US: A World Consumed by Guilt

Organic cotton, which has become trendy in recent years among
eco-conscious consumers because it is grown without pesticides, still
represents only a tiny fraction of the global cotton crop, about .02
percent, according to statistics provided by several agencies. But
organic cotton is not always used in its pure state. The Department of
Agriculture's standards do not regulate textile production once
cotton has been harvested, so as a fabric it may be chemically
treated, or printed with toxic dyes, and still be labeled as
organic.




Designers seem motivated to create products that live up to their
personal convictions about socially responsible clothing.




"Most brands endeavor to tell an honest story," said Savania
Davies-Keiller, a designer for the fashion label DDCLAB, which sells
clothes made from corn fiber. "But the brand is reliant on the mill
and on the manufacturer of the raw goods. You, as the end consumer,
are reliant on the honesty of your brand."




And there are still other factors for the concerned consumer to
consider.




Clothes that are assembled in factories far from the mills that
produced the fabrics and the stores that sell the finished products
leave carbon footprints in their journey around the world. Mr. Van
Dyke's company uses recycled polyester in its performance outerwear.
The fabric is made from used soda bottles and polyester uniforms
gathered in the United States and shipped to Japan for processing. The
clothes are then made in China and distributed in the United
States.




"All of this is a trade-off," Mr. Van Dyke said. "We're still
moving products around the world, but on balance we view that as a
more environmentally responsible solution than using more oil-based
fabrics."




There is a grass-roots movement for clothes avoid the fabric
complications in that they are made only from old clothes. Collections
like Urban Renewal at Urban Outfitters and Project Alabama recycle
scraps of used clothing to make new designs.




Alternatives also exist for consumers who remain skeptical about
jewelry marketed as "conflict free" or "fair trade," terms
meant to indicate that workers in underdeveloped countries were not
exploited. Such designs include gold recycled from scrap. Melissa Joy
Manning designs earrings and necklaces with flying fox claws and wild
dog teeth that are naturally shed, and Monique Péan's collection
includes bracelets made with fossilized ivory from ancient walruses
and woolly mammoths. But are they really green'? Perhaps not in the
way you expect.




Ms. Péan purchases the ivory from subsistence hunters slightly north
of the Bering Strait in Shishmaref, Alaska, where rising temperatures
have caused the sea ice to erode and threatened the village. She said
that 10 percent of her profits will be donated to the Alaskan Native
Arts Foundation and that she has contributed about $20,000, but her
main objective was to raise awareness of the human impact of climate
change.




"You hear so much about green and the environment," she said.
"But you don't often hear about the people and some of the issues
they are facing right now."




You don't often hear the whole story at all.




In its green holiday catalog, Barneys promotes a $7,600 dress by the
rising London designer Duro Olowu as being made from a patchwork of
"recycled fabric." Not to split hairs, but Mr. Olowu said in an
interview that the fabrics had not come from previously used clothing.
They were made of a mix of his own prints and some original, unused
samples of leftover couture textiles he found.




"It's not recycling," he said. "It's reclaiming and
sustaining what already exists."




Some argue that the greenest clothes - the ones least likely to
adversely affect the earth and its climate - are the ones you
already own. No new resources will be depleted to make them, and if
they need infrequent washing and can be drip-dried, all the better. A
review of my own closet - after clearing away the detritus of 100
plastic dry-cleaning bags - suggests I may be one of the least green
people on the planet, perhaps personally responsible for the dust
cloud looming over China as a result of over-grazing of Mongolian
goats. About the only thing that could be considered green is a
17-year-old high school sweatshirt that still fits. But I routinely
machine wash it in hot water and dry it on high heat so it remains as
soft and cuddly as possible.

So what can an unreformed consumer do in the face of green fashion
that doesn't always fit?

"Perfect doesn't
exist and we're probably never going to get there," said Leslie
Hoffman, the executive director of Earth Pledge, a nonprofit group
that promotes sustainable development and technologies. "We all make
compromises every day. Making them with your eyes open instead of
arbitrarily is the best piece of advice I could give."