the quest continues

1. my clothes must be made with ethical fibres (organically grown & processed)
2. they must be sweatshop-free
3. i must be able to afford them

with rules like that it's no wonder i almost never buy new clothes. but after hours of researching i've found affordable socks, affordable bras and affordable shirts (also here). also shorts and undies, but i think i've mentioned those before. the american apparel and dharma stuff i got for a lot less by participating in co-ops, but even without the discount the prices are pretty decent.

i was researching the environmental ethics of fabric and i learned a few things:

• it takes 1/3 of a pound of chemicals to grow enough cotton to make one t-shirt.
• cotton uses about 2.4% of the world's arable land but 23% of the world's insecticides and more than 10% of all pesticides
• processing raw cotton into fabric uses even more chemicals per pound than growing it.
• most bamboo fabric is made using a process that makes cotton processing look like child's play. yes, it's very renewable and grown without pesticides and fertilizers, but turning it into fabric... educate yourself.

i could go on and on.

after doing all this research i've decided to eschew bamboo fabric until more eco-friendly processing methods are adopted (they already exist, but they're more labour intensive and so not used) so my clothing must be organic cotton, hemp, or a blend of the two. (learn about cotton here and hemp here)