Our Poison Closet
Take a look in your closet. We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but unfortunately, unless you’re already a highly conscious consumer, most of your wardrobe contains dangerous levels of toxins. It was probably manufactured using slavery and will most likely be in the landfill forever when you get rid of it, seeping those toxins back into our soil and water.
It’s not a pleasant realization, but it’s the truth, and as they say — the truth will set you free.
Here are a few random tidbits (linked to articles) that might make you start looking at your closet differently.
1) Your brightly colored accessories might well contain dangerous amounts of lead.
2) All of those fleece jackets we love? They actually shed up to 2 grams of microfiber plastic each time we wash them, sending them into our waterways and eventually into our drinking water and yes, onto our dinner plates. Got plastic?
3) Many of the chemicals used in the dying of fabrics can cause cancer and/or be disruptive to normal hormonal functioning.
4) Most garments sold in the USA today are manufactured overseas, much of it produced with slave labor.
5) The average American creates 82lbs. of textile waste every year, creating an annual 10.5 million tons of clothing in landfills. Most components of these textiles are full of toxic chemicals and never break down.
We don’t bring these things up to send you on a guilt trip. There is an enormous lack of transparency in the current fashion industry and the vast majority of consumers really don’t know the truth behind the clothes they are buying and wearing.
So what do you do? Here are some steps that will help guide all of us out of this crises of consumer chaos into a more balanced relationship with clothing, one of our most basic human necessities.
- Decide that you want to be part of the revolution–Slow Fashion– and realize that big changes don’t happen overnight. Paradigm shifts take time.
- Become informed! Slow Fashion is a growing movement and you don’t have to look far these days to learn more. We will continue to provide resources and alternatives, so keep checking in.
- Stop buying fast fashion! Bargain mega-chains have grown to monstrous proportions, fueled solely by the voracious appetites of addicted consumers demanding more and more cheap, disposable clothing. Take a hard look at your shopping habits. Use the clothes you have as long as you can, go to thrift and consignment shops, swaps and rummage sales.
The life blood of fast fashion is your dollar… Use yours as the powerful tool that it is!
Finally, join us at Lady Farmer and subscribe for updates on events, information, materials and resources. We’re here not only to educate and inform, but to create sustainable, functional and fashionable clothing as an alternative to fast fashion. Stay tuned for our first collection of clothes for the farm-inspired, earth-centered lifestyle, coming in Winter/Spring 2018!
