What is the deal with Sustainable Fashion?
Fashion Al Fresco or fresh air fashion is my name for sustainable fashion. Here you see me in a Lavuk sustainable blazer by Los Angeles designer Natasha Gindin. As a long time Los Angeles based eco-fashion journalist,
I’ve access to the green or sustainable business side of Hollywood and Los Angeles. I meet designers and business people that are doing business in new ways. B Corporations, triple bottom line profits and socially conscious business has become my norm. I learned why our everyday actions matter, right down to what we wear on our backs.
Why?
Our clothing has a very significant impact on the planet. The processes used to manufacture clothing are harsh on the earth. The dyes used to make our clothing colorful contain extremely toxic chemicals which are dumped into waterways like streams, rivers and lakes. The process used to make leather for our coats, boots and shoes is incredibly harmful to our water and yet, the byproducts are again, flushed into the environment. These are just two of the many clothing manufacturing processes that routinely spew their waste into the world’s waterways and skies. So what we wear matters.
To be sustainable means something does no harm to the earth during its life cycle, from beginning to end. For clothing, that life cycle is from the time its manufactured until its no longer useful. Sustainable fashion companies and designers make clothing that integrates non-harmful manufacturing processes. These designer’ “best practices” can include any or all of the following: using organic and nontoxic dyes and materials, recycling fabrics, reconstructing older designs, wearing vintage or secondhand clothing, sourcing sustainable textiles or using local and fair trade labor which means fair wages and high quality working conditions.
Wearing styles that I know are in some way sustainable really goes a long way with me. It can mean simple actions, like wearing clothes more than one season or buying something at a vintage store. Or visiting sustainable designers and buying the real deal. No matter what, it s good, it’s green and it’s glam. Some might say rationalization, I just say, I’m in….