This is Part I of Make Your Professional Wardrobe Work for Your Wallet and the Environment: Walk the Eco-runway this Fashion Week
As I rummage through the clothes in the Junior League Thrift Shop, I can just hear Tim Gunn saying, “Make it work!” And so I do, guilt-free, as I add a basic black skirt to my wardrobe. After all, I am reusing and helping to support my local economy, and like others, I want to look and feel my best. We all do, especially as professionals in the workplace.
Well, it’s that time of year: Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week (September 9 – 16) with all the latest styles for Spring 2011. And it always reminds me of the struggle I face personally with this highly alluring, not so eco-friendly and yet necessary arena of our lives – clothing.
According to The Museum at FIT’s Eco-Fashion: Going Green exhibit now on at The Fashion and History Gallery through November 13, 84 pounds of textiles are consumed per person each year in the United States. And while worldwide, 30 million people are employed by the fashion industry, many of these folks do not receive fair wages. Not to mention the pesticides used and damage caused to the environment and ourselves that can occur when creating new fibers for the process of making textiles.
The fashion industry is not unaware of these problems of how fashion has impacted the environment in the last fifty years. In fact, to counter, many runways have been walking the walk with the environment for a while now. Nancy Judd’s Recycle Runway has been touring the country since 2003, and her recent airport installations are continuing to educate and inspire visitors across the nation about environmental stewardship. Many designers offer sustainable and recycled fabrics. “Green” was touted as the new “black” at New York Fashion Week this past spring when the Bryant Park location of the Fall Fashion 2010 preview went carbon neutral (because it was, after all, fashionable), and The Green Shows counted down all the latest eco-trends.
There is even an entire show dedicated to such fashions: Eco Fashion Week begins September 27 in Vancouver.
In honor of Fashion Week, this daughter of a fashion designer and a practical scientist offers up some tips for looking and feeling your best in your “professional” wear without putting a huge dent in your wallet or the environment.
When adding new pieces to your wardrobe:
Reuse! Shop at second hand stores.
In an Spring 2008 article about the plastic-vs.-paper-bag debate, Robert Lilienfeld, Editor of The ULS Report, says, “research indicates that up to 99 percent of environmental burdens created by retail purchases are not caused by shopping bags, but rather by the stuff put in those bags and the energy it takes to create, transport, and store that stuff!” Reduce the amount you consume, and reuse as much as you can.
You’ve heard it before, but one person’s trash IS another’s treasure. Vintage clothing is always trendy and business basics can nearly always be found at local thrift stores.
When things get tough, go swapping!
Hold a swap meet dinner party with friends and/or co-workers and exchange business attire that you are tired of.
This allows you to revitalize your business attire with just a few “new” items and accessories. Have your willing swap-meet guests bring unwanted, but in good condition, business clothing and accessory items and even a covered dish to share for a fun evening that’s a win-win for everyone and the environment.
Separate the items by size and style. Hang the clothes on racks or neatly fold them on a table. To be fair, be sure all guests limit their trades to the amount of clothing/accessories they brought in, and donate any unclaimed clothing at the end of the evening to charity.
Read the labels.
Speak out, speak up and vote with your wallet!
Conscious consumers must research their options and labels when purchasing new clothing. Having an understanding of what goes into the products we purchase is an important first step. From our personal care products to our clothing, there are many steps along the way that may or may not be the best for the environment or workers. Sometimes there will be no real advantage to one product over another when even one step along the way falls short of being eco-friendly or fair. Just a few items to look for in clothing and accessories that are more sustainable:
- Organic Cotton
- Fair Trade
- Recycled Content (so cool when you know your fibers are recycled #1 PET soda bottles and/or recycled cotton fiber)
And just in time to make this research easier, a new Eco Index tag (be sure to check out the interactive “Greener Jean”), that will work much like an Energy Star rating of the fashion world, has launched this month with a coalition of 100 participants onboard, including Patagonia, Levi Strauss & Co., Timberland Co., Target Corp., and Nike. While not perfected, it is a great start, and the new labels should be super helpful once they are widely used and understood. The aim – help us, and the participating brands and retailers, measure the human rights and environmental impacts of items from raw material to final resting place.
Invest for the long term.
While most of us do not sport haute couture, perhaps it is also something to consider. Fashion has not always been so disposable. It was once revered as a lasting commodity. From time to time, it may actually be wise to invest in garments that are made from eco-friendly fibers, ethically crafted and that will last a lifetime and become family heirlooms. You may even choose to invest your own time in sewing your original designs.
Accessorize.
Since many trends last only a few months, new trend-setting looks can be achieved with staple, basic business attire you find with the methods above adorned with recycled accessories that you make or purchase through a fair trade provider.
When discarding pieces from your wardrobe:
Donate business clothing in good condition to help disadvantaged women and men take charge of their lives and have successful careers.
Not-for-profit organizations, like Dress for Success or other clothes closets/thrift stores in your community, help those in need with the professional clothing they need to make a successful career.
This is a great way to put unwanted items from your own closet to good use and a good cause. Sometimes the only thing in the way of a good job is the clothes on your back.
Recycle items that are on their last legs.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans threw away 12.4 million tons of textiles in 2008. Textiles can be recycled. From our discards, bales of clothing can even make their way all over the world to some of the tiniest and remotest of villages. If your unwanted clothing is in good condition, be sure it gets to a reuse center, but if it is truly in bad shape (all torn up and irreparable), recycle it through a local textile recycling company, which can transform it into rags, new textiles, insulation, and even paper. Just in time for Fashion Week, New York City is rolling out a new textile-recycling program this month.
Don’t forget, clothing is just a second skin:
Be sure that your personal care products are safe for you and our environment.
Every model uses them, and so do we. The Environmental Working Group estimates that we each use up to ten personal care products each day; however, our personal care products can contain chemicals that can not only unintentionally harm us, but also end up in our waterways with unknown effects on our plant and other animal ecology. You can learn more about how the things we use to keep our skin safe, like sunscreen, and other personal care products (everything from toothpaste and shampoo to deodorant, shaving products and cosmetics) rate with the Skin Deep Cosmetics Safety Database.
More from GreenNurture
- The Heart of Change – Making Change Last
- Make Your Professional Wardrobe Work: The New (Eco-friendly) Laundry List
- 4 Barriers to Business Recycling
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