These days, with more and more talk about the fashion industry’s global environmental impact, a growing number of brands are claiming to be ecofriendly. But how many truly are? And what exactly does “eco-friendly” correlate to in the vast world of fashion and clothing production?
Fast fashion — a term used to describe the annual mass retail reproduction of fresh-from-the-catwalk looks presented each year during spring and fall Fashion Weeks — ultimately has an enormous environmental impact on our planet. Clothing production and disposal requires a considerable amount of energy and resources, while also depending on toxic fabric dyes and other chemicals that contaminate fresh water and other natural resources. Currently, the fashion industry produces a whopping 10 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.
One brand, We Are HAH is putting its money where its environmental footprint is. The clothing company was “born out of a desire to break the cycle of waste in fashion and create a more sustainable future by being ethical and eco-conscious both in process and in product,” as its website states.
Though the socially-conscious, LGBTQ+-friendly, body-positive brand (helmed by progressive-thinking founder and CEO, Sharleen Ernster) admits it’s “not perfect,” it’s certainly doing its part to open up the conversation with its #StartSomewhere campaign — which calls on others in the fashion industry to own up to environmental responsibility and transparency in regards to profit and production methods.
All photos courtesy of We Are HAH.
The #HAHT line, often beautifully displayed on a diverse group of queer, trans, nonbinary, and of color models, consists of luxurious silk pajamas constructed from — believe it or not — recycled plastic bottles.
The brand also uses an eco-friendly digital and sublimation printing process that uses 95 percent less water than traditional screen and rotary printing and greatly reduces the use of toxic dyestuff. It’s also easier on the environment because it doesn’t require as much physical production space, storage space, or equipment that will eventually end up in landfills.
Additionally, the #StartSomewhere campaign helps draw attention to other dangerous and disturbing environmental realities about fast fashion — like the fact that plastic particles washed off from synthetic clothes and textiles contribute to 35 percent of the primary microplastics polluting our oceans. (To aid in combating this, HAH created the Guppyfriend, a washing bag that helps prevents clothing fibers from going into water systems.)
Aside from our admiration for the brand’s love and attention for Mother Earth, we are obsessed with their new sustainable and sexy, or should we say, unisexy, line of sustainable sleepwear. The brand’s sumptuous new #HAHT sleepwear collection (which stands for “Hers and His Theirs”) somehow seems to find new levels of sexy by exploring the fluid nature of gender.
