Cotton Clothing with a Cause

July 17, 2020

AlterNatives Boutique is excited to showcase a new dress in the shop! This organic cotton short sleeve tee shirt dress comes in Black and Honey, and can easily be dressed up or down for any occasion as a chic, classic look.

This sustainable alternative from fast fashion dresses features 100% organic cotton, sourced and sewn in the USA, along with non-toxic, eco-friendly dyes for vibrant colors. Cotton has been a staple material in clothing for a long time now, but recently, producers have been turning to organic farming methods because of the numerous environmental, economic, and health benefits. Chemical cotton depends on the continuous use of pesticides and fertilizers that contain toxins, which causes workers to have a greater likelihood of developing serious diseases. There is also no solid evidence that chemical cotton can be cultivated with fewer amounts of water compared to organic cotton, but it is well-understood that the toxins from growing chemical cotton seeps into natural water sources and pollutes the environment. As chemical cotton farming pushes the ecosystem to its limits to obtain higher yields, the fields become more and more reliant on more and more chemicals. Meanwhile, organic cotton has shown to produce equivalent yields without harmful practices. It is time more producers, manufacturers, and consumers switch to organic cotton.

 

Specifically, AlterNatives Boutique sources these dresses from Spiritex Asheville Apparel, which is dedicated to fair trade and sustainable fashion. Spiritex mills in North Carolina and South Carolina receive ginned cotton from Texas to be cleaned and spun. After a compact yarn is created, it goes on to another mill to be knitted and put through a finishing process. Finally, the finished fabric is transported to various cut and sew facilities found in North Carolina and South Carolina, where Asheville Apparel’s loved clothing is created.

However, the journey doesn’t stop there. Spiritex Asheville Apparel has a partnership with Material Return, where textile scraps and waste are collected and recycled into new, sellable products. This has allowed Asheville Apparel to reduce waste and promote a circular economy, compared to the EPA-estimated value of 11.2 million tons of textiles discarded in municipal solid waste landfills in 2017.

 

Whether you realize it or not, the choices you make when shopping for clothes play an instrumental role in our environment’s health. Clothing does more than represent each individual’s personality but also embodies everything that went into making the pieces. Wear clothes that both make you confident in yourself and your choices, because the garments you decide to put into your closet have a greater impact on the world than you may realize.

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