Preening green
By Catherine Berlin
Environmentally friendly clothing, as a concept, is as far from basic as a Pucci pattern is from a white tee. Something owned for the past five years and dropped off at the cleaners only when absolutely necessary could leave a smaller carbon dressprint than that sweater with the organic-inspired label hanging next to it in the closet. You know, the sweater that soaks up stains like a sponge and lost its shape after the fourth joy ride in the spin cycle. When it comes to preening green, there are few rules. There are washing requirements to consider, the half-life of a current style, transportation hubs, as well as a garment’s durability, construction methods, material origins, and composition. Want to consider your vogue effect on the rain forest and polar bears? Start filling out blow-in cards to W, Mother Earth, and the Journal of Commerce.
Take food, for example. Buying local is often the most earth-friendly, but not always. Some produce may require less petrol to, well, produce, even after being shipped from a continent or hemisphere away. A delightful lack of simplicity exists in the apparel market, too. Think of cheap and trendy style items from Target or Sarah Jessica Parker’s new line, Bitten. Arguments float that because of reduced laundry costs, man-made materials are the ozone’s best friends. Well, a load full of poly can shorten running times on the dryer dial, sure, but when fabric pills or seams disintegrate, environmental savings are lost to landfill expense; a throw-away mindset won’t do the planet any favors. And then, we haven’t even started tabulating the energy cost of turning wood pulp to rayon or petroleum into nylon, either. Best advice for now? Don’t settle for buzzwords, watch out for greenwashing (the practice of putting an eco-friendly spin on a product that does not deserve it), and remember that environmental impact may be as much about how we handle our clothes once we bring them home as it is about point of production and materials.
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William Good
What do you get if you blend Goodwill thrift clothing with the intrigues of Nicholas Graham, the man behind Joe Boxer? Why, a label worth collecting, silly goose. Yep, designers find gently-used gems and quirk ’em up. It’s part thrifting and part repurposing, as the green jacket with dolls so subtly suggests. Although folks with a clue have for decades been turning thrift wear into one-offs, the repurposing part is novel. Heck, I think I have those kind of dolls tucked away in a box somewhere. Goodwill Industries of San Francisco sells the clothes through eBay. Visit www.shopwilliamgood.com for more information and images.
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The most earthological way we can think of to satisfy a longing for things Italian is to find an Italian designer who lives here. Lucky we. Sebastiana Piras studied around the world before nestling into the EV (that’s Elmwood Village to you), where she designs her own clothing as well as hats, purses, and scarves. She features other Italian lines in her boutique, too, where dresses and tops predominate, and even of the ready-made lines, there is only one of each style. Whatever you buy here, no one else will have. More importantly, whatever you buy here will make you feel like you own the room. There is something about the fabrics, the patterns, the colors, the fit, or a combination thereof—each piece made me feel as if it had been pulled from a movie set, as if it and the wearer were destined for a big part to play in a Michelangelo Antonioni film, and you don’t have to board a plane or a time machine to get there. How eco-wise is that? The boutique is at 820 Elmwood. No credit cards, please, but she will take checks. Hey, cash is way green.
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Do you suppose that local designer Holly Hojnoski, like the insatiable tablemate who can’t help himself but ask, “You gonna finish that?” nudges her friends and family for the clothes off their backs? “You done with those shorts yet? I’ve been looking all over for just that blue.” Probably not. Maybe it’s more like, “Please, no. I’ve told you before, Uncle Chris, I’m having trouble working golf pants patterns into my pieces.” Her website tells us that she visits thrift shops and collects hand-me-downs, and from these items she creates individualized tops and purses. Featured is a Holly Hue Hip Zip hoodie with an octopus design; along with her latest bag creation that I spotted in white and orange. The bag works on many levels, which is consumption-savvy. And I’m happy with Holly’s hoodie phase, because seriously, one of my kids has more hoodies than underpants and until now there’s only been a choice between nihilist black tones and Barbie doll Juicy velour Couture. Locally created, locally placed—this makes Holly Hue a hot find. If you want her stuff, the only place you can get it in this area is Sweet ’n Dirty, 585 Potomac Ave., in EV, just around the corner from Room. 887-8311. $40 to 68.
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This little item caused quite a disturbance. It is beautiful, for certain, and only a little larger than a half-dollar. Around the edge is a linking “tail” that unwinds so easily that it seems that a wish is all it takes. Yet it never comes undone on its own. Designed to support a handbag from a table, it helps keep the eating area free, as well as the purse off the icky ground and within better view than the back of one’s chair. That makes it healthful (fewer germs, less need to use cleaning agents), gracious, and safer—all really good things. I kept opening it up to use it, putting the pointed end on the table, placing the bag handles on the flat decorative part, and was worried about stability and damage to the table. I wanted to know what others thought, so I took it to a dinner party where ten women were present. The first woman unwound it and placed the flat end on the table surface and hung her bag from the tail hook, and she did this all as self-assuredly as opening a lipstick. Standing at the other end of a long table, I found my head riveted and eyes zeroed in on her actions like an android scoping its mark. I’ve repaired cars. I can snake water lines. For me, putting together Ikea furniture is a snap. But this I had been using upside down. I was a moron. The entire table agreed. And then, when it is time for me to take photographs of it being used correctly (I so totally sent all my other shots to the recycling bin so there would be no evidence of my idiocy), I discovered it missing. Everybody wanted it; nobody thought I deserved it. Get your own. $35. www.luxelink.com.
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This one is all about the use of readily replenishing material. My guess is in some places the locals actually say, “Stupid bamboo,” the way I mutter, “Stupid crabgrass.” It keeps growing and growing and so what the heck, let’s help out a population and produce a material that doesn’t require a lot of sheep feeding or plastics melding. Roshanne Aghevli and Alex Amini turn bamboo fiber into dresses. No, really. See? The dresses look all soft and flow-ey, and with ruching and gathering in hard to be satisfied places. The clothes are constructed in the U.S., and promise a “super soft hand.” There is a brick and mortar store—Fibers & Fantasy in Ithaca, if you are looking for an excuse to take a pretty drive in your hybrid vehicle—and there are plenty of online sites you can find via www.swornvirgins.com. Oh, and the next time you need a stress reliever, lock out the family, pour a cup of tea, and explore the sites on the SV homepage, sites like Twig & Twill and Lola Miami, where you’ll find plenty of great stuff, plenty of calm, and more green ideas to share. These dresses run $140.
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I have a vague recollection of braiding gum wrappers in high school. And there was a boy in my ninth grade class who wore a vest made of aluminum can pull tabs. There have been other kids in this country doing similar things, but the ones born more recently have had the economic incentives to go further, to take billboards, rice bags, tons more aluminum can pull tabs, flattened juice boxes, and Bridgstone castaways, and dare to repurpose them into handbags. The Jasmine rice bag from Rebagz is the perfect example of ingenuity, delight, and ecological smarts. The Asian rice companies, I am told, are in such competition with each other that they develop brand loyalty through bag designs and decoration. The result? We get printed rice bags that require collection, cleaning, cutting, sewing, and redistribution of the finished product. That’s work, certainly, but there is no repainting involved. Rebagz accepts the printing as it finds it—to huge ecological, process, and price advantage. Items in the Jasmine collection range from $15 to $135. Rebagz are available at Sissy Lala, 4756 Broadway, Depew, 998-9196.
Williams Sonoma Microfibre Cloths
Oprah’s line haunts me to this day. If you want to know how well off a person is, check the linen closet. If there is plenty of cash, then there will be extra sheets and not so many frayed ends. The same is true of the dishtowel drawer, I suppose. Just in case anyone else heard her say that, I’ve kept my home loaded with towels. Not so much shoes and food, but fitted and flats galore. Now, let’s focus on a different kind of green: instead of wondering what kind of cleaners you should use, ask, are your dish towels smart enough to be able to cope without soap sometimes? New microfibre cloths are being designed for different surfaces and to be effective with and without soap. If hot water and a good scrub will do the trick, hold off on the bubbly. A set of ten cloths from Williams Sonoma at Walden Galleria is about $30. If you don’t need all of them, send a few to me, and Oprah. Oh, and if you haven’t heard yet, JC Penney has just launched a new Simply Green designation program that will identify merchandise throughout the store that is either organic or eco-friendly.
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The El Naturalista company from La Rioja, Spain, explains that its environmental policy is an unwritten law that binds all people and companies in its chain of distribution. It also tells us that the soles are constructed of recycled rubber, it strives to reduce chrome usage in the leather dying process, and it insists that, to the extent possible, it uses nonpolluting methods of construction, biodegradables, recyclables, and transparent operations. I do not know if any of this stuff is true, but I do know one thing. If people want recycled rubber soles with gently processed leather uppers in designs that can satisfy from Seattle to Charleston, then by buying this brand we encourage other companies to strive to do the same thing. And that is good. The brand is available at Buffalo Fleece & Outerwear, 758 Elmwood Ave., 883-4380, with more styles and philosophy at www.elnaturalista.com. About $135.
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They are soft, subtle, and beautiful, constructed from gently worn saris, and expensive, but if you are looking for that piece to cling to for years, a piece that comes with a mystery about it, stop in at Malabar in Orchard Park and see what is available. Prices range from $350 to $800. 6466 West Quaker St., Orchard Park, 662-2066.
Flip-Flop Mat
Actually, Malabar’s owner, Julie Jones, travels the world looking for and finding some of the coolest recyclables and I cannot feature them all here. But the flip-flop mat grabbed my attention, because how often do whimsy and practicality work together? I look at the mat and my mind instantly travels to beaches and sunny days, which is a good thing. Plus, all that used flip-flop stuff gets a solid repurposing that we can all use here in the land of weather. From Bittersco, starting at $23.
Catherine Berlin is the contributing style editor for Buffalo Spree. She covers more products and places, as well as other ideas for eco-awareness at www.spreeblog.com.
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