Did you know you can dress "green" with out actually wearing the color? With eco-friendly fabrics, you can get durability, comfort, and style. The use of all natural, organic fabrics is a new movement in fashion. With minimal impact on the environment the benefits of their use are starting to resonate more and more from designers on down to department stores. Although a bit harder to find, and at times more expensive, they are worth the work. Keep this in mind: buying even partially green fabrics lessens your environmental impact, and reduces your own contact with chemicals. Everyone wins.

 

 

Cotton—Cotton happens to be the worlds oldest and most used fabric. It's easy to see why: it's readily available, comfortable, versatile, and for the most part, inexpensive. But most conventionally grown cotton is heavily processed. In fact, it takes a third of a pound of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to produce the cotton for just one T-shirt. That equates to a lot of pollution and toxic chemical exposure for farmers, manufacturers, end users, and wildlife. As public awareness and concern for sustainable fabrics is growing, organic cotton is becoming easier to find in stores. Make sure to carefully examine labels and certification when buying organic clothing, as it can still contain processing chemicals and metal-laden dyes.

Linen—We all love it. It's cool. It's light. It's comfortable. A fabric derived from flax, linen can easily be grown organically. An extremely strong fiber as well, linen has almost three times the strength of cotton, and is very long-lasting. Linen is also an easily dyed fabric, and the color does not fade when washed. Compared to cotton, linen uses less water and produces fewer pollutants in the dying process, therefore making it a solid, low-impact, eco-friendly fabric choice.

Hemp—When most of us think of hemp, Woodstock and the 70's come to mind. But the truth is that hemp is another eco-friendly, natural fabric used in clothing. A versatile fabric similar to linen in both texture and appearance, hemp is the most water resistant of all natural fabrics. Other characteristics of hemp fiber are its superior strength and durability. Hemp fiber also allows for environmentally friendly bleaching, without the use of pollutant chemicals such as chlorine.

You can make a difference by purchasing clothes made with natural, organically grown fabrics and still look fabulous!