It is EARTH DAY!! A young actress on one of my shows recently asked me, what are some fashion designers or fashion companies that care about the environment. I paused and said let me get back to you on that. I felt bad that I didn’t have the answer off the top of my head. So I was off to find the important answer that she and I were searching for in honor of Earth Day.
In order to find fashion designers that cared about the environment, I first started by finding out the definition of Fast Fashion and Sustainable Fashion. Like fast food, Fast Fashion is inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trend with disregard to it’s environmental impact. I then went in to find the definition of sustainable fashion. Sustainable Fashion is being kind to the environment, responsible with resources and treating fellow garment workers like human beings. There are many companies out there but here are just a few that I know and use. Also check out the “Good on You” APP, they rate and track the eco credentials of fashion brands.
Stella Mc Cartney is my number one pick for Sustainable fashion. She was recently named as the UN’s representative for sustainable fashion! I had a Wired magazine sitting on my desk that I was meaning to read about how Stella Mc Cartney is innovative and a trailblazer for the fashion industry.
Her sustainable company uses no leather or fur, she uses organic cottons, avoiding endangered forests and reducing her oil-based synthetics. Stella is always looking for startup companies that develop new ways to create sustainable fabrics for her collections. Some of these companies create innovative fabrics like bioengineered spider silk, mushroom leather, and fabrics made from recycled ocean products. Since Stella Mc Cartney has become so vocal in the fashion industry others have followed suit with her business practices.
Reformation has beautiful very feminine silhouettes. Sustainability is at it’s core. They invest in green building infrastructure to minimize their waste, water, and energy footprint. They use locally sourced and screened suppliers for the materials used in each garment. They feel it is not enough to manufacture sustainably, they also offset some of the resources that they use. Basically in exchange for the emissions, water, and waste their clothes used in a quarter, they protected 1000 acres of Amazon Rainforest from deforestation, contributed 27 million gallons of fresh rainwater to critically de watered rivers and wetlands in CA., and purchased landfill gas offsets.
Alternative Apparel are soft and cozy to wear. More than 80% of their garments are made with sustainable materials and processes, including organic and recycled materials, low- impact dyes and water-conserving washes. They ensure fair, safe and clean workplace conditions on a global scale.
Conscious Collection by H&M H&M has had a string of controversies over a racially sensitive image and copyright lawsuits. H&M is a Fast Fashion business but the Conscious Collection by H&M is their newest eco-friendly collection made from sustainable materials. Their goal is to only use sustainable cotton by 2020 and to only use recycled and other sustainably sourced materials by 2030. You can take your unwanted clothes back to an H&M store were they will recycle them and give you a 15% Discount. I am only adding them because you can take your old and ripped clothes to them for recycling. They are trying to change.
Eileen Fisher keeps sustainability and human rights at it’s core. Their fabrics are dyed without hazardous chemical. All cottons and linens will be organic by 2020. The are committed to design clothes to last longer, so they stay in your closet longer.
There are many more sustainable companies out there, keep your eyes and wallets open for them. Also more and more consumers are increasingly starting to turn away from Fast Fashion as they discover how it devistates the environment and hurts lowly-paid factory workers. Try up-cycling old garments and also try clothes-resale services and apps. Together we can help our Planet Earth!