Time was when a Save the Whales T-shirt and a pair of jeans were all anyone needed to make an ecology fashion statement.
No longer. Now consumers are thinking more deeply. People read labels and ask questions: Is this cotton T-shirt blended with polyester? (Petrochemicals are nonrenewable resources.) Are there metal studs and buttons on those jeans? (The electroplating process produces hazardous waste.) And what happens to the chemicals used to bleach and dye these clothes?Consumers who care about the environment have protested excess packaging, pesticides, etc. Now they're looking at the textile industry.
Changes are coming - and not only because of pressure from consumers. Some clothing manufacturers want to be environmentally responsible. They believe customers will pay a little more for clothes that hurt the world a little less.
Sally Fox is one of the new breed of clothiers. Fox is an entomologist who was trying to find an insect-resistant strain of cotton when she rediscovered something about the plant, a fact that our colonial forefathers knew, but industrial-age Americans had forgotten.
Cotton, like sheep, comes in different colors.
Once she learned she could grow green and brown cotton, Fox contracted with Texas growers to do just that. Not only is she producing cloth that doesn't need to be dyed, Fox says, her cotton doesn't need to be chemically defoliated. White cotton gets stained if harvested with the leaves on. With colored cotton, stains don't matter.
It's still cheaper to grow white cotton and dye it with chemicals, however. Colored cotton sells for $3 to $7 a pound compared to 90 cents a pound for traditional white cotton. Fabrics colored with vegetable dyes cost $17 a yard; traditionally dyed fabric is more like $4 a yard. Buttons made of nut shells cost $18 for 12 dozen. The same amount of plastic buttons cost $5.
Still, there are manufacturers who are willing to try to save the Earth.
In Business, a magazine for environmental entrepreneurs, reports on Bill and David Huffman, of ValleyCare, who make socks and underwear out of all-natural, all-renewable resources: cotton, rubber and wool.
Mary Lou and Daniel Sanders make Ecosport organically grown cotton clothes. Organic cotton is relatively low-yield and expensive, say the Sanders. Another problem: Growers may say their cotton is organically grown when it's not.
Manufacturers aren't getting rich, they say, but they have found ways to market their natural brands - including stores like Terre Verde Trading Co. in New York City; GreenGoods, Takoma Park, Md.; and Fred Segal for a Better Ecology, Santa Monica, Calif.
Now large clothing companies are joining the ecomovement.
This month Esprit, U.S.A., releases a new line of sportswear called Ecollection. Ecollection features buttons made of recycled glass and the shells of the Ecuadorian Tangua nut. Other fasteners are made of copper alloys, instead of electroplated metals. And Ecollection fabrics are colored with less-polluting dye methods. If the new dye process were to be used on all the fabric Esprit buys, nearly 5,000 tons of chemical-laden wastewater could be eliminated each year, says the Environmental Business Journal.
Ecollection is still in the research and development stage, says Tracy Wheeler, Esprit public relations. It's only carried at Esprit stores, only available through mail order to Utahns.
"We are not sure this is going to work. What we are looking at is what sources could be used to do a high production-run line at a cost we could put into department stores," says Wheeler. Dyes will be part of the picture.
"We have unbleached cotton in our lines now. But we are at the forefront of junior fashion. Color will always be important to our customers."
Meanwhile, Levi Strauss is buying green and brown cotton from Sally Fox. Levi's new line of brown, undyed denim-wear is already out. They'll introduce olive Levis next year.
George Troy, buyer for Weinstock's, says the brown Levi's have been available in California Weinstock's stores since before Christmas. "They retail for $49.50 and they've been selling well." He can't bring them to Utah this year, he adds.
"They're just in very limited production." However, Utahns can charge a pair at a local Weinstock's and have them mailed in from California.
"It's really a positive thing in our society that clothing manufacturing has become a consumer issue," says Debbie Courey, director of pollution prevention for EnviroSearch, a Salt Lake consulting company.
"Let's not forget the volume we purchase is an issue, too." The newest trend in California is not to shop 'til you drop but to shop responsibly. One owner decorates his Santa Monica stores with signs that say, "Don't Buy More Than You Need."
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Clothing labels can ensure proper fit with environment
These clothing labels can help the consumer make environmentally wise choices:
A European lable. Indicates least harmful manufacturing processes.
Earthwise. Textile products are nonpolluting in manufacture; made from organically grown renewable fibers; biodegradable; natural fibers; biodegradable; natural color or dyed with natural organic dyes; free of fabric finishes.
Natural. Made from nenewable fibers that are not organically grown; biodegradable; natural color or dyed with natural dyes that are not organically grown; free of fabric finishes.
Nontoxic. Made from renewable fibers that are not organically grown; biodegradable; dyed with petrochemical synthetic dyes; free of fabric finishes. *****
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Fashion show for teens
Nordstrom and YM (Young and Modern) magazine are sponsoring a global awareness fashion show for teens on Saturday, April 4, at 11 a.m. at the Fashion Place Mall Nordstrom. Cindy Richards, Nordstrom media relations, says the show will help young people focus on how personal choices affect the world. The event coincides with Nordstrom's special promotion of an unbleached, organically grown cotton T-shirt with the message: Reduce Reuse Recycle. For details call 261-4402.