As a writer who has long reported on sustainable foods and a chef deeply invested in what goes into my body, I am equally interested in how the stuff I wear is made and how it impacts the environment. As with food, when I shop for clothing and accessories, I look for responsible sourcing. I am not super strict with this philosophy. I try to avoid fast fashion, but as with fast food, I indulge occasionally.
While labels like “vegan leather” and “100% organic cotton” may seem like safe bets when you’re trying to shop responsibly, there are frequently unmentioned virgin plastics involved in making the former and excessive water usage in cultivating the latter. I look for certifications on my garments like GOTS or Oeko-Tex, which ban PFAs, or “forever chemicals,” and ensure transparent supply chains. I minimize my purchases of athleticwear made from petroleum sources and focus on naturally derived fabrics that are not water intensive to produce and are manufactured with closed-loop nontoxic processes. Cotton is highly water intensive to grow, and rayon undergoes processes using toxic chemicals harmful to both workers and the environment.
To me, the most exciting development in sustainable clothing and accessories is cutting-edge fabrics that repurpose waste from industrial-food processing and fabrics whose origins predate nylon and polyester, the greatest sources of microplastics entering our atmosphere, waterways, and bodies. There are also improved processes for making some cellulose fabrics (that is, rayon) so that they are highly sustainable and nontoxic. In my closet, you’ll find pieces made of seaweed, banana skins, spent soy husks, and even milk. These are some of my favorites.
Material of note: milk fiber
I’ve been wearing Terratela’s T-shirts regularly for the past two years, and this was my latest purchase. It’s made of 59 percent micro modal (one of those sustainable versions of cellulose fabrics), 39 percent milk fiber, and 2 percent elastane (basically plastic and not sustainable, but this is a small percentage, and you need it for structural integrity and stretch). The milk fiber is derived from the casein protein of soured-milk waste collected from industrial farms. While that sounds like cutting-edge tech, it came out of WWI. Does it smell like dairy? Not at all. This is just the softest, most breathable T-shirt.
Material of note: soy husks
My husband and I both love our ultrabreathable and light Terratela SeaFibe shirts so much that I got him this soybean-based T-shirt, which uses some of the same material as the SeaFibe shirt in its blend. This one has the most structure out of the Terratela shirts we’ve tried; it’s not stretchy like the MilkFibe shirt. It’s made of soybean hulls (post-tofu processing), hemp, and Seacell fabric, which derives from Icelandic knotted wrack, a plentiful seaweed, and eucalyptus, a source of cellulose that, unlike cotton, requires very little water to cultivate.
Material of note: seaweed
I’ve been wearing the same handful of pairs of Esme’s seaweed underwear for the past two years, and I refuse to wear any others. These silky briefs are made from Seacell, like Terratela’s shirts, combined with lyocell, which comes from the wood pulp of eucalyptus and beech trees, both sources that don’t require much water to grow. The underwear also has a small amount of elastane for stretch. The pairs I bought have held up over hundreds of washes, and even though Esme recommends that you line-dry them, I am lazy and I live in super-humid D.C., so I always put my pairs in the dryer. They haven’t changed in shape at all.
Material of note: seaweed
I first found out about this brand at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn about a year ago where it was selling its sustainably sourced, 3-D-knit yak-wool sweaters. I almost bought some for me and my husband then, but it was July and I wasn’t about to buy sweaters in July. That said, come winter, that will be a different story. Oliver Charles is committed to sourcing sustainable alternatives to cashmere, and while its Summer Crew Neck (also made of Seacell) isn’t fuzzy, it’s lightweight, beautifully structured, and so perfect with jeans. I wear mine when I want to look professional and especially when I’m in air-conditioned buildings in summer. The company 3-D knits its sweaters to order, so there’s no waste and it doesn’t keep inventory that it then has to offload.
Material of note: banana stalks
This stylish, minimalistic backpack with a unique clasped flip-top design was immediately commandeered by my husband when it arrived. He bikes to work with a heavy, clunky laptop, and the backpack is the perfect size for it, a clipboard, and a large thermos. The bag is comfortable on the shoulders and is made from Bananatex, a plastic-free fiber made from Abaca banana plants grown in the Philippines without pesticides, fertilizers, or excess water. It contributes to reforestation, and the fiber is similar to a very stiff and sturdy canvas.
Material of note: ramie
Wearing a barong has, in the last century, become the equivalent of wearing a tuxedo for Filipino communities. Traditional barongs are made from piña, a sustainable fiber made from weaving pineapple leaves. Pineapple Industries has been normalizing wearing the barong in informal settings as everyday clothing, and it has a line of casual barongs made from ramie, a flowering plant in the nettle family, which is lightweight and similar to linen.
Material of note: cellulose acetate
I own a fair amount of clothing (mostly shirts and sweatshirts) from Salvage Public, and everything I’ve purchased from the brand has been really high quality. These sunglasses are made from cellulose acetate, a by-product of cotton production that is better for the environment than petroleum-based plastic.
Material of note: hala-tree leaves
I grew up in Hawaii, where practically anything can be made from lauhala, the woven leaves of the hala or pandanus tree. In my house, I have lauhala place mats, boxes, hats, and a floor mat. I also own lauhala baskets and purses, like this one. It’s very durable and the longer you wear it, the better it gets, as the leaves develop a darker patina and soften over the years.
Material of note: coconut husks
This may not be an accessory exactly, but as far as coolers go, this is the most portable and attractive one I’ve seen. I spotted this cooler in the trunk of my oyster sommelier friend Julie Qiu’s car when she came to visit me one weekend, toting oysters and cold beer. The company sent one to me to test and I love it. It’s a big upgrade from the hard plastic coolers I’ve been using for years, as it’s made from recycled plastic (I’m not totally anti-plastic, but if I’m going to purchase things made of it, I’ll look for items that are not made from virgin plastic and aren’t going to be frequently washed), and it’s insulated with coconut husks, a leftover agricultural product that would otherwise have been burned as waste, sourced from small farmers in the Philippines. The coolest thing about this cooler is that when it’s empty, you can collapse it to half its size. I’ve lugged it between Philly and D.C. on five trips now.
Materials of note: recycled plastic, plant starch
I’m always on the hunt for comfortable clogs and I’d wear these non-slip ones in a professional kitchen, but right now I’m just wearing them as house slippers because their tops are so cushiony and comfortable. I own a lot of clogs, and while they all generally offer good support if you’re on your feet all day, this is the only pair I own that cushions the top of my foot. With the addition of Midori-Bio, their post-consumer recycled materials degrade in years versus decades. This is a brand I’m going to keep an eye on, since it’s relatively new to me (versus the Super Birkis I’ve been wearing for years), but I think it has potential to be better for the environment.
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