Eco-friendly Fashion Roundup

In an effort to stay on top of eco-friendly fashion news, we have been reading about all kinds of exciting new initiatives in the fashion world. Brands are stepping up and lowering their waste, organizations are spreading the word about what consumers can do to help, and technology is advancing so that we can start to leap over some of the biggest hurdles in sustainable fashion.

The first piece of news that caught our eye showed up in Esquire, where the clothing brand Gant launched a new sustainable patchwork shirt line to use up the off cuts of their fabrics:

Sustainable clothes are one of the most efficient ways to be better to the earth. You already need to wear a shirt—why not opt for one that’s eco-conscious? Gant is trying to do just that, starting with its Upcycled collection. The line launched this week.

The upcycled idea is simple: After manufacturing shirting, Gant took the leftover pieces of fabric and used them to create patchwork shirts.

“There’s a great tradition within American sportswear for patchwork, especially with tartan and madras,” says Matthew Wood, Creative Director at Gant Global. “The team really enjoyed playing around and giving these old, exclusively made archived fabrics the chance to be worn as the perfect fall shirt.” – Read the whole story at Esquire.

Marie Claire magazine had an awesome story this week about Costa Rica’s leadership in eco-friendly fashion through Fashion Summit, a two-day forum to showcase those leading the charge in fashion sustainability. They also gave a list of great brands from the Fashion Summit for you to check out, which now means that we’ve started our Christmas wishlists.

Fashion month may be just around the corner, but the shows in San Jose, Costa Rica already made their debut both a big and eco-friendly way. For many of fashion’s frontrunners, environmental preservation is not usually top of mind as the industry’s perfect pair. However, for Costa-Rican based philanthropist Andrea Somma Trejos, marrying environmental ethics with style is a major priority.

“The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world”, Trejas points out, but she hopes that with events like the Fashion Summit pollution levels will begin to plummet. “We need to create awareness in consumers and designers about the importance of making responsible choices in relation to our wardrobe, but also showcase the amazing alternatives already on the market”, she adds. And we can’t help but agree. – Read the whole story at Marie Claire

At Parkers Custom Clothing Care, we are committed to providing our customers with eco-friendly options for clothing care. We use Solvair, Intense, and Wet Cleaning as our green cleaning options and are pleased to say that we don’t need to sacrifice quality to be sustainable. Each of these three methods produces great results! Schedule a dry cleaning pick up and see these eco-friendly cleaning products in action.