Walking the Green Runway

Every day – without even trying, it seems – I see more and more people going green. And it makes me so happy! It seems like everyone’s catching the bug.

NBC did an entire week of prime time programming that incorporated green story lines, green facts, and tips for going green. Even I learned tons of new information and ways to reduce my carbon footprint a little more.

Also on last week was a small part of The Sundance channel’s large series called, Big Ideas for a Small Planet, “a documentary series presenting the forward-thinking designers, products and processes that are on the leading edge of a new green world.” The episode I caught covered clothing and the ways new earth friendly designers are creating products that help – not harm – our planet, while still being totally hot.

One fantastic Green company is Patagonia. Did you know their soft and furry jackets are made from recycled pop bottles? In fact, making Patagonia products actually keeps 2.5 billion pop bottles out of landfills each year! (And my Diet Coke obsession is not helping things…)

Even better, when your Patagonia jackets/shirts/anything get worn out and old, you can bring them back to any Patagonia retailer to be recycled. The material can be broken down and recycled into new products an infinite number of times! Think about all those materials you are saving.

Other Green clothing designers like Linda Loudermilk are making an easy change by using more earth friendly materials. For example, adopting organic cotton instead of the regular stuff. Why? Maybe because over 25% of the world’s pesticides are used in cotton. Ew! Not only is that bad for the environment, but who knows what it is doing to us?

Organic cotton doesn’t use pesticides. Sure, it is more expensive, but that is because more needs to be grown to get as much as its non organic counterpart. The good news is that the more people buy it the more the price will come down. And that will do wonders for the earth and our health.

Other materials making their way into the fashion world: hemp satin, bamboo denim, milk, seacell cotton and many more. The clothes look exactly the same, but work with the planet instead of against it.

Finally, we never think about it, but fashion is always changing. Like Heidi Klum says, one day it is in and the next it is out. And what do we do? Throw our old stuff away…65 pounds of it a year! That is a whole lotta trash. One way to keep our clothes out of the dumpster is a brilliant new trend sweeping the nation: the Swap O’ Rama Rama. People bring in old and unfashionable clothes and designers/seamstresses make it into something awesome. Skirts into drapes. Drapes into dresses. You are literally taking your own trash and making it into a new treasure: something new, something different, and something that you can feel totally good about.

This new fashion movement is yet more evidence that it is possible (and so easy!) to live a more green lifestyle. Bring on the milk pants!