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EARTHY DESIGNS - green eco fashion

By Barbara Sullivan

This year’s hottest fashion buzz word is: Green. With a fervor not seen since the Summer of Love, Americans are seeking out clothes that are ecologically safe and environmentally sound.

And unlike those scratchy ponchos and shapeless tie-dye T-shirts circa ‘67, many contemporary “green” garments are more hip than hippie; they actually follow fashion trends instead of bucking them.

Mainstream retailers are introducing organic cotton tops, pants and dresses into their mix, and design companies at the top of the fashion food-chain are experimenting with organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, soy and corn fiber. At one show during fall fashion week in February, high-octane lines like Oscar de la Renta and Proenza Schuler put completely conscientious looks on the catwalk.

Meanwhile, Glamour, InStyle and Vanity Fair have recently run articles about the trend. Even that catalog of conspicuous consumption, Vogue magazine, features a multipage paean to eco-chic this month.

According to the Organic Trade Association, organic clothing is one of the fastest growing sectors of all organic products.

Production of organic cotton increased 76% between 2005 and 2006, and demand for almost doubled, according to the Organic Exchange, a nonprofit group that promotes organic agriculture. Clothes made from sustainable materials and manufactured in ways that do minimal damage to the earth are becoming much more prevalent in Western New York, especially in smaller specialty stores, according to Gabriel Colella, owner of Buffalo Hemp Outfitter, 1005 Elmwood Ave.

“People want things that support a healthy lifestyle, that are sustainable and good for the earth,” he said.

The new crop of sustainable sweaters and green jeans is a natural offshoot of the more sweeping eco-aware movement stimulated by Al Gore and his 2006 Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Another push came from U2 uber-philanthropist Bono and Project Red, his campaign for sustainable fashion, which was most visible in Gap’s holiday ad campaigns.

Like filling blue bins, using funny-looking light bulbs and carrying a canvas shopping bag to the Food Co-op, buying clothes with a conscience is an easy — not to mention cool — way for consumers to be socially responsible.

“One of the main political voices people have is the dollar bill, and buying ecofriendly clothes is a powerful way for them to communicate their concern about the environment,” Colella says.

On the downside, buying green will usually set you back more greenbacks. When it comes to eco-chic apparel, “eco” is not short for economical.

Fair trade practices, responsible production processes and humane workplaces all cost manufacturers more to implement, and that cost is passed on to the consumer. For consumers who have become accustomed to the “disposable” fashions of the recent past, price can be a deterrent.

“It’s hard to educate the consumer that, yes, something costs $10 more, but that’s because of the increased manufacturing costs,” says Danielle Webb, owner of the Allen Street Dress Shop and the Dress Shop in East Aurora. “It could mean a $60 T-shirt, and this area just won’t pick up on that.”

Which means crunchy-granola sweet items by Stella McCartney, Versace, Vera Wang, Betsy Johnson, Todd Oldham and Nicole Miller are going to have a very limited clientele.

Nevertheless, affordable alternatives are starting to appear. Wal-Mart has introduced some green garments as part of it’s overall commitment to ecological responsibility; H&M and Target also are selling items made from organic cotton.

Organic clothing comes in a range of prices; it also spans the fashion spectrum. In general, green garments are more comfortable, more sophisticated and more colorful than shoppers might expect.

In some cases, it’s be hard to tell a garment’s eco-friendly until you look at its label. The feedbag feel and potato sack silhouette are a thing of the pre-Prius past.

In addition to being kind-tothe- earth and trendy, clothing that falls into the “environmentally sound” category has other selling points.

Bamboo, for example, is touted as being soft and warm; it also wicks moisture away from the body and has antibacterial qualities.

Polyethelyne Terephthalate (PET) fibers, made from recycled pop bottles, when mixed with hemp, make garments “smooth and soft to the touch,” according to Colella.

And any fibers made without chemicals are less irritating to our increasingly sensitive skins.

Of course, capitalists still run things, and so companies’ commitments to the environment range from the minimal and opportunistic to the “holy cow, how are these people turning a profit?” Some garments pitched as being “green” might simply be made from organically grown cotton. Others might be made from renewable resources, manufacturered without toxic pesticides, fertilizers and dyes, and made according to fair trade practices. So conscientious buyer beware.

For shoppers who take a cotton to, um, organic cotton, brick-and-mortar stores still lag behind the internet in terms of variety and availability.

Lines getting online buzz include:

• Loomstate Jeans, which uses 100% organic cotton grown without pesticides, herbicides or synthetic fertilizers.

• Flora Nikrooz’s 2Life loungewear, which is made from soybean fiber and uses few chemicals, bleaches and dyes.

• Moral Fervor, which makes all of its clothing in fabrics made from annually renewable crops, printed with all-natural inks, manufactured sweatshop- free and packaged in biodegradable wrappings. A portion of their sales is donated to Partners in Health.

• Burning Torch, which fashions used clothing into new garments: dresses made of silk scarves and halter tops made from cashmere sweaters for example.

• Ecoist, which makes handbags from candy-wrappers and movie posters.

But those are just the tip of the global-warming-threatened iceberg.

For consumers who want to weave some social responsibility into their wardrobes, there are more earth-sensitive apparel lines than you can shake a green tambourine at.

bsullivan@buffnews.com

 

 

 

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