Are you wearing fashion or heavy metals in your clothes? How would know?
- Staci-lee Sherwood
- 19 hours ago
- 7 min read
By Staci-lee Sherwood
If the phrase ‘clothes make the man’ what does it mean if the man is wearing clothes made with more heavy metals than cotton or linen? For thousands of years humans wore natural fabrics albeit from animals, but they didn’t have toxic chemicals in them. Everything we come into contact with we absorb through our skin, the largest organ we have, along with our mouth, nose and tongue. That means every food, drink, beauty product and clothing affects our health yet few people ever think about it. I haven’t worn fabrics that come from animals in decades, I stick with certified organic cotton, hemp and linen as much as possible.
Traditional silk, velvet, cashmere, wool, angora, leather, suede and fur all come from animals and often in the most cruel and painful way. All of these types of fabrics do have a non cruel alternative. Cotton sateen mimics silk while cotton velour mimics velvet at a more affordable price and is much easier to clean. It’s almost impossible to have an entire wardrobe made from organic fabrics unless you live in tracksuits but it is possible to remove a lot of the toxic clothes you wear all the time and close the window of toxic exposure. It takes some research and patience but it’s possible to do and worth the switch.
The problem with heavy metals in clothing
The history of fashion has always focused on hemlines, fabrics, colors and designs but never how the clothes were made. Until the industrial revolution clothes ewer made from natural ingredients only found in nature. Dyes were from plants and the extraction was labor intensive and expensive. Looking at a garment from centuries ago the brightly colored ones were worn by the wealthy who could afford such labor while poor people wore drab clothing. That all changed when we introduced chemicals into manufacturing.
About 20% of industrial water pollution comes from textile manufacturing. Very few clothes are recycled. When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s we were taught to donate old or unwanted clothes to those less fortunate. That trend has fallen off leading to more clothes just thrown away only to fill landfills even faster than they can be made.
Fast fashion is currently the trend with Chinese companies like Shein and Temu selling clothes for less than the cost of buying the material. No one asks how these clothes can be so cheap but I would suspect child labor, lack of worker rights, zero environmental concern and cheap toxic fabric and dyes would be the answer. It’s called fast fashion because they’re made so quickly and sold so cheaply most people just throw them away after a few uses. Clothes manufactured with quality and care can never compete with those made cheap and fast with zero concern about anything else. Hidden dangers can lurk on every hanger.
It’s estimated that over 8,000 chemicals are used to manufacture our clothes, from dyes and finishes to making them anti crease and waterproof. Toxins like formaldehyde, cadmium, lead, mercury, bleach and flame retardants are widely used. Wearing clothes made with heavy metals and pesticides is a danger to your health because skin is the largest organ and absorbs everything it comes in contact with. Clothes are worn for several hours a day, many tightly wrapped around the body like spandex. Any chemical used along the way of processing rubs against your skin and gets absorbed into your bloodstream over time.
As you wear the clothes over months and years your body gets a steady dose of toxins, incrementally adding up to potential health problems from rashes and skin disorders to cancer and thyroid diseases. Sportswear absorbs your sweat which can help breakdown the fabric of clothing and in turn release any toxin in those fibers. Sweat acts as a carrier for chemicals in fabrics made from oil and plastic like nylon and polyester.
It may be hard to look at a dress made from polyester and think it could screw up your hormones or give you cancer but it can.
Click here to read the toxic textile report from 2019, that was seven years ago and even more chemicals are used today.
Below is a chart showing how these toxins are used
What’s in a designer’s name
It’s not just cheap clothes that are contaminated. You would be surprised how many haute couture are made with synthetic fabrics. What may feel like luxury can be deadly to your health every time you put it on. The designer haute couture clothes below are extremely expensive but 99% of the outrageous price is the brand name, it’s not about quality.
Prada dress for $6,400 made from viscose (wood pulp and toxic chemicals)
Christian Dior jacket for $4,700 made with viscose and polyester (from oil)
Yves St Laurent dress for $23,000 made of nylon (from oil)
Me back in the 1980’s as a fashionista. The outfit felt great but who knows what it was made of. I didn’t know how to read labels or research how clothes were made back then but I do now
Cotton the most versatile natural fiber
The variety of fabrics that come from cotton are more than a dozen. By weaving cotton fibers differently you get: denim, corduroy, flannel, poplin, canvas, muslin, gauze, sateen, damask, chambray terrycloth. If you knit the fibers you get jersey, French terrycloth and velour. The possibilities can be endless because any garment can be made from cotton or linen including handbags, gloves, scarves, hats and many shoes. Add some organic hemp and linen and you can have a complete non toxic wardrobe.
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Wild organic cotton growing in Florida
An organic cotton seed is ruined if toxic chemicals like bleach are used in the manufacturing of a shirt. Likewise the package may be recyclable but if pesticides were sprayed on the farm then it’s toxic not sustainable. Big companies and designers pay millions to PR firms and advertising agencies to dazzle with color and flash hoping you won’t ask these questions.
Certified organic fibers vs greenwashing
Many companies make the claim their clothes are sustainable or non toxic because they know few consumers will take the time to exhaustively research their claims. Even if a consumer does a Google search that rarely proves much unless there’s a big lawsuit attached. Looking up which companies are actually certified clears out a lot of the frauds. The phrase ‘cradle to grave’ describes the entire process from the cotton seed, to chemicals used when farming, to chemicals used in harvesting and manufacturing to toxic shipping materials. Not many people think about any of this when they go shopping for a new outfit but they should.
Anyone can look up if a company’s products are either GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) or OEKO-TEX certified. The GOTS site breaks down what the standards are, how they’re met, lists certified suppliers and has a resource library along with other information. According to their site “GOTS prohibits all chemicals that don’t meet rigorous safety conditions. No formaldehyde, No PFAS, No toxic dyes, protecting both your skin and the people who make your textiles. GOTS requires that each and every step in the manufacturing supply chain – spinning, dyeing, stitching, packaging and more – meet our strict environmental and social criteria.” Several brands I researched and bought from are listed as meeting this qualification including Pact, Parachute, Avocado and Coyuchi.
Click here to learn more about GOTS
And here
OEKO-TEX has been around since 1992 and covers both organic cotton and leather. Their site covers what their standards are, certification process and has a label check and a directory to look up brand names. Their site states “Choose OEKO-TEX® ORGANIC COTTON for a caring approach to our environment and your health. Our ORGANIC COTTON certification offers verification from farm to product. Products bearing this label are tested for genetically modified cotton (GMO), as well as pesticides and other harmful substances. Traceability is a fundamental point to avoid fraud in labelling and with MADE IN GREEN we can be sure, so the label is a reliable insurance.” I bought my mattress and pillows from Avocado because they met this standard. OEKO-TEX® ORGANIC COTTON for a caring approach to our environment and your h
Click here to learn more about OEKO-TEX
How to shop wisely
These are some of the companies I researched and buy from. I looked for certified organic cotton, hemp or linen. I’ve listed below three websites to cross check if these companies seem legit or are greenwashing (lying) about their products. There is no 100% guarantee anyone is honest about their products unless you are there growing, harvesting and manufacturing yourself. At some point trust in what a company says has to factor in your decision. There are a lot of companies that sell products with claims of ‘organic’ and ‘non toxic’ even ‘sustainable’. I feel if they can’t even list that if it’s GOTS or OREK certified with a number, that seems sketchy. If any of the companies I’ve listed turn out to be dishonest with proof they’ll be dropped.
Click on these sites to start your research on sustainable companies:
https://directory.goodonyou.eco - they list how a company rates on environmental pollution, supply chains, animal and worker abuse and sustainability
https://www.prettyorganicgirl.com/brands - aims to educate about conventional manufacturing and greenwashing, many companies listed have a discount code
https://www.thegoodtrade.com/category/style/fashion - broader focus, lists of sustainable companies and articles about related issues.
Try these organic companies for clothes, underwear and shoes (I listed what products I’ve bought from them):
https://wearpact.com - many cotton clothing items
https://www.fairindigo.com – several cotton tops
https://cottonique.com – cotton socks and sweaters
https://biankina.com – cotton sneakers and sandals
https://etiko.com.au - hemp sneakers
ubstances. Traceability is a fundamental point to avoid fraud in labelling and with MADEIN GREEN we can be sure, so the label is a reliable insurance.”
Great article. I will read labels even more carefully now.