The article makes a lot of mistakes, because I don’t think that the author actually cares about textiles at all.
Cotton is not comparable to wool at all. Full stop. If you wear wool for technical reasons–like, because you want to stay warm–then you need to know that cotton will kill you, as will all cellulose fibers that aren’t treated to be hydrophobic. Petroleum-based fibers like polyesters, nylons, etc., do not wet the same way that cotton does, but also don’t keep you warm in the same way that wool will. Wool is the gold-standard for cold-weather outdoor apparel.
Tencel–which is a type of rayon–is considerably weaker than cotton when it gets wet. The process for making rayon is usually–but not always–a very polluting open-loop system. There are closed-loop systems, but they weren’t in common use as of 2010.
Leather is irreplaceable as a protective material. Synthetic leathers lack the abrasion resistance and/or heat resistance of leather. Compare a pair of high-quality leather boots to the highest quality non-leather boots; leather will last decades longer. So you can’t compare on a per unit basis; you need to compare them based on practical lifetime costs. In regards to certain protective apparel–such as motorcycle gear–textile jackets simply do not provide the same level of repeatable protection as leather. If you ride your bike on a track, you will be required to wear leather.
The fake leather thing is real. It’s why you can reuse a leather jacket after a motorcycle crash, but not a textile one. Leather also slides better, and sliding gently to a stop after a motorcycle crash can really save you.
In what way is cotton killing people?
Can someone please tell me exactly what I’m supposed to be wearing?
Adopt actual sheep, and just strap them to your body for warmth.
So generally the entire clothes industry is slavery ridden and completely fucked. Trying to follow the supply chain is basically impossible.
I would suggest essentially as little as possible for as long as possible, plant fibres probs good. synthetic not really that bad given the whole state of everything it’s small fries in terms of plastic waste.
get local tailors to make clothing if you can afford it
get local tailors to make clothing if you can afford it
Anyone who can afford that is not doing it to be sustainable and humanitarian and I think you know that.
Wtf are you talking about? I’m not super rich, but i get some things done with a local tailor and one of the biggest reasons is to support local business and avoid overseas slave labour
“Some things.” So not all of your clothes. In other words, you also can’t afford to wear all cruelty-free clothing.
I look forward to Christmas every year so I can finally get new socks. You might not be super rich, but you’re certainly not poor, either.
You really don’t know what choices someone is making. If you replace clothing about once a decade and don’t own much it’s not very expensive.
High up front sure but maybe someone is eating cheap bean and rice based food, maybe they don’t buy alcohol, maybe they don’t own a car, maybe they buy used stuff rather than new whatever. There are loads of ways for many people to squirrel away the funds to get an item made here and there. Yeah obvs if you’re destitute it’s impossible and right now with economies going to shit way more people are losing money each week but prior there were choices people could usually make.
Yes it involves giving up other things and it can be stressful and difficult but that’s expected. Slavery makes things cheap in dollars and high in human misery.
That really is a ‘where you live’ thing. When I lived in SEA I could buy a button down shirt you could wear to work for about $5, going to a tailor and having one bespoke was $6 in cotton, or $15 in silk. Wool was actually more expensive since there was no domestic production.
Depends on where you live. In European cities it will be expensive to get new things tailored, but there will be shops only for changes and repairs, which will be cheaper, for example.
Yes, but we’re talking about buying clothes, not getting them repaired.
That really depends. If you buy a tshirt it was probably made paying someone like 5c a day.
If you find someone who makes clothing, just a normal arse person not someone catering to the rich, they can probably make a basic tshirt to your rough size in about 3 hours or so. If they’re paid a reasonable fee that’s going to be in my country for example 200 aud or so factoring in material. A sweat shop T would be 20 to 50, or even 80 in a high end store so it’s really not much more expensive.
Wear it till it has holes in it so say 5 to 10 years and it’s really not that expensive.
More complicated clothing gets more expensive but a basic wardrobe is something like 3 Ts, 3 long sleave tops, 2 heavy pants, 2 light pants/skirts etc. you don’t need to buy it all at once. Sometimes you need more clothes than that, e.g. you’re a woman and you work customer facing but most people have waaaaay more clothes than they need.
Reduce, reuse, recycle is the best bet. Most people in privileged areas own much more clothing than they need and dispose of it long before it’s worn out. Used clothing, hand me downs. Recycled plastic fibres (wash in one of those bags that filter out micro plastic). Plant fibres. Hemp is a great alternative to wool.
I’m looking up hemp clothing now. It’s just as expensive as the other option the other person gave me.
Purchasing used clothing, fine, but if your advice is to buy much more expensive clothing than I can afford, I guess I can’t wear the cruelty-free stuff if I need something new. And I’m sure as hell not buying used underwear.
Can’t say anything about buying new clothes, but as the budget’s tightened in my household I’ve been leaning how to mend my clothes. The ones I normally would’ve thrown away due to armpit/toe/crotch holes can be fixed somewhat easily.
One catch is that I use a sewing machine my MIL gave me - so there was some cost somewhere. But I see machines on craigslist going for sub 60 fairly often. The second catch is that I was lucky enough to develop an interest (and spend my free time) learning about how to mend clothes. If people lack free time/interest to learn how to do it, then they end up paying the new-clothes tax.
My wife does the sewing machine work here. I’m inept. But I’m okay with a needle and thread, so I’ve done plenty of my own (ugly) repairs. Some stuff it doesn’t matter on anyway, like fixing the toe in a sock. Easy to do and saves money on socks.
I’ve got a hole in my sock! Darn it!
Simplest answer: cotton. It’s cheap and good enough for most uses. High-grade cotton like Supima is extra comfortable and not much more expensive.
It’s not very good for the use of keeping you warm. Unlike wool.
Unfortunately extremely high water usage to grow cotton, and a lot of it is grown in places that need that water for other things (RIP Aral Sea).
Based on the article we should use flax aka linen, which I suppose makes sense. Linen was once a finery due to the excessive effort needed to produce it, but now we have machinery.
Based on the news today, human skin™️ apparently
As little as possible.
There are mulesing free certificates, and some companies go the extra mile.
Varusteleka is pretty open about their wool, but they don’t have the biggest selection.
(varusteleka, I’ve called you out twice on this account, sponsor me lmao)
Are you fucking kidding me?
Do you think most people can buy clothes for that kind of money? I sure as fuck can’t afford a shirt that costs $64 or pants that cost $160.
You’re basically telling me that in order to have cruelty-free wool, I have to be wealthy.
You’re basically telling me that in order to have cruelty-free wool, I have to be wealthy.
Congrats. You found out why there’s animal cruelty in the first place. People need cheaper things -> other things need to be sacrificed to make that happen.
That was my point. People who expect me to go cruelty-free think I can afford to.
Everyone can only do the best they can. Anyone who expects everyone to have zero impact is an idiot. Even a salad involved death and cruelty somewhere (animals caught in farm equipment, underpaid immigrant farmers who get abandoned if injured, etc).
So really, all you can do in your life if you care about these things is minimize your impact as much as you can based on what you know.
Similar to people who value giving to charity. Do they give all of their spare money to charity? No and no one should expect them to. Just giving anything to charity regularly has a positive impact and the whole “you’re not doing enough” does much more damage than good.
Reminds me of vegetarians/vegans. I’m not really either, but I don’t eat meat. And I’m just happy when I hear people say they want to eat less meat. Whereas most people who are against meat are only happy if someone else is also against it completely.
Got it. People on this site are
stupididealistic as hell, so it’s probably good that I spelled out why these things are expensive. I wouldn’t be surprised if some folks thought animal cruelty exists in these industries because people are mean.You could afford to, if companies were forced to go cruelty free. Clothing manufacturing is currently one of the most profitable industries, outpacing energy, fossil fuels, and technology industries while producing more new billionaires.
Do you really think that if they were forced to stop abusing animals, those companies would close shop and stop trying to sell textiles? That they would suddenly try to charge absurd prices for the same clothing you buy now?
Prices aren’t set by costs, they are set by what the market will beat. Profits are the difference between costs and what the market will bear. Clothing companies charge exactly as much as they can to generate the sales volume they want, and nothing less. They want to sell you cheap clothes.
This applies to every industry. Nestle would find a way to sell chocolate even if they were forced to stop using child slave labor.
Okay, and? What do you want us to do about it? Those companies are never willingly going to become cruelty free, and the government will never force them to while the
bribery, I mean, lobbying continues.The only way these companies will go cruelty free is if people totally stop buying non-cruelty free products, which again won’t happen because most people can’t afford cruelty free products.
That is correct.
Ethics come at a premium. Ethics are a luxury good.
But that was my point. I can’t afford luxury goods. Most people can’t. So we have no choice in wearing clothes made with cruelty.
I agree with you wholeheartedly.
I buy very few clothes, so I save up to spend more on ones I think will last longer.
It’s very burdensome when something doesn’t last long enough to reach that price-equilibrium point compared to simply purchasing more, cheaper clothing.
I am currently almost out of socks and panties because of this :(
Yes, pretty much. You can’t verify mass produced, fast fashion clothes. If you want something realisticly certifiable you need to look for high quality, low volume products. Or get a personal tailor and shoemaker.
Big plastic challenges big wool in the thunderdome. 2 enter but we all lose no matter what choice you make. Just go naked people or are you all part of the big clothes conspiracy?
Kill la Kill was a prophecy?
Lotta misinformation in this thread trying to claim that wool doesnt keep you warm when it is wet, and I can say from first hand experience that it most certainly does keep you warm when completely soaked through. Sheep should be shorn humanely and it is possible to do, but corporations and capitalism have no incentive to do it. Here is an indepth article explaining the science behind how wool keeps you warm when wet. And Here is anothet article
It is a pretty good article but I have some nitpicks:
They say both that you cannot decide in a vacuum and fast fashion uses synth materials to make disposable clothing. I think given these two ideas, the carbon usage for one garment of wool vs one garment of nylon should include all the “waste” garments produced as well. Since, when you buy from a company that practices this, the impact is from the whole process, as they are keen to point out. That includes the sweatshop to landfill garments.
Personally I like not wearing a microplastics generator.
I am also curious about hemp clothing.
Hemp clothes are smokin’
Big Wool. Silly
I love how American journalists decide to demonise an industry by putting the word ‘Big’ in front of it.
Big media doesn’t want you to know this big secret, the big truth is big stupid
Big Journalism wants you to believe journalists are subject matter experts. They’re not.
You can tell when a cityot writes an article.
The fuck is a cityot? Cit-yot or city idiot?
Cit-yot seems like an obscure slur for an ethnicity with 1000 members you’d see on 4chan or something
An idiot that comes from a city, its a country bumpkin slur for people that know jack shit about farming but pretend they do
Great comeback
You mean insult as for it to be a comeback the article would be insulting me first…
Cityots are out in full force…
