NEW YORK MAGAZINE'S THE CUT | H&M Is Being Sued for Greenwashing. What Does That Mean For Fashion? →

Last month, a lawsuit was filed against Swedish fast-fashion giant H&M in New York federal court, accusing it of it “greenwashing,” or engaging in false advertising about the sustainability of its clothing. The lawsuit was brought forward by Chelsea Commodore, a SUNY New Paltz marketing student who alleged she had overpaid for a fashion piece marketed as “conscious” that really … wasn’t. In fact, she claims, several pieces of the brand’s Conscious Collection products were advertised as using less water to manufacture when they actually use more. H&M claims the discrepancy was the result of technical issues.

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CRAFTSMANSHIP QUARTERLY | The Little Blockprinting Workshop That Could →

Padmini Govind awoke at 3 a.m. to her cell phone ringing. It was mid-October, 2020, and rain was pounding the roof of her home in Bengaluru, India, as it had since June, marking an unusually long monsoon season. In a panicked voice, her elderly father’s live-in caretaker informed her that the lake bordering the property had breached the container wall, and water was pouring into her father’s home—which also housed the family’s block-print textile business, Tharangini, on the bottom floor. Govind, her family, and staff spent a sleepless night packing up more than 5,000 new and antique printing blocks, dismantling six meter-long tables, each covered with 100 layers of jute fabric, moving it all to dry land, and securing and installing large pumps and sandbags.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES | That Organic Cotton T-Shirt Might Not Be As Organic As You Think →

Michael Kors retails its organic cotton and recycled polyester women’s zip-up hoodies for $25 more than its conventional cotton hoodies. Urban Outfitters sells organic sweatpants that are priced $46 more than an equivalent pair of conventional cotton sweatpants. And Tommy Hilfiger’s men’s organic cotton slim-fit T-shirt is $3 more than its conventional counterpart.

“This product contains independently certified organic cotton grown without chemical pesticides, chemical fertilizers and genetically modified seeds,” the product description reads.

With the fashion industry trumpeting its sustainability commitments, those labels are both a means of value signaling and a lure to consumers willing to pay more to act better.

There’s only one problem: Much of the “organic cotton” that makes it to store shelves may not actually be organic at all.

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Yes! | Don't Let Consumerism Co-opt the Zero-Waste Movement →

Loop taps into the trendy and aspirational zero waste movement, in which consumers obsessively catalog their household’s output and try to get it down to the volume of a mason jar. Vowing to minimize one’s consumption and waste is a natural reaction to seeing viral photos of sea turtles strangled by beverage rings and a seahorse wrapped around a Q-tip. Well, it’s a natural reaction if you feel like the only power you have is over your family’s grocery shopping list—because you’ve been systematically blocked from decision-making positions in government or consumer product corporations.

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WIRED | Do You Like My Jacket? Thanks, It's Recyclable →

At the beginning of February, a large box from Germany arrived at my home in Brooklyn. Inside I found a futuristic, quilted polyester hooded jacket in pure white. “That would go really well at a winter rave,” my husband said when I slipped it over my head. With its sharp angles and preponderance of straps, it looked like something issued to the residents of a colony on Mars to wear on their weekends off from working the potato greenhouse.

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Well+Good | Remove the Earth Day T-Shirt From Your Digital Cart: Here’s What’s Required of Effective Sustainable Fashion →

Writing about sustainability in the fashion industry is my passion and focus 365 days a year, and so I’m always on the lookout for innovative brands trying to do things a little better. But come early March, the emails start arriving from brands that want to tell me about their soon-to-launch collections in honor of Earth Day on April 22: branded T-shirts made of organic cotton, hoodies made from recycled plastic and cotton, and sunglasses made of bio-based polymers. These efforts are the environmentalism equivalent of phoning it in.

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Vox | The wellness industry is coming for your mattress →

“Every spring works like a little hand holding your body,” a male voice intones from the darkness. “That level of relaxation can open up all your small muscles, and particularly that of our hip flexors. In Swedish culture, we know that the root chakra is where we store all those emotions or feelings. So once that is open, we can really be our true self.”

I’m not used to hearing the words of a yoga goddess in a clipped, professorial Swedish accent. And normally I would laugh at the assertion that belief in chakras is a Swedish thing, but the bedding salesman’s lyrical patter has lulled me into a helpless, meditative state as I sink deeper into the $400,000 mattress system.

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WIRED | Get Rich Selling Used Fashion Online—or Cry Trying →

Poshmark belongs to the ranks of companies that speak to a missing element in the labor market. Few jobs offer the desirable combination of a decent wage, flexible hours, and the ability to be one’s own boss. Poshmark seemed to offer one answer—an easy way to set up your own shop and, as a 2013 press release noted, potentially start generating $20,000 or so a month. But as Petersen discovered, there was only one problem: the hours.

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W Magazine | Meet the Designer Behind Beyoncé and Madonna’s Dreamy, Ornate Body Jewelry →

Then, in November, Jordyn Woods appeared in a full Object & Dawn set in the video for Megan Thee Stallion’s paeon to the female form, “Body.” And this past Friday, Gwen Stefani teased her upcoming single on Instagram, declaring “LET ME REINTRODUCE MYSELF,” wearing a slew of Object & Dawn items: the beaded Elohim harness, the Amaya garter belt with long, black tassels, and a matching necklace.

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Vogue | The Fight to Strike “Gypsy” From the Fashion Lexicon →

Grigore’s nationality is Romanian, but her ethnicity is Roma, which is the preferred term for what many people call Gypsies. She’s also the founder of the Roma People's Project at Columbia University, which aims to destigmatize Roma representation and promote new, uplifting narratives about their identity. As part of that mission, she campaigns to make the word “Gypsy” obsolete.

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InStyle | The Most Patriotic Thing You Can Do This July Is Buy From These Black Designers →

As July Fourth 2020 approaches, it’s just not the mood to grab a $5 flag-printed T-shirt.

Americans are wondering how, exactly, they are supposed to celebrate and take pride in a country when Black Americans are still fighting for the right to exist safely in public spaces and vote. It will also be hard to forget that America is Number One, but in the most gruesome statistic of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, which have disproportionately affected Black Americans. 

Meanwhile, before you snag that discount red-and-white striped bikini, it might give you pause to know that the garment workers in developing countries from Haiti to Bangladesh who produce much of our patriotic garb are running out of food, as large companies — including the one that produces Kylie and Kendall Jenner’s brand — refuse to pay for their orders. 

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