Living Green: The Missing Manual

Compassion in Fashion

When it comes to fashion, green is the new black. Eco-friendly clothing is chic, responsibly produced, and makes more than a style statement—it says something about who you are and what you value.

The clothes on your back can have a big environmental impact. Take a cheap cotton t-shirt. It may have started as cotton grown in Texas or India, then traveled to someplace like China, Honduras, or Uzbekistan to be made into a shirt, then passed through far-flung wholesale and distribution warehouses before landing on the shelf at your local store. Not only did a lot of fossil fuels get used in transporting the shirt, you've got no way of knowing whether it came from farms and factories that share your values: respect for the earth and for workers.

To wear green (no matter what colors are "in" this season), keep these tips in mind:

• Take care of what you've got. The greenest clothes are the ones already in your closet. By making them last, you cut back on the virgin materials harvested and processed to make new clothes. Buy timeless classics in neutral colors, and make the most of them. If a shirt loses a button, don't toss the whole shirt—just buy a new button.

  Note

  Cleaning clothes takes even more of a toll on the planet than making them. So avoid dry-cleaning your clothes whenever possible, and see Chapter 1 to learn about earth-friendly laundry supplies you can make (Clean Laundry, Clean Earth) or buy (A Green Kitchen Is a Healthy Kitchen).

• Buy used. Thrift-store shopping ...