- Wear the clothes you already have and avoid making unnecessary purchases.
- When you want to buy new clothes, don’t forget to check out your local second-hand shops or markets; also, if you have clothes that are in good condition but which you no longer wear, sell them to the shop or market stall and give them a second lease of life.
- When buying something new, check out what fair trade centres there are in your town. Remember that the products sold in these shops are made of 100% organic materials, such as hemp, wool or organically-grown cotton.
- Always check the labels on the clothes you buy to see where they come from as well as what they are made of. Remember that most of the clothes on sale are made of only tiny amounts of natural materials, while the rest is in synthetic fibres, which as we know derive from petroleum and coal.
- What are the best materials for clothes?
- Cotton: this is the commonest and most widespread material in use, but unfortunately only a small percentage is cultivated organically; in the majority of plantations, chemical agents like pesticides are widely used, which cause soil depletion and pollution of the groundwater, and effect the health of animals and of the people working in the plantations.
- Hemp: this material is ‘natural’ par excellence, since it is resistant to insects and fungus without the need for chemical agents.
- Wool: Regarded as the best thermal insulator to be found in nature, wool enables the skin to breathe and has long-term durability. Make sure however that the clothes are made of ‘pure wool’ and do not contain a percentage of synthetic fibres.
- Silk: As is known, silk is made from silkworm threads after the larvae have been hatched; unfortunately not all silk producers use this method and process the worms while the larvae are still inside them which results in a pointless destruction. The amount of silk produced by each cocoon is tiny – for every kilo of silk around 5500 cocoons are needed. Source: (http://www.essereanimali.org/sfruttamento-animale/abbigliamento/seta/).