DRESSING UP AND ETHICAL TEXTILES

Every day will be Dress-Up Day!!

After months and months of pandemic worries and restrictions, many of us hardly going out – and when we do venture out not always feeling fabulous – our favourite fanciest clothes have been languishing unworn. Do you have things at the back of your wardrobe, maybe bought on a whim, from a funky second hand stall at a festival or worn to some super special occasion years ago… outfits that just seem a bit too frivolous, impractical, attention-seeking?

THESE are the clothes to wear to Green Gathering!

It’ll be our 10th Birthday, the tenth Green festival in Piercefield Park, and if a 10 year old’s birthday party isn’t the perfect occasion to wear your most flamboyant clobber we don’t know what is!!

So drag your flamenco dress, wedding dress, sequinned catsuit, top hat and tails, Cinderella ballgown, slinky chainmail number, tiger suit, tasselled bikini, rainbow-striped raincoat and fishnet tights out of the cupboard they’ve been languishing in, try them on and dance about at home in them, maybe swap items with friends, then come festival time… stuff them into stuff-sacks (no one’ll notice or care about the creases) and be your brightest self at The Green Gathering.

This is definitely a don’t-buy-anything-new challenge and of course second hand, pre-loved or upcycled clothes are always best, but if you do need to go clothes shopping…

…WE HAVE THE LOW-DOWN ON TEXTILES BASED ON UP-TO-DATE RESEARCH:

• The most ethical fabrics are organic hemp and organic linen (made from flax)
• Recycled cotton and wool are good if you can get them.
• Next best are non-organic hemp and linen, then organic cotton and organic bamboo
• ‘In conversion’ cotton means the farmers are in the process of switching to organic and need our support to do so
• Lyocell, Tencell and Monocell are next – have you even heard of these? – they’re made from wood or bamboo pulp and unlike conventional viscose and rayon, efforts are made to restrict use of toxic chemicals during processing
• Recycled polyester, nylon and elastane come next; recycling is great but toxic dyes may be used and release of microfibres is likely
• Organic wool is the only other material Ethical Consumer suggests using

‘Best avoided’ for reasons including carbon footprint, toxic chemical use and animal rights are:

• acrylic, leather, silk
• ‘virgin’ polyester, nylon and elastane
• conventional bamboo – sounds good but there are toxic chemicals in the processing, as with conventional viscose and rayon
• conventional cotton (awash with pesticides, much of it is genetically modified and farmed with forced labour)
• conventional wool, which has a very high carbon footprint

Source: Ethical Consumer magazine, Sept/Oct 2021