The fashion industry is an industry rooted in waste, and children’s clothing typifies the disposable culture of clothing better than anything else. It can take up to 3,000 tons of water to make a t-shirt, and that’s just scratching the surface of the impact this mass commercial engineering is having on our planet. It’s not good for our health either. Children are especially vulnerable to the toxic chemicals used in many articles of clothing. Going chemical-free isn’t just about the future of the planet, in other words, but the health of your kid. Here’s what you need to know before you start shopping for sustainable clothes.
Prioritize Versatility
Growth spurts ensure that most clothing articles aren’t going to stay in your kid’s wardrobe for very long, and that sort of turnaround is the biggest cause of waste in the clothing industry. There’s no reason to fill a walk-in closet for your toddler, for instance, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have variety. Just shop strategically, make use of layers, and keep an eye out for clothing that fits within your child’s current wardrobe or can expand on it in interesting ways. Layers can work wonders when trying to do more with less.
Understand It’s More Than a Purchasing Decision
Shopping ethically requires you to shop consciously. In other words, you can’t expect someone else to do all the work for you. It means making sure that you recycle anything you can to make it last as long as possible. Practically any textile can be reused in some way, so sustainability is as much about your responsibilities as it is about the manufacturer. Fortunately, you don’t have to do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to sustainable clothing for children. Mon Coeur offers an extensive and highly stylish selection of clothing for boys, girls, and infants – and their approach to sustainable practices is thoroughly thought out.
Think About More Than Just the Textiles
In the sustainable clothing market, fabrics get all the attention. That’s only natural since we’re talking about clothing, but it just tells you one portion of the bigger picture. Clothing also contains zippers, buttons, and velcro. A good ethical clothing brand will be creative to ensure that many of the products in their clothes are made from recycled materials. The same goes for the actual delivery method. Sustainable businesses need to have a clean supply line that ideally keeps all operations as geographically condensed as possible. It also needs to ensure a packing and shipping process that reduces the need for excessive packing materials. Fortunately, you won’t have to search too hard to figure out what a company’s practices look like in this regard. If a company can speak with confidence about its sustainable practices, it will. Any brand that doesn’t put that information front and center or excludes it entirely might not be worth your time. After all, if a business is truly sustainable, it’s in its best interest to be as transparent as possible.
According to Mon Coeur, making kids clothing that lasts is a way to make sure the planet lasts too. And while that sentiment alone can’t change the world, there’s a lot of sense to it. Instilling values like sustainability in your child at a young age can help them develop the principles they need to tackle the challenges the planet faces, and there’s no better way to teach than by example. Fortunately, Mon Coeur’s line of children’s clothing combines form, fashion, and function in a way that makes shopping sustainable both fun and satisfying.
