Dressing Up: Clothing and Personal Care

Thus beginneth my sixth week of TreeHugger training. My book says: "...it's time to start wearing your heart on your sleeve."

This seems to be more challenging than the whole food and energy thing. I think fashion is slightly behind the curve when it comes to using organic materials and fair labor. It's hard to even know where to start. Some companies do call out on the clothes that they are 100% organic cotton (e.g. Levi's with an embroidered lowercase "e" inside the front pocket). However, they appear to be far and in between.

The classic example of an environmentally conscious apparel company is Patagonia. They are also mentioned in books like Good Business for their overall contribution to the "greater good" as part of the business world. They have set some pretty awesome examples as to how a company can be environmentally responsible and still do very well. Now, their clothes are not cheap, but from what I understand, they last a long time. And the coolest part is when you're done with your garment, you can send it back to Patagonia to be recycled.

I found another site called green loop that sells environmentally responsible fashion. It has some pretty nice stuff. (As my TreeHugger teachers point out, dressing responsibly doesn't mean you have to look like a Hippie - not that there's anything wrong with that...) I bought the shirt shown above. It's called "Sun Rays." That makes me happy.

I tried going to zappos.com (my favorite shoe store) to find some eco-friendly shoes. My guess is the suppliers have not tagged all their shoes properly with this classification, because it only produced six results in women's shoes. My guess is this number will be very different in a year.

Moving on to makeup... I'm slowly trying to wean myself from makeup. So far, I've cut out blush. Next will probably be eye shadow. However, I'm probably not going to get away from foundation unless I want to look like Rudolph. I've been happily using Clinique products for 15 years and have never considered anything else. Unfortunately, I cannot find anything on their site which indicates they are doing anything related to trying to save the earth... I may have to look at alternatives. Mary Kay plants trees. Then there is Ecco Bella which is all about healthy beauty. The Body Shop has been working for all kinds of causes for as long as I can remember. They would be another good option. So, next time I run out of foundation, I'll definitely be trying one of these out.

One more thing on clothing... Obviously, the best thing to do is to wear your clothes as long as possible and use second hand clothing. I must say, I can't really do the second hand thing - mostly because the stores are generally super unorganized. However, I do try to buy clothes that will last for a while.

With that, I'm off to the mall.
I'm a budding TreeHugger, OK?