School Holidays and healthy clothes
Saturday, July 25th, 2009Hi just wanted to apologize for the delay in getting up our new Paper and Nest category!!!! Spending time with our child over the school holidays has been a priority, but we’re back. We also will make some other changes to our website, so we have decided to wait and do it all together.
Just wanted to summarize some important pointers for healthy clothes, Healthy for you, for those who make them and our planet.
a) Conventional clothes are dipped in formaldehyde, a toxic chemical that makes poor quality cotton look good enough to buy, (of course until we wash it and find the fabric thread-bare and course to touch.) Can cause chemical burns on the skin and is particularly bad in hotter areas of the body.
Japan has strict regulations on the use of formaldehyde, and will not accept for import many of the clothes available in Australia.
b) Man-made fabrics, just that – chemicals that we do not need to absorb through our skin and piling up in our landfills.
b) So when buying new clothes, for the purest, cleanest clothes buy GOTS certified organic or from clothes makers that can verify the eco-status of the factory that make natural fibres like silk and hemp.
c) Make sure the dyes used are low impact, or are plant dyes like natural indigo.
d) Fairly traded clothing means knowing no human has been exploited whilst making the clothes. Every time you buy cheap (or not), think again – I always try to remember the eyes of a child and go to You Tube – search, SWEATSHOP and watch and learn!!!
e) Look after your clothes, protect them when not in use, wash them gently and choose clothes that can be washed rather than drycleaned (more harmful chemicals).
f) Lastly recycle your clothes or secondhand ones (that are not reeking of mothball chemicals) into new designs.
Babette
I recently traveled to Kyoto in Japan to visit ‘Garage’. You see I have loved the ‘Garage’ label from the first time I saw it I instinctively knew some very talented textile artisans were behind this label, doing what they love and producing their unique and beautiful clothes.
‘Garage’s’ cute shop front in Kyoto, Japan.
Posing with the talented team and wearing the Kyoto skirt in Bronze Rose, under my Stewart & Brown Cashmere dress (we have theseĀ instore now).


