New clothes, new jeans, new bags, new shoes—they’re inevitable this holiday season because, after all, we’re all in a festive, buying mood.  In this age of selfies, it’s especially natural to want to always look our darn best.  But in our quest for the trendiest fashion, we lose sight of some of the ugly facts.

Opt for organic cotton always. (Image courtesy of http://mswandas.co.uk)

Facts like: major clothing chains produce as much as half a billion garments per year worldwide.  And that as much as 13 million tons of textile waste are created in the US every year.  That’s according to Elizabeth Cline’s book Overdressed, which reveals lots of other fascinating yet alarming truths about the clothing industry.  Even the simple fact about how fussy cotton is, how water-intensive and pesticide-intensive it is as a crop, is unknown to most people.

Most people aren’t aware of the environmental impact of clothes, probably because we think they’re benign.  We know a 100-storey building has significant carbon footprint, but what could possibly be the harm in a soft and comfy 100{e3829ec1db02d54faaf9fa2de0d48db26af01d7a7944a63c3b26976124791cab} combed cotton T-shirt with a printed elephant on it?

Welcome to the not-so-fashionable behind-the-scenes story of our clothes.

The Quest for Green Fashion

Since 2011, Greenpeace has been campaigning for green fashion.  They’re a serious matter too, alongside oil-drilling in the Arctic and forest degradation.

Greenpeace’s Detox campaign against the “Little Monsters”.

Appropriately named Detox, the campaign urges major clothing brands to reconsider toxic chemicals in the manufacturing process of clothes.  Chemicals such as Phthalates, Perfluorinated Chemicals (PFCs), Nonylphenol (NP), Nonylphenol Ethoxylate (NPE), and Cadmium have traditionally been used to print and dye clothes.  But most of these toxins end up improperly disposed of by the factory, contaminating our sewage system and poisoning our rivers and seas.  Fishes accidentally ingest these toxins, which they pass on to us humans when we eat them.  When we wash our clothes, the chemicals are released as well.

See, it goes full circle.  And all these just in the name of fashion.

We’re largely unaware of these facts because why would the fashion brands disclose such poisonous practices.? As Blythe Copeland writes in Treehugger:

The fashion industry loves to tell you what you absolutely have to do: wear this top, buy those pants, pair that dress with those boots, carry that bag. But when it comes to talking about sustainable fashion, they are, for the most part, pretty tight-lipped.

Just like our impersonal relationship with food, many of us would rather not know how our clothes are made.  Made by whom is another pressing question, especially in light of news about sweatshops in Third World countries which hire underage children, overworking them for very little pay.

Towards Green Fashion

Wikihow gives us 7 easy tips for greening one’s fashion.  We’ve borrowed some of their ideas and added our own too.

1. Choose organic and fair-trade.  Organic cotton is grown without pesticides and require much less water, while fair-trade ensures workers get fair price for their labor.
2. Buy only when you absolutely need it.  Don’t buy clothes just for the sake of buying or just because it’s on sale. Buying mindfully makes you appreciate your purchase better for years to come.
3. Donate stuff from your wardrobe to charity.  Someone else might need or better appreciate your pre-loved clothing.  Plus it’s a great way to clear some space in your closet.
4. Treat your clothes right.  Gentle washing, gentle soap, line drying instead of using a machine, following the care labels, etc.  That’s how you make your clothes last longer.
5. Look for great finds at thrift shops.  It takes a certain amount of skill and patience to spot a gorgeous used clothing in thrift shops, but when you do it’s always a rewarding experience.  Instead of buying new, which will just encourage manufacturers to create more products, you’re simply buying what’s already there.  And for just the fraction of the price!
6. Buy quality, not quantity.  Usually, the extra price of clothes, shoes, and bags you buy mean better quality which would mean they’ll last longer.  It’s called slow fashion, as opposed to disposable fashion.  Avoid “clothes buffet” where you sign up for a shop-all-you-can spree for a given number of minutes.
7. Support those brands that promised green fashion. So far, twenty brands have signed up for Greenpeace’s Detox: Nike, Adidas, Puma, H&M, M&S, C&A, Li-Ning, Zara, Mango, Esprit, Levi’s, Uniqlo, Benetton, Victoria’s Secret, G-Star Raw, Valentino, Coop, Canepa, Burberry, and Primark.  That’ll pressure the other brands to follow suit.

So the next time you’re faced with racks and racks of apparels to choose from, don’t just worry about trends and style; worry too about the brand’s commitment to safety and sustainability.  Because brands who care enough about the environment to change their ways will never go out of fashion.