So you’ve spent the past year trying to be more environmentally conscious. You are buying eco-friendly cleaning products, trashed the old light bulbs and replaced them with energy saving ones. What’s next?
While fashion is your hobby, you can’t find any clothing that is eco-friendly and fashionable. You aren’t a T-shirt or leggings kind of person. Your tastes run more eclectic or more professional and you only wear T-shirts on weekends.
Not too worry. Some designers are addressing the eco-friendly market and have some super fashionable dresses and undergarments. None have shops in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but that’s why smart people invented the Internet.
Here are 5 fashion designers who have eco-friendly brands that you might find appealing:
Stella McCartney (daughter of Beatles member Paul McCartney) launched her own line in 2001. She is a lifelong vegetarian and doesn’t use leather or fur in her work. McCartney is upfront about her commitment to sustainability. She pledges on her website to operate a responsible, honest and modern business. She defines those principles as running a company and supply chain “that respects the planet as well as the people and animals in it.” Her company’s plan is to replace what it takes from earth by using organic cotton, polyester made from recycled plastic bottles and wind energy to power her operations.
She has 40 shops worldwide and is sold at select retailers.
Blackberry Maverick is based in Colorado Springs and sells its dresses through its website at www.blackberrymaverick.com and select retail shops in Denver and Los Angeles. The clothes are manufactured in Chicago and Denver and can be returned if they don’t fit.
The edgy clothes are made from sustainable fabrics like hemp and polyester made from recycled plastic and are moderately priced. While all the models have tattoos, it’s not a requirement to wear the body-hugging dresses.
SVILU was founded in 2012 with a specific mission in mind: to make environmentally sustainable staple clothing for women.
The New York-based brand uses organic cotton, Tencil, a textile made from eucalyptus tree pulp, and Modal, a textile made from the pulp of Beech trees. Clothes can be purchased online at www.svilu.com and through select retailers.
KOWTOW founder Gosia Piatek went in search of a factory in India to make her clothes that used sustainable organic cotton and treated its workers well. The New Zealand-based designer found a site that not only used the sustainable materials she wanted, but also provided meals to its workers and education for employees’ children. Her clothing is sold through its website at www.kowtowclothing.com and through www.goodasgold.com, a New Zealand based online store and shop.
Lastly we have Patagonia. I have discussed them previously because they use textiles from recycled plastic bottles to make fleeces and have used organic cotton since 1996. They also make fleece from recycled fleece and include Tencel and hemp textiles in production.
They are a model company because they work hard at being an environmentally and socially responsible. They offer awesome benefits to employees and examine how much electricity and paper are used in production. They are making a conscious effort to have as light an environmental footprint as possible.
What is super special about Patagonia is they are aware of the challenges of reducing their impact on the environment and discuss their efforts with pride and concern because as they say, they aren’t perfect.
While more brands are looking at using eco-friendly materials like organic cotton, a truly sustainable brand also takes into consideration its manufacturing processes and how much waste the company produces. Few firms do that so these five designers are especially eco-friendly because they do.