Organic & Environmental Friendly Clothing

This year has been all about "thinking green". Alot of popular clothing stores have jumped on the bandwagon and have atleast a few items they are selling that are more friendly towards the environment than garments they had in the past. While working at Forever 21 last year, I couldn't begin to tell you how many shirts and bags we got in with the recycle logo on it and slogans like "I Love Earth'. I am pretty sure none of those were organic fabrics though, and totally defeated the purpose. So make sure if you are trying to help the environment, make sure you actually are instead of just appear to be.

Even though I think it is a great idea, a lot of times it's really expensive, and being a college kid with a part time job I can't always go for the organic things I wish I could. I do, however, spend a good deal of my money at the Los Angeles based store American Apparel which is a vertically integrated company that is only made in the US and is 100% sweatshop free. They have mostly cotton clothing that is made from 20% organic materials and I've read on their website how they are going to try to bump it up to 80%. They recently added new brighter colors to the organic sustainable edition t shirts, so you don't have to get just dull colors like many other organic shirts!


In 2006 the well known Levis Strauss added 100% Organic cotton jeans to their product line for the first time in 100 years. Not only is the jean itself eco friendly, they also use recycled buttons, zippers, rivets, fabric for the tabs and natural dyes for different shades of the jeans were used. The tags are printed in recycled cardboard and printed with soy ink.

Many people are opting in using an eco-freindly shopping bag instead of wasting plastic shopping bags at clothing stores and groceries. Donating clothing to thrift stores instead of throwing no longer worn clothing will also help a lot, as well as shopping at second hand shops and vintage stores and giving old clothes a second chance. Buying organic cotton instead of regular cotton is a good way to go as well.