Sustainable Clothes

There are already a lot of clothing brands which make sustainable clothes. For example products made of bamboo, organic cotton, hemp, PET plastic etcetera. Different companies advertise with it, like H&M with the conscious collection, The sustainability of the clothes is mostly because of the fabric they use. The resources are eco-friendly, natural products or recycled for example. But also the example of Tinhid is interesting, they have the slogan ‘With every purchase, we plant 15 trees’.  But why do we need to buy new clothes so often? Is it because of the mindset we have, do we think we need it? When people wear a jacket for more than three years, it is sort of weird. In the meanwhile you want to have something new. I have to be honest, I have a lot of clothes I never wear. It makes me feel more happy and confident to wear something new instead of the shirt I already have for a year. Also the fashion industry makes us think we need to buy new clothes, we need to follow the trend. We think we cannot wear something which was trending a couple of months ago. But how many clothes do you really wear until the quality is too bad? It is easy to buy something cheap, which is trending, but after a couple of months it is not useful anymore and the quality is bad too. We throw the clothes away and this waste is not needed. When you spend more money on quality you can wear it for a longer period, but probably you want something new next year.

A good initiative on this is the attendance of the second hand shops, also called vintage clothes. These shops sell clothes which are not new. They are already used, but in good condition. The owners doesn’t want to wear it anymore, but someone else can be still made happy with this. This is a trend which becomes more and more seen in recent years. Besides these shops, there is also the possibility of giving your clothes to the clothing collection actions of the Rode Kruis or the Leger des Heils. To give an extra live to clothes instead of throwing it away is of course well-behaved and also the sustainable brands are good initiatives, but to be aware of the time you use the clothes is something we can spend more attention to.