Green Fashion: Genuine or Gimmick?

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It’s 2009 and becoming an ally of the environment has become the nation’s newest and hottest trend.

Grocery stores, restaurants, and maybe even your favorite local business are selling the idea that caring for the environment is the in thing to do.

Some companies assert that they have undertaken new “green” policies like cutting down on amount of copies or using more energy-conscious light bulbs, while others have insisted that consumers opt for purchasing reusable totes with logos emblazoned instead of the humdrum, wasteful plastic bags.

Going green has translated into the fashion word as well.

The emergence of “green fashion” has raised both interest and criticism.

While having designers use environmentally friendly fabrics and materials to create each season’s hottest looks is a hoorah for Mother Nature, some may wonder if green fashion errs of the side of practicality.

Is green fashion another one of the way that commercialism pretends to do something for the greater good and instead reels in consumers through deceit?

Perhaps right down a path to confusion is where consumers will find themselves after trying to discern which supposed eco-friendly clothing item they should invest.

“When you only look at the raw materials to ask if something is really green, you are like the blind person holding the tail of an elephant. There’s a whole lot of other factors you need to assess,” Chris Van Dyke, chief execute of Nau, an outdoor clothing line founded on the principle of sustainable practices throughout its production cycle, said in a New York Times article.

Let’s take a walk down the path of purchasing eco-friendly.

A consumer would want to take into account the type of fabrics used in the clothing and how they were produced.

Are the clothes made of a sustainable fabric like organic cotton, hemp, bamboo, soy, or any other natural fiber?

Production of the fabrics is also equally important. An eco-friendly fashionista would make sure that the fabric of the clothing was not subjected to harmful hazardous chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, or chromium, and chlorine that are dangerous to humans and compromise the quality of the fabric.

Smooth sailing, that is, until the realization of how much of a catch 22 these seemingly simple steps to buying for the environment seem.
The claim of each green fashion piece is one of these examples.

Sure, a T-shirt or pair of jeans claims on the tag that it’s green may not be quite enough, especially since it has become difficult in most cases to evaluate the claims of products that are sustainable, carbon neutral, or biodegradable.

In this manner a product containing only a marginal amount of a sustainable fabric, such as the aforementioned clothing tag made of recycled paper, can be considered green.

Technically yes, ethically no, and perhaps this is one loophole that needs ironing out with a standard definition across the board.

Fabrics is another toughie.

Soy fabric, and other naturally soft fabrics, may be better for the environment, but since they are soft, they wear out faster, meaning they’ll need to be replaced more often, contributing to the waste problem.

Organic cotton isn’t used all that often, contrary to its trendy factor. Only about .02 percent of organic cotton makes up the global cotton crop, and because textile production isn’t regulated once cotton is harvested, it’s possible that organic cotton can be injected with toxic dyes and still be considered green.

For those fabrics that are tougher, like bamboo or hemp, chemical processes used to soften the fabric adds to pollution.

Throw in the affordability factor, which seems far out of grasp for the average American’s pocket, and there’s a myriad of things to roll over before making that final purchase.

“It’s a catch 22. To be truly sustainable is to buy less,“ Alice Demirijian, director of Fashion Marketing at Parsons at The New School, said in a FastCompany.com article.

One thing is certain amidst all the questions and conclusions to be drawn about the green fashion movement: Do your research before swiping that plastic or handing over a wad of cash.

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