Tag Archive for 'jeans'

The Journey Of Jeans

april published on November 7, 2010 in zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Hey hey, SuperForest!

As some of you may know, I live in Australia, and we have a very SuperForest-y annual event called National Recycling Week, beginning tomorrow. It all started as a community education campaign back in 1996, and its two main aims remain the same:

1. To raise awareness of how recycling helps to reduce our impact on the environment.

2. To encourage individuals and businesses to recycle more and recycle better.

As part of this event, The Big Aussie Swap will be taking place, with the aim of eliminating waste by giving our quality, unwanted items a new owner. It’s a great way to refresh your wardrobe without having to hand over a cent! In an effort to promote this swap party, the video below follows a pair of jeans, from its humble beginnings in a cotton field to your local clothing store. I, for one, was very surprised to learn that my favourite pair of jeans were produced using 6,000 litres of water and more than 37.7 kg of carbon dioxide emissions. Unheard of, right?

This cute, insight-filled animation titled From Crop To Shop: The Journey Of Jeans explains the process. After watching it, I’m sure I’ll never look at jeans the same way.

Want the skinny on your skinny jeans? Read the below, courtesy of Planet Ark.

  • Like any product, the creation of a piece of clothing requires inputs of natural resources, energy and human labour, and often creates unintentional by-products such as chemical pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
  • By reducing the quantity of unnecessary clothing we buy, and by re-using clothes that are in good condition, we can lower the need for pesticide use.

  • Look for clothes made from organic cotton, which is grown without synthetic chemical inputs such as synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. This significantly reduces the environmental impact of cotton production and supports the health of farm workers.
  • Here are some low-impact ways of caring for your denim blues: Only wash them when necessary; wash in cold water; use a water-efficient washing machine; use enviro-friendly detergent; hang them up to dry; and, finally, don’t iron them.

For my fellow Down Under-dwelling peeps, you can find a swap event near you here.

April

Carla’s Journal (9/22/10) – “Letting Go of Fake Needs”

carla published on September 22, 2010 in superforest journal and zeitgeist. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Good Morning, SuperForest!

The picture above shows a rather gruesome image of a monster that was living in my closet for about…six years (give or take.) What you’re looking at is a photograph of sixteen pairs of jeans (16! Jeans, mind you, this count doesn’t include the other type of pants found in my closet.) Nasty, isn’t it? Inspired by Amy’s “100 Thing Challenge” I decided to start this fresh new season by going through my closet and collecting all the clothes I felt I could give away. And as I pulled these sixteen pairs of jeans out of my closet, one by one, I was both shocked and borderline disturbed by the amount of excess that had been accumulating in my own bedroom.

I’m not sure how one even accumulates sixteen pairs of jeans, and the worst part is, I don’t even consider myself to be much of a shopper, but there they were, sitting in a big pile on my bed, conjuring up a strange mixture of feelings ranging from guilt to liberation to inner reflection. You see, as it turns out, the thing that makes it possible for a single person to accumulate so many pairs of pants is simple: a lack of accountability. And at a really macro-level, my pant problem kind of beautifully illustrates the flaws we have as a civilization:

We know what we want to have.
We exaggerate what we need to have.
And we don’t know the extent of what we already have.

Apparently, I wanted jeans. I felt I needed to have new jeans. And eventually, I lost track of how many jeans I had. But lucky for me, this whole “pant” situation didn’t only illustrate the flaws we have as a consumer civilization, it also opened my eyes to a pair of mindsets that could help fix these flaws. Because once you sort of take the time to dive into your closet or cupboards and really take note of everything you’ve collected over time (much like Amy suggested) and you do this often, you start to develop two really handy skill sets.

1. You learn to let go of fake needs: Fake needs. This is something we all are probably guilty of creating from time to time. Be it the “need” to be wealthy or trendy. And it doesn’t even necessarily have to do with the material needs in our life. Do you need to check your email every few hours? Your tumblr dashboard? All those blogs you keep up with? In most cases, when you take the time to analyze these needs, you’ll find that they were created by society or by yourself. Which, generally, is a great thing, because that usually makes it possible for you to eliminate those needs. All it takes, is the willingness to let go. And letting go of excess, in most cases, feels all kinds of awesome.
2. You learn to love less: Letting go of fake needs is not only awesome in the liberating sense, but it also turns out to be a major facilitator to help us appreciate and really take care of all those needs we’re left with. Because when you focus on loving less, essentially you are focusing on “full, savory enjoyment”.

Socrates put it wonderfully when he said: “The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” And in a really strange and mixed up way, I probably have sixteen pairs (16!) of jeans to thank for helping me appreciate the wonderful glory of that very simple sentence.

Love!
Carla