Feathers, flip-flops and fads
I love fashion. My admiration for design, creativity and fabric began as a teenager when Mom made my clothes to stretch the budget and accommodate my taller than usual frame. Great advertising campaigns and celebrities grabbed my imagination early on, fueled “trendy” fires and I was off to the consumers’ races just as soon as I began earning a paycheck and learned to drive. That's me in the photo on the rear of our scooter in the floral tunic with slim white shorts.
Fashion is still one of my loves but the fads that accompany this industry are disturbing when product success is completely disconnected from impact and the concept of cradle to cradle*.
This brings me to feathers and flip-flops.
To the dismay of many fly fisher-men and -women, the trend of feather hair-extensions has exhausted the limited supply of “hackles” (http://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-anatomy.html) or delicate and exotic feathers that require a year to grow and generally the life of the rooster growing them. Celebrities helped fuel the trend that began with Twenty- and Thirty-Something’s and has now spread to throngs of pre-teens, some of whom were getting feathers weaved into their hair during my recent salon visit. I was reminded of the origin of National Audubon Society, a century-old nonprofit that began with the goal of protecting bird species decimated by the hat industry and the trend of grand plumage.
I was thinking about this while taking the stairs and experienced a flip-flip blowout halfway down the flight. No way to fix it, so how to dispose of it? I checked online to see if the manufacturer recycled and perhaps offered an incentive for continuing to support their product. No luck. Earth911.com sent me to Nike Reuse-A-Shoe (only for Nike or Converse shoes), Soles4Souls (for usable shoes repurposed to those in need) and College Hunks Hauling Junk (pick-up and recycling service). All great programs, but nothing for flip-flops.
At that moment it occurred to me that unusable flips flops fall into the same category as plastic bags –mostly a cradle to grave product with one recyclable life.
Search “how to recycle flip flops” and you’ll find some interesting recycling and repurposing options, and you can also take a look at what many flip flops are made of (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-grayson/eco-etiquette-how-can-i-r_b_637415.html). A partial congratulations to trend-machine Old Navy for offering a Flip-Flop recycling campaign this year, a full one when you make it a permanent program. My favorite solutions were producers who accepted recycled sandals or used recycled and natural materials and rubber versus latex.
It is possible to value the art of fashion and value our resources equally. Conscious consuming can drive profit and production as much as trends.
