for a truly sustainable textile industry.
1) Buy organically and sustainably produced natural fibers. No matter how recyclable a synthetic fiber is, or how fast-growing the raw material for a regenerated fiber, these will still always require petroleum extraction, solvents, factories, and industrial waste to manufacture. Avoid chemical finishes, which also pollute the environment and you.
2) Buy textile items produced as close to home as possible. Most natural fibers have a growing range and are produced with the least negative environmental impact in those areas for which the plant or animal is best adapted. So if you live in a cotton-growing area, it makes sense to wear cotton. If you don't, textiles are a less-heinous import than some other types of consumer goods. Textiles are one of the oldest trade items (since at least 3000 BC), because they are generally lightweight, not breakable or perishable, easy to pack, and highly valuable. So buy your cotton from an area which is suited to that plant. But bear in mind that every mile your item travels involves fossil fuels. Use a local tailor or dressmaker. Your clothes purchases will support the local economy, and will also fit you perfectly and be the exact styles, fabrics, and colors you prefer. You can also much more easily evaluate the working conditions in a local shop than in a factory half a world away.
3) Learn to make textiles. You can sew, knit, weave, crochet, embroider, spin, dye, and/or grow and process fibers. The more steps in the production of a textile item you can perform yourself, the more you can control the materials, style, fit, labor conditions, and waste.
4) Develop a personal style based on flattering styles for your body shape, flattering colors for your skin tone and hair color, and appropriate fabrics, patterns, and garments for your lifestyle. Then buy the best quality clothes you can afford. They will last for years if properly laundered, stored, and mended. It costs the same amount to wear a $300 skirt once a week for 6 years during its season (~$1/wear) as to wear a $30 skirt once a week that falls apart or pills up or looks awful after a single season (~$1/wear). Plus you will always look great and feel confident because you are wearing flattering clothes, and have a sense of style.
5) Develop a personal style for your home in the same way, based on coordinating styles for the architecture of your house and appropriate items for your lifestyle. Then again, buy the best quality home furnishings you can afford and maintain them properly for longest use.
6) Learn to launder textiles correctly. You need soap, agitation, and plenty of water, as well as heat to disinfect items that have direct bodily contact. Use a washing machine in which you can control the amount of water, as well as the temperature of the water for each part of the cycle. To whiten and remove stains, use an oxidizing bleach or sunlight. Hang clothes to dry or tumble dry on low heat until just dry- no longer. Iron with steam. Launder clothes only when truly soiled, or before storage for any length of time. Washing destroys fibers and dyes, so the less you wash an item the longer it will last.
7) Learn to maintain textiles. Sew on missing buttons, catch up hems, mend tears or holes, add embellishments, alter garments to accommodate changing body shape or styles, and so on. Launder garments and furnishings before storage, use lavender or cedar to deter bugs, use proper padding and ventilation and darkness to avoid fiber and dye degradation. This extends the useful life of your items.
8) Use textiles until they are literally rags. After a garment is no longer useful, donate it to someone less fortunate, or use the fabric that is still good to make a smaller garment for a child or a doll. Or cut up the garment and use the pieces in a quilt or as patches. Or use the pieces as rags to wash dishes, the house, the car, wipe up spills, wipe your bottom, and so on. When the pieces of cloth are no longer usable even as cleaning rags, compost them or donate them to be recycled into shoddy cloth.
9) Recognize that the entire giant multi-billion-dollar global textile and fashion industry is completely dependent on YOU, the consumer, to buy its products. If the products don't sell, the companies will stop making them. YOU have the power to change the system.
