I’m having another hojicha cup.
Why? Because I work in fashion hence, I’m a trend setter and I’m telling you matcha is yesterday news.
Also there is a shortage of matcha, because we all want to be healthy and drink anything green that even remotely suggests we will live until we are 100.
We are a funny little group: the population on planet Earth.
We are all preoccupied with having the best, glowing skin, the craziest anti-inflammatory drink, the most ridiculous diet. We do pilates, then we take vitamins and read what “non-invasive surgeries” any of the Kardashians have now done to themselves. Yet, when it comes to clothes, we are fine paying pennies for garments that have lead in them, are made of heated petrol, or even better: can cause cancer.
Yeap. We are crazy.
If we are so preoccupied with being healthy, why are we neglecting our clothes?It’s like a blind spot, yet we wear them every day, we sweat in them, they touch our bare skin, we dress our children in them. They are meant to protect us, but in a lot of cases can end up being properly dangerous.
Synthetic clothes for instance release plastic particles which we absorb through our skin pores. Our clothes become part of us, literally. There is so much plastic in our bodies, scientists are not sure what it means. But we don’t seem to talk about this. Instead, we have millions of videos of another influencer doing a Zara shopping haul.
Another funny thing is that making a very simple change in our wardrobe can improve our wellbeing tremendously. We just need to care.
Like replacing that polyester top with cotton t-shirt. You will notice you don’t sweat as much and if you do, there is no unpleasant smell. If you have acne, it can disappear. Your skin will feel like it can breathe again, simply because it can.
However, choosing natural is not enough. It’s like that specific serum you look for that makes your skin as if it had botox. You need to do a bit of research and make sure you are using the right ingredients. You need to make sure the cotton is organic. Why? Because as with everything else, the population on this planet can take something good and still turn it into something questionable while mass producing it.
You see, not every cotton is the same and not every cotton is good. Why? Because it is grown following different methods.
The general difference between cotton and its organic counterpart is toxins and water consumption, both of which are related to the way farmers tend to the crop.
Usually, farmers have fields where they grow just one crop over and over again. This exhausts the soil, essentially rendering it unfertile, reducing its moisture retention and the minerals in it.
If you have watched Interstellar, in the future, the ground has stopped producing food and humanity is desperately seeking a way to sustain itself with farmers desperately trying to plant anything, but it simply won’t catch.
Nowadays, to avoid this, more and more farmers opt for cultivating several types of plants on the same land (regenerative farming), or by switching plants across fields, so the soil stays fertile and rich in nitrogen. Since the soil manages to retain more moisture, farmers cultivating organic cotton are able to use less water for irrigation. Relaying heavily on rain to water the organic cotton, farmers then handpick the white cotton bulbs and separate the seeds from the white fluff, essentially achieving higher quality of the crop in a natural way.
In a world where future wars can be fought over clean water, this means a ton. And knowing that selecting organic cotton can preserve water for our children also means a lot.
Choosing organic has another benefit: the crops must not be treated against pesticides with toxic chemicals. Meaning, that T-shirt you wear is as clean as possible and no, your pores are not absorbing weird stuff.
Sometimes our choices do have a weight. In this case, it’s not the same as using paper straws while someone rich rides their private jet. The more demand there is from consumers, the more vigilant we stay, the more products will improve, governments will have to get involved and the more the industry will have to comply.
And if we are so obsessed with wellbeing, health, preserving our faces to always look as if we are 25, then maybe we should start choosing the right clothes.
I know you can find some right here with Not Another, where T-shirts are made with 50% recycled cotton and 50% organic cotton. Because Not Another cares for both what you put on your body and what we do to the environment.
Katya x
Some things on regenerative farming:
Book: “Braiding sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Series: Clarkson’s Farm season 3
Docu: Kiss the Ground
