March 8 is International Women's Day, one of 365 days each year that we honor and invest in those around the world who help relieve our lives of toxins generated by practices used to produce what people put on their precious bodies. Women and girls of all ages are primary victims of fast fashion fueled by desires to consume without discretion regarding how purchases affect other lives. We invite people to raise their standards and see how one piece of apparel can be fabulous enough to take the place of 2, 3 or 4 and gratify more. Do more with less, enjoy the best and see if you forget the rest...

We help people feel good in and about what they wear. Contact us if you want to reduce pollution, waste and resource depletion by putting your logo on a piece of the solution. West Michigan is choosing to be the the most sustainably dressed region in the nation! 

We also support and engage in the creative realm of up-cycling. For those into global chic fashion, see how savvy it gets, as shown by our "relatives" around the planet and across the sea--2015-16 EcoChic Award winners who deliver design intelligence and sensitivity long overdue in the fashion industry.
https://thesquirrelz.com/blog/2016/01/07/the-2015-ecochic-design-award-finalists-have-turned-upcycling-into-art?https://thesquirrelz.com/blog/2016/01/07/the-2015-ecochic-design-award-finalists-have-turned-upcycling-into-art?

http://greenissuessingapore.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-to-make-fashion-industry-go-eco.html?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=email_this&utm_source=email

Are you buying the"Fashion 15"?

Few people are aware that clothing choices contribute to over 100 million trees being cut down every year to produce fabric for clothes they buy, use, and discard.  Only 1/3 of these trees are usable for fabric.  

Society's voracious appetite for clothes is wreaking havoc on ecosystems including ancient and tropical forests as well as threatened cultures and endangered species they support. Are any of your clothes worth it?  How many clothes do you need? 

"Out of Fashion" is Rainforest Action Network's (RAN) campaign demanding that the fashion industry commit to forest friendly fabric.  Find out about the "Fashion 15" brands specifically targeted to avoid investing your dollars into the problem  http://www.ran.org/out_of_fashion.  

Will you help stop forest destruction for fabric?  
Join the campaign to encourage more forest friendly production as well as ending human rights abuse.  http://www.ran.org/we_fight_for_forests.  
Add your voice and join us in transforming the fashion industry away from deforestation.  
http://thenotepasser.com/blog/2015/4/15/the-cost-of-forest-fabrics 

Thanks for being an informed part of the solution!

p.s.  You may also want to consider the short and long term costs of producing clothing including the toxic chemicals used to process and manufacture, many of which are absorbed directly into into blood streams through skin. (see our Critical Viewing & Critical Reading pages on this site for more info)

Can Americans reduce their contributions to the significant environmental impact that apparel production has on our planet?

​We're encouraged to see that the dirty business of "what we wear' and the facts behind fashion/apparel being the 2nd most polluting industry in the world is finally getting attention in mainstream. Thanks Newsweek!  

For those of us fortunate enough to live in a state surrounded by the Great Lakes we love so dearly, it's important to recognize that apparel production is also the 2nd largest polluter of water after agriculture--(what we eat!)  

Most people forget, when making purchases, that we live in a closed ecosystem impacted by our choices. The things we buy and dispose of are full of substances--many toxic and persistant,--that compromise our personal, social and ecological well being. 

If you care to know what's in the clothing you choose to put on your precious body (or those of your loved ones) , check out our Critical Reading & Critical Viewing tabs for some of the most compelling information we've seen.

In Newsweek's recent article "Toxic Fashion--The Environmental Disaster in Your Closet", Pamela Ellsworth, chairperson of Fashion Institute of Technology's Global Fashion Management Program and supply chain expert says that "core to the problem is that people in the US expect low prices...We are going to have to train consumers in the US to pay more for clothing. It can't be the only commodity that gets cheaper every year."

Clothing Matters' roots and reason for being are grounded in a commitment to improve personal, social & ecological well-being. I've always been challenged to understand how the interdependent nature of these realms could have been lost upon our society, with consequences that have cost us all untold wealth of health and joy. 

Apparel--what we wear--is rarely included in sustainability conversations, yet all of us buy it and use it daily. In fact, getting dressed is the ONLY thing we are all required by law to do every day before leaving home. 

At Clothing Matters we've had the great pleasure of serving an amazingly diverse and discerning clientele who have chosen to discover how good clothing can be. We use clothing as tangible threads to help people experience incredible comfort and satisfaction while learning about how any given piece of apparel in our collection helps improve personal, social and ecological well-being. It's our business to invite awareness of how each of these interdependent realms is affected by how you spend your apparel dollars. 

Can any clothing--fast and cheap, or not--be worth the agony of others? 

Thanks to those willing to know more about what their apparel dollars do.

Every day, the precious waters of our world are compromised by clothing choices. 
What are you wearing?  See "River Blue" 

In the beginning...God created hemp. 
 
Hemp's incomparable value was apparent to the founders of our country: 
~The first U.S. laws regarding hemp required anyone who owned land to grow hemp(!) 
~Due to its countless uses as food, fuel and fiber, citizens were allowed to pay taxes with hemp to encourage economic prosperity. 

In 1936, petroleum and forestry schemed to protect their own interests and sabotage our opportunities to benefit from using hemp by claiming hemp was the same as the marijuana, and effectively manipulated the direction of our country into a petrochemical vs agricultural industrial revolution. 
We are still discovering the consequences of this tragic direction which is still controlling our lives. 

Hemp oil burns clean with no carbon; imagine a world without carbon pollution from cars...
Henry Ford designed and fueled a car made of hemp.

Hemp is chemically distinct from marijuana. It is one of the longest, strongest and most durable natural soft fibers that grows without the use of insecticides or irrigation.  It produces 4x's the biomass as the same acreage of trees and could be grown throughout the 48 contiguous United States for paper, building materials, and 1000's of other uses. It is a plant perfect for sustainably support regional economic development.  

Hemp is a highly nutritious fiber. Its seed oil is a complete protein with all of the amino acids and highest in essential fatty acids especially helpful to prevent cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure as well s depression and anxiety. The seed is 35% fiber(!)

Imagine the ways hemp could relieve us of the consequences from countless toxins used in manufacturing today.