Countdown to a Green Valentine’s Day – Day 4/5

Posted by A. Caleb Hartley on February 10th, 2008 filed in Uncategorized

You knew it had to happen.  I missed a day of the countdown.  Don’t be upset – I’ll make it up to you.  Today, you get a two-for-one deal of the century!

In other words, this post will be so amazing, so fabulous, so incredibly environmentastic!, that you will walk (click) away feeling like you have gotten twice your money’s (time’s) worth for reading it!

Now on to the cliches!

A gift that regularly is given to a Valentine’s Day love interest is lingerie.  Here’s a hint that makes this gift work a little better – don’t give lingerie to someone you aren’t already physically involved with.  That’s a little awkward…  <ahem>

Lingerie, like any other clothing, has its environmental issues – the most pressing of which is probably this: cotton is conventionally grown using massive amounts of pesticides and herbicides and chemical fertilizers and on and on.  A quote from Organic Clothing:

Farmers in the United States apply nearly one-third of a pound of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for every pound of cotton harvested. When all nineteen cotton-growing states are tallied, cotton crops account for twenty-five percent of all the pesticides used in the U.S. Some of these chemicals are among the most toxic classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In developing countries, where regulations are less stringent, the amount of herbicides and insecticides and their toxicity is often greater than in the U.S.

Also, there are many other kinds of textiles than cotton, such as lycra, latex, bamboo, hemp, silk, wool, and more and more.  Many (if not most) of these are not acceptable fabrics to use for lingerie (i.e. wool), so we’ll ignore them for now and focus on what is acceptable, and what the most green options are.

Organic Cotton, silk, bamboo, hemp, eco-spun, ingeo, sasawashi, and soy are a few fibers that are considered sustainable.  Click on each of the above types of fibers if you would like to learn more about them.  Now on to places where you can find acceptably green lingerie for your sexy someone this Valentine’s Day:

• Enamore: Lingerie Sets
• Green Knickers
• Eco-boudoir
• Rene´ Geneva Design – corsets

If you and you Valentine aren’t exactly into the super-sexy lingerie thing, my first question is “Why not?!?”  This has been, by far, my favorite research for the Valetine’s Day series so far. 

Having said that, perhaps sustainable pajamas are more your style?  If so, here are a few places you might want to look:

• C&C California
• Faeries’ Dance
• Rawganique
• Fig Leaves

One last place that you might consider looking if neither of the above options make you comfortable is White Apricot.  This site has not only lingerie and pajamas (your countdown day 5 & day 4 specialties, respectively), but they also have all kinds of green fashion for you to choose from to give to your Valentine on Cupid Day.

Enjoy browsing these sites – I certainly did…

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

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Please feel free to dress up the comments with your opinions, thoughts, and questions. That’s why the opportunity is there!

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