BLUE PLANET
Stylist Lindsay on why celebs are wearing eco-friendly threads
are filled with denim too. Celebrities love it. Stars from Little Mix singer Perrie Edwards and actress Mila Kunis, to footballer David Beckham and actress Katie Holmes are all big fans.
It fills magazine style pages. High
street stores are offering a vast collection of designs to suit all budgets and we are encouraged to buy at least one new piece every season.
The desire to own new clothes can often consume us. Just watch one season of Love Island and you might feel the need to buy 14 bikinis for a 14-day holiday.
Many of us are sold on this lifestyle of requiring something new to wear every weekend – and that includes buying denim.
But who needs this much denim? The answer is easy. No one. Denim is one of the leading contributors to pollution and overproduction.
The conventional cotton used to make standard denim is a very thirsty, water-intensive crop.
From growing the cotton to the dyeing process, it can take 10,000 litres of water to make just one pair of jeans.
To put this into perspective, it would take one person more than seven years to drink this amount.
Pesticides tend to be heavily used by many growing cotton. Creating that faded or distressed denim look can involve further repeated washing and toxic dyes.
But as environmental consciousness grows and shoppers are increasingly being encouraged to turn their backs on fast fashion, many fashion firms are taking a stand.
Perhaps the world’s most famous denim brand, Levi’s, says it is making better choices such as sourcing more sustainable materials and finding ways to use less water.
It recently launched SecondHand, where customers can drop off unwanted Levi’s at participating stores in exchange for a gift card.
The company professionally cleans the denim, makes any repairs needed and sells it through its new SecondHand online store.
Fashion designer Stella McCartney is launching the world’s f irst fully biodegradable stretch jeans. Her company also has a Sustainable Denim Movement.
Even supermarket brand F&F at Tesco has announced its aim to sustainably source 100 per cent of the cotton it uses in all Tesco products by 2025.
Zero Waste Scotland is among those on a mission to encourage shoppers to source clothing responsibly.
As a former fashion stylist myself, I own a huge collection of denim.
I’ve always seen denim as a capsule wardrobe staple and until I was educated by Zero Waste Scotland, I was totally unaware of the impact it has on the environment.
If you are a firm lover of denim, then perhaps spending more to buy denim that has been more sustainably produced and has been made to a quality where it can be a favourite in your wardrobe for many years to come is the answer.