Looking for affordable organic clothing? This is something you may not think about everyday but think about this…. your skin is the largest organ you have so, you may want to put more thought into it! Eating organic is important and keeping harmful ingredients out of your home is important but what about the clothes that are touching your skin all day, every day? Here’s my guide to affordable organic clothing companies + a little pricing guide!

Here is one of my favorite brands of organic clothing & you get 20% off with my link!

This is a request from a reader – Amanda R. – be sure to send in your requests and I’ll tag you in the post when it goes live!

Some of my favorite organic & sustainable clothing brands

Wear Pact (20% off with this link)

The labels and what they mean

Just like food, clothing comes with a label. These labels contain buzzwords that confuse the heck out of us. Organic, fair-trade, sustainable, made with X, blah blah blah. So, what does it mean and what’s worth looking for? Here are just two terms, Marci will go over the rest in her interview below.

“Fashion statistics are sobering. The global industry contributes 10% of the planet’s carbon impact, 20% of fresh water pollution, over 5% of the earth’s landfills, and demands over 3 trillion gallons per year of fresh water. ” – Marci Zaroff

Organic: If you want truly organic, look for 100% organic on the label. This means organic starting with the farming practice all the way to the dyes they use. “Organic” only means they contain just 95% organic materials. Look for OTS or GOTS. This is a great source.

Fair-trade: Workers and farmers receive a fair and stable price for their cotton. They must be dedicated to social, economic and environmental development. In addition, they cannot participate in forced labor.

Common myths debunked

There are many different “sustainable” materials out there on the market. Hemp, bamboo, organic cotton, silk, recycled material, reused plastic bottles, etc. Don’t feed into the marketing schemes and you’ll save so much money and make the most conscious choices you can! At Shiftcon this year, I saw in on a panel with Marci Zaroff – THE leading sustainable fashion expert. She went headfirst and debunked many myths around sustainable clothing.

Myth 1: Organic doesn’t matter
“Think about what you put in your body, it’s pretty basic and intuitive. 83% of American’s buy organic at least occasionally. Over 98% of the cotton in America is grown using GMOs/glyphosate. The skin is the largest organ in our bodies and our primary organ for absorption.” Chlorine bleach, dyes, acetones, optical brighteners, formaldehyde.. these are on your bedding that your mouth’s on all night long!

“It’s not about why would you buy organic. It’s why wouldn’t you buy organic?” – Marci Zaroff

Myth 2: Organic is expensive
Organic takes more dedication, quality control and effort and may in turn be a bit more expensive but it lasts longer and you buy less so, you’re saving money! Now, if you’re comparing it to fast fashion it’s probably “expensive” but your attention’s at the wrong end of the string.. fast fashion is ridiculously CHEAP. Workers aren’t paid fair wages and they’re poisoned. Marci works hard to take out the middle man markups.

MUST KNOW facts about clothing from the expert herself

• Fashion is the 2nd largest polluter in the world (next to coal)
• 10% of the world’s carbon footprint
• 20% fresh water pollution
• over 1 trillion kw hours energy
• Bangladesh Rana Plaza (1,133 garment workers all lost their lives in the factory collapse )
• 5% worlds landfill waste
• 3 trillion gallons fresh water per year
• 60% cotton plant goes back to the food stream
  • it’s the highest sprayed crop..
• 1/3 of the population has asthma and allergies

Affordable organic clothing – 3 changes you can start NOW

1. Renting – rent the runway, swapping, mudd jeans, global fashion exchange
2. Buy less – quality over quantity. It starts with you and how you vote with you dollar!
3. Curated sites – shop ethica, Kaight, Maison de mode, helpsy, revenvert, modavanty

Ecofashion expert: Marci Zaroff

Here is an incredibly informative interview I did with Marci, leading eco fashion expert and entrepreneur. She started back in 1990 (paving the way for us) and has pioneered sustainability since the beginning. You know the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, yeah.. she co-created that! She coined the term EcoFashion in 1995 and couldn’t contain herself since. Marci has been shaking things up in the fashion and food industry for almost 30 years! She took time out of her BUSY life to hop on here so, give her a warm welcome.

Here are a few links to the brands she mentioned in the interview:

Order your own copy of her book EcoRenaissance now!

Organic Cotton Kimono Robe – Farm to Home

Organic Baby Onesies – Farm to Home