Sackcloth and ashes were yesterday. Today’s eco-fashion is chic, colorful and often not even more expensive than conventionally manufactured clothing.
12 Tested Quality Seals for Textiles
Here are 12 brands that had been put to test for their quality and green logo:
- Biobaby,
- Bio Cotton,
- Cotton made in Africa,
- Cotton People Organic,
- Cotton USA,
- Demeter,
- Real Leather,
- European Eco-Label,
- FairTrade Certified Cotton,
- Fair Wear Foundation,
- Fairwertung, and
- GOTS Global Organic Textile Standard.
Eco-Clothing, A Growing Consumer Trend
“Green is the new black,” announced Suzy Menkes, influential fashion critic for the International Herald Tribune. And the fashion queen doesn’t just mean the color. Fashion, fairly manufactured, kind to the environment and the skin, recyclable or even already recycled, is hip today. “Eco-clothing is a consumer trend that has caught on in the masses”, is also the verdict of the future institute Kelkheim. In terms of eco-fashion, Germany is still a “developing country” compared to France or Great Britain, says Bernd Hausmann, who only sells “green” fashion in his Glore boutiques and online. But something is happening: “There are more and more labels. It’s coming slowly,” says the happy businessman. Glore – the name stands for “Global Responsible Fashion”
Clothing made from organic fibers is now also available in every central district town, because the large clothing stores also have “green” collections. In 2008, C&A, Europe’s largest textile chain, processed around 7,500 tons of organic cotton, which corresponds to around 12.6 million items of clothing.
The suppliers of textiles made from controlled organic fibers are on the right track. You can not always call their goods “natural textiles”. Only those who pay attention to ecology from the cradle to the grave have a pure white vest. “The textile industry is currently concentrating too much on fields and fibers,” complains Dr. Kirsten Brodde, who takes a critical look at the greening of the textile industry in her book Clean Things.
Clean fibers alone are not enough
Depending on the garment, up to 20 additional work steps follow, in which chemicals often come into play in conventional processes. “The clothes are literally transformed into ‘sexy underwear'”, says Brodde.
The “Campaign for Clean Clothes”, which advocates fair working conditions in textile production, has calculated that there can easily be 19,000 kilometers between the raw product and the finished jeans.
Then you’d better go for eco-clothing made from organically produced fibers. Many consumers wonder how they can recognize correct clothing. There are labels for natural fashion, but their diversity is more likely to cause confusion. In the absence of uniform criteria, every company or initiative can invent its own “green” logo. Those who value “clean” raw materials and production methods can stick to the Naturtextil Best symbol from the International Association of the Natural Textile Industry. The best-known international symbol is GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard). Anyone who is unsure whether a product labeled as organic, eco or any other kind of “green” keeps what it promises, should check the label to see how high the proportion of fibers from controlled organic cultivation is.
