothing - very stylish as well as earth friendly - but the prices are too high for me to afford.
I have a few pieces of organic cotton clothing but the organic cotton I buy is few and far between. The prices are substantially higher than comparable items made with conventional fabrics.
So we have a Catch-22. The pricing needs to be lower to increase demand and the demand needs to increase to lower the prices.
So where do we go from here?
Lillian, thanks for being more 'gentle' with us than some other readers have been, regarding the price issue. Behind the scenes TH writers have been discussing this very point. It has been neatly summarised in comments at another post
( http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/06/mark_macek_envi.php ).
You are spot-on about the economies of scale dictating supply and demand. But at TH we don't filter on the basis of price. If there were more conscientious purchasers like yourself buying even a few well chosen pieces of 'green' clothing, we'll all be moving in the right direction. A lot doing a little can get us to a 'tipping point', just as fast as the converse.
I guess in general some guidelines for green purchasing would be:
1. only buy what you need;
2. if you do need to purchase something then buy reused (pre-loved) as a first option;
3. If it must new then buy durable;
4. buy classic styles that keep you 'fashionable' for the longest period
5. buy from businesses that treat their workers and suppliers fairly
6. buy apparel that doesn't need dry cleaning, and at most negligible ironing. (laundering clothes has a higher environmental load than material selection)
7. If you make it this far, and you have a choice between organic and chemically intensive materials, the only real arbiter is the size of your wallet or purse. If you can afford the more benign option, please do.
PS. you could also encourage friends and family to follow your lead. The more the merrier. And try lobbying your local politican to reduce subsidies to high chemical load agriculture, so the organic guys were actually competing on a 'level playing field'.