Sustainability

Sustainability in Clothing. Earth Friendly Fashion. Green Fashon. Organic Materials. Ethical Fashion. If you're in a clothing store today or watch any kind of national news, you've heard at least a couple of these terms.  What do these phrases mean?  How will they affect us as clothing buyers and wearers?  Do they even matter?

When you type "Sustainability in clothing" into Google Search, the AI Overview definition reads: Sustainable clothing is made using environmentally friendly materials and practices. It aims to reduce the environmental impact of clothing production and consumption.

Ok.  Sure.  Good definition.  Can you get any more vague though? 

So, if you read my last two posts,  I talked about cotton & polyester. I mentioned how cotton is organic and sustainable & polyester is synthetic and non-sustainable.  I found in my research that just because something is synthetic, doesn't mean it's non-sustainable, and even some of the organics take a lot of extra work and resources to be "clean" and "organic". Since more and more people want "sustainable" fabrics, I thought we should look at the total package.

But first, I ask you-does sustainability even matter?  I heard something on a podcast that I listen to that resonated with me because of things I've heard my customers say.  I tried to find the exact episode, but couldn't.  The podcast is The Product Boss.  This is NOT a direct quote.  I am using my own words.  She said that more often than not, people care about sustainability until it gets in the way of something they want.  If something is sustainable, they will use that as an excuse to spend more money, or to make them feel better about their purchase.  On the other hand, if it isn't sustainable, they will get it anyway, because they want it.

Now, I didn't say everyone.  I do feel like that is very true though.  Or people don't even look at the tag, so they don't know what they are getting.  Show of hands, how many of you look at the tag before you buy?  How many of you know that 99% of all tagless garments still have a tag? FYI, it's usually on the side seam close to the bottom of the garment on one side or the other. 

Soooo.  Before I lose you to boredom...what does this have to do with anything?  Well, it has to do with how we decorate this apparel & how you will have to care for what we've decorated.  A lot of sustainable materials have been recycled, or they have required special care to keep them organic.  Because of this, they are more fragile.  For us, these require specialty decoration or we have to take special care when decorating. Special treatment = money, time = money).  For you, they will probably require special care because of the decoration and material.  

While researching the different kinds of sustainable fabric, my brain just about blew up.  There are so many options, both organic and synthetic.  Recycled.  Vegan. Non-Vegan. Deadstock. Upcycled. Holy cow.  I pulled some info from an article I found on Sustainablejungle.com  about different kinds of materials so I could then look into how to decorate & launder.  I'm not going to go thru all 31 (there are even more than that, but these are the main ones used in the clothing brands gaining the most momentum in sustainability).

Brass tacks people.  If you're going to take the time to find and buy sustainable fabrics, it would make sense that you'd want to take the next step and use eco-friendly practices and detergents to care for those garments.  These garments are going to be extra pricey, so you want them to last as long as they can. Let's face it, why bother to buy eco-friendly if you're not going to care eco-friendly?  This article from Thisgreenlifestyle.com will go into more depth about eco friendly laundry practices.

Just a few of the mentioned tips that I'll touch on have to do with any decoration that you might have on your garments.  1) Turn garments wrong side out when washing - this keeps your decoration from rubbing against something else in the washer that might tear or scrape your decoration.  2) Wash in cold water with a gentle detergent.  Obviously cold water will be better for your fabrics.  Gentle detergent will help the longevity of the fabric and the decoration. 3) I know I'm a broken record about this - either dry your garment only about 10 minutes in the dryer (on low heat) then hang to dry the rest of the way OR, better yet, don't dry it in the dryer at all.  There are so many things here.  a) The heat will cause embroidered areas to pucker and curl if the fabric is lightweight.  b) A lot of recycled synthetic fabrics come from recycled waterbottles and one-use plastics.  Have you ever blown a hot hair dryer on an empty plastic water bottle? c) Screen-printed graphics adhere to the fibers of a garment.  When that garment is dried in a hot dryer and the garment fibers shrink and change shape, the graphics will scrunch and deform and crack.   

Wow, what a rabbit hole.  We have just touched the tip of the iceberg on this.  I just wanted to open your mind to thinking about the different fabrics and how you need to care for them and the decorations that we put on them.  Read your tags people!!!