Natural Clothing Blog

Hemp has served mankind for thousands of years, discovered in ancient civilizations at least 8000 B.C. Was grown widely in U.S. by colonial farmers including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. With such a long history, why is it illegal to grow it here? Is it a relation to the marijuana family? Hemp fiber is harvested from the large annual plant Cannabis Sativa. This industrial hemp has negligible alkaloid content and cannot be used for any drug. Canada, China, most of the European countries like France, England and many more allow growing and processing hemp – they don’t have problem with distinguishing the difference. What is different about US?

You can eat it, wear it, us it but not grow it. But hemp is the fastest growing agricultural crop, gentle on the land, requiring no chemicals in its cultivation. It produces more fiber yield per acre than any other source. It leaves the soil in excellent condition for any succeeding crop. It adds rich organic matter to the topsoil and helps retain moisture. Studies done in Poland show evidence that hemp is excellent plant to remove metals and toxins from the soil, multiplying its environmental benefits. Is it possible that we simply don’t want (or care) about environment as much as we claim?

In any way, it is one of the strongest and most durable of all natural textile fibers. It will outlast the competition. In the mid 1980’s, researchers developed an enzymatic process to successfully remove lignin from the hemp fiber without compromising its strength for multitude of uses: including textiles, energy generation, paper, construction, bio-plastics, food, cosmetics, and more. It is its comfortable and the more is used, the softer it gets. Hemp fabrics are great for people with sensitive skin because of the lack of bleaching agents used in the processing. Some of its amazing qualities is the resistance to mold and ultraviolet light. The porous nature allows hemp to “breathe,” so that it is cool in warm weather and the air trapped in the fibers makes it naturally warm in cooler weather. Due to the porous nature of the fiber, hemp will retain its color better than other fabrics.

We welcome readers input and information you would like to share.

A young girl at the fair asked: “So what is your clothing? Can you eat it? I thought organic means that you can eat it safely?”

Well yes, maybe not it it but wear it safely since it has no toxins for your skin or the planet! To us simply means it is not poisoned: by pesticides, insecticides, dyes with metals or PVC in it.

What does it mean to you?

Life can be bit frustrating. Large amounts of effort and small results. Maybe that’s the point – trying to hard…

Anyway, I take it all on my veggies in the garden. Sneak out for even half an hour and add compost, organic fertilizer, just mess with soil. Feels like a 5 year old in a sandbox. So therapeutic! love radishes and kale, since they grow in cold May well. It’s amazing to me that for the majority of this lifetime I avoided gardening like a plague and now, getting own organic food is so exciting! And the plants don’t talk back… Anybody else growing things?

Life without poisons.  That’s what the “Green Lifestyle” means to me.

I  actually came across that wording  on some Italian site and it seemed like an obviously awkward translation of their expression. “We don’t use poisons on our food”, they said. It stuck to me and I cannot get it unstuck. Every time I eat beautiful “conventional” (not organic) food, wear the conventional “normal” clothing, their beauty might as well come from toxic veneer, their great texture from gene engineering. The more you learn the more you see the percentages, like GMO corn at 70%, toxic cotton at similar range. A bio-scientist /artist (?) in Chicago crossed Petunia with his blood DNA. Called it Edunia. Cute, hmm…

Even though I am quite fanatical about life without poisons, I can see that one could go nuts looking for the potential hazards everywhere. Where do you draw the line? Does your line fluctuate like cosine function or is it straight and bold ? Do you think we are doing better because of the awareness growing with the green movement or are we getting behind because of damage already existing?

Organic and natural fiber clothing is growing as fast as organic food. Is it just “green washing,” an attempt to sell an “organic” or “natural” label? Organic veggies, organic cookies, why do you really need organic tee shirts, jeans or bed sheets?

In short – it is because you can spare our planet pounds of chemicals, avoid toxins for yourself and push the karma of this unbalanced world an inch in better direction. An inch is an inch.

Cotton is one of the most polluted crops on earth, perhaps due to a wrong perception as a non-food crop, causing a significant risk to our freshwater. Picture this: cotton uses 24% of global insecticides market but… at the same time, its acreage amounts to only 2.4% of the world’s cultivated land. Well…  All nine pesticides used on cotton in the U.S. are classified by the U.S. EPA as Category I and II- the most dangerous chemicals.

What doe is mean to You? If you love wearing your favorite T-shirt and pair of jeans, as we do, you have to live with the fact that it took a lot of chemicals, many of them carcinogenic (cancer creating) to create it. To “solve” the problem, a recent wave of Genetically Modified cotton has became widespread, covering 43 percent of the world’s cotton.   An additional concern related to using glyphosate on cotton is that the herbicide has been shown to move from cotton fabric into and through human skin.

I think that you do know the answer. The solution is NOT a better pesticide, but crops without poisons and chemicals. Goodbye, wrinkle free shirts! Hello hemp and linen, which look great either way or bamboo and soy! They are sustainable, effective and resulting in fibers with great qualities: breathable, some, like hemp naturally deter bacteria (and so body odor – hello socks and T-shirts!), very strong. Bamboo and soy blends are incredibly soft and pleasant to the skin.

Most importantly, they are safe for the skin, your body largest organ. Personally, we investigated for years possible causes of skin and health problems for our children and ourselves. We don’t make any health claims, but for our family – moving to rural area, growing organics and wearing organic clothing, definitely works. For more information go to http://www.NaturalClothingCompany.com/frequent_questions

When I moved to USA 20 years ago from economically collapsed Eastern Europe, I soon discovered a dream come true: Thrift Stores and garage sales!

For 25 or 50 cents (at that time) I could buy great quality clothing. Well, maybe sometimes not great quality but … the most important – there was lots and lots and lots of clothing, affordable, often almost brand new, rainbow of colors, sizes, textures. I have never been too obsessed with looks but there is something native to it. I don’t know about guys, but for a girl there is no better inspiration, soothing the soul as getting a new “thing”: a scarf, a bag, a chance to play with your identity just a little… Fun!

As an owner of organic clothing store now, I love the idea of sharing the beauty of natural fibers. So… a new page was added – Green Clothing Swap! If you want something, if you have some clothes to share – visit http://www.naturalclothingcompany.com/clothes_swap You can share your treasures and maybe find a new one for yourself!

I took my Mom to the Mall on Saturday (mother-daughter bonding time).

It was way too quiet for Sat night but the actual surprise hit me when we walked for a few minutes deep between the clothing racks. My eyes started to water and sting. Then my Mom turns to me and says “Let’s go somewhere else. My eyes are itchy…”

Does anybody else experience that? Have you heard of formaldehyde meter? I wonder how much it costs? I would love to have that meter for one day only and walk through life metering everything – clothes, furniture. Food? Probably one would not want to do it for longer than one day…