Rashes. Burns. Breathing Issues.

Giant Pile of Used Clothing in the Chilean Desert (sourc: SkyFi)

Rashes, burns, breathing issues.

✈️ These are just some of the health reactions flight attendants reported from wearing synthetic clothing day in and day out.

👚 Their uniforms were made with little regard for safety or sustainability. [1]

This story is all too common in fashion.

🤮 Heavy metals. Toxic chemicals. Pesticides. Dangerous substances lurk in fabrics unbeknownst to consumers.

In his recent Heatmap article, Alden Wicker says Michael Pollan's wise words "Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants" apply to fashion.

He says,

"Wear real clothes, ethically made with safe materials."

The Atacama Desert, Chile.

I'm headed to the Biofabricate conference in Paris, where scientists, innovators and designers from the fashion and materials industries gather to discuss novel materials and textiles produced through biotechnology. 

We'll also be discussing biotech in personal care/beauty.

I've attended every Biofab but one (London 😢). Because innovations in this fashion, personal care and beauty space are not onlly inspiring, they give me tremendous hope.

While the beautiful, until-recently untouched Atacama Desert of Chile is being polluted to the tune of 39,000 tunes per year. [2]

At the same time, brand new microbes and processes that don't destroy the planet or endanger workers are being developed.

So are safer dyes, kinder cotton, revolutionary silk. These innovations are happening now.

But these solutions won't materialize overnight but by supporting this work over the long term, we inch closer.

The clothing graveyard near the city of Iquique. (Source: Refinery 29)

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[1] The flight attendants at American Airlines sued the airline and won $1M for having to wear those toxic uniforms. (Business Insider)

[2] For more information on the Chilean Fast Fashion graveyard, here’s a disturbing National Geographic pictorial.