Posted on: September 12, 2007
When Fashion and Ecology Collide, You Are What You Wear
“Most of the clothes we buy are the byproduct of an industrial process or the growth of fibers like cotton and wool that are grown in some pretty nasty ways.”
— Alex Steffen, executive editor of the Seattle based Web site worldchanging.com
By Deborah Douglas
CTW Features
Image courtesy Getty Images
The heat climbed in the tiny suburban boutique as elated customers milled about, oblivious to the impending doom they faced. The owner, Takara Beathea-Gudell, felt as if she were being suffocated. She could yank off her top to get relief from the suddenly and inexplicably high temperatures, but what would her customers think? And couldn’t they, too, feel the fire?
This was a woman in the midst of a hot flash – while wearing polyester.
“You find yourself feeling a little nervous about the whole process,” says Beathea-Gudell, her voice quivering, as if she’s about to re-live the sensation of having a hot flash, one of the uncomfortable byproducts of going into menopause. “But if you have on cotton or linen or rayon – breathable fibers – the heat comes right through the clothing.”
Natural fibers turned out to be a lifesaver for Beathea-Gudell, 50, who is careful to stock a wide variety of natural styles in her 5-year-old Oak Park, Ill., store, Willow. She caters to professional women and empty nesters who are redefining themselves after raising families or are developing a unique style to break from the cookie-cutter, mass-produced look found in corporate dress-code handbooks.
“I’m not sure where polyester comes from,” Beathea-Gudell says suspiciously, noting that the once tragically unhip synthetic fabric is now hot again.
Encouraged by her daughter and partner, Tamia Beathea, 32, Beathea-Gudell’s focus on natural fibers also helps sustain the global environment because these fabrics eventually break down, unlike chemically based fabrics, like polyester, which clog landfills.
Imagine that: Looking good, feeling good and being good
Being good while being green – or greener – has gained momentum as countries, companies and individuals around the globe seriously adopt or seek solutions that will reduce the damaging effects of global warming and cut down on the amount of waste humans send to overcrowded landfills.
Alex Steffen has been at the forefront of providing sustainable living solutions as executive editor of the Seattle-based Web site worldchanging.com and the book, “Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century” (Harry N. Abrams, 2006).
Rethinking what we wear is an important step to making and keeping a commitment to clean up the environment by consuming responsibly. What did it take to grow the cotton to make a treasured outfit? Steffen asks. What industrial processes were used to make a synthetic fabric that may result in a “more affordable” outfit? And what did it cost the environment in terms of the number of toxins and chemicals used to produce it?
“We talk a lot about the concept of the backstory; what happened to the thing before you bought it,” Steffen explains. “Before you know the backstory, you can’t know if you’re being effective. Most of the clothes we buy are the byproduct of an industrial process or the growth of fibers like cotton and wool that are grown in some pretty nasty ways.”
Going a step past natural, to buying organic or renewable clothing made with fibers grown without pesticides or other toxins, is one way to up the ante on your ecological commitment, Steffen offers. Still, he laments, those fibers must be processed though mills and other machinery to separate the seeds, spin the material into fiber or thread, and be made into something valuable by garment workers who are often struggling to earn a living wage.
“It’s still a one step on a long path to creating a sustainable shirt,” Steffen says.
That’s why he cautions to think twice about buying clothes, a theory not so farfetched even in the fashion world, say Tamia and Takara. At the end of a season, the duo audits their stock and may choose to recycle some of their avant-garde, loose-fitting fashions.
“I recycle clothing in terms of if an item didn’t sell, I cut it up and add it to my next fall season,” says Beathea-Gudell, who has a background in mass producing clothing and jewelry for the big retailers Sears and Nordstrom.
Image courtesy iStock Photo
Tamia Beathea echoes Steffen’s concern that creating a sustainable environment includes providing sustainable jobs for people in Third World countries and making sure garment workers are paid fairly. It’s the ultimate healthy living message when people, especially poor women, can earn a living and provide for the health and well-being of their families, says Tamia, who is predisposed to sustainability issues because she is a vegan. In fact, she comes from five generations of vegetarians. Some of her stock is organic clothing secured through a fair-trade group.
But doesn’t all of this commitment cost more?
Sometimes it does, Steffen says. But, Tamia adds, when you think of the markup on a designer item, it’s often the name brand that boosts the price, not necessarily the material or manufacturing cost.
“It just depends on who the designer is,” her mom, Beathea-Gudell says.
“There are five degrees of real good linen. Then there’s a linen you can get off the dollar table. Honestly, I’ve worn all of them, and I will say there’s nothing like wearing a handkerchief linen fiber. It’s as if you’re wearing nothing.”
And if you’re having a hot flash that might be just what you need.
