Living Like Ed (33 page)

Shorts and T-Shirts: Simplicity Is the Answer

I’m a simple guy, and I keep my wardrobe pretty simple: shorts and T-shirts. If it’s cool out—or if I’ve got the heat turned way down to save energy—then I throw on a flannel shirt over my T-shirt. Of course, I’m in Southern California, so I’m not dealing with snow and sleet and ice on a regular basis.

But I’ve really made a conscious choice to keep my wardrobe—and my life—simple. And because I choose to wear simple styles, it’s easy to find organic clothing that suits me.

Occasionally, I have to wear a suit. If I have to go to a Hollywood event, a premiere or an awards ceremony or some fancy-dress occasion, I wear one of the suits I bought in the ’80s and early ’90s that still fit me. These suits are old, but they’re well made and they’re wool. I’ll probably have them for a few more decades. (As I mentioned in Chapter 5, I’m mostly vegan. Some vegans won’t wear wool, but just as I eat some salmon once in a while, I do also wear wool. It’s my personal choice.)

When it is time to buy a new suit, there are eco-friendly choices. In the ’80s, it was nearly impossible to find business suits and tuxedos and dressier clothing made from organic fabrics, but it’s much easier now.

I also keep a suitcase packed and ready at all times. (Soldiers in battle-field conditions always have their packs ready to go; I’ve got my suitcase.) The suitcase is taking up space in my closet anyway; what better place to store a few T-shirts, some socks, and some underwear and toiletries than where they will surely next be used? This way I’m ready if I get a last-minute acting job or a speaking engagement. If someone calls and says, “Can you leave right now?” I really can.

Green Style: The Fashionable Compromise

I love clothes and shoes. I think I’m actually a borderline shopaholic. However, I’m all about comfort
with style.
Most days, I wear stylish casual wear, like a fashionable T-shirt and jeans.

Several nights a week Ed and I go out, and I’ll put on something a little more elegant. Even then, though, I like to be comfortable. There’s nothing worse than wearing a nice dress and tugging at the straps all night. I want to know that I’m going to be warm enough and I’m not going to be complaining about my lower back because my heels are too high. Having been a dancer and having hurt my body, I know the importance of good shoes, so I look for stylish shoes with lower heels.

I love fashion, but I’m not a slave to it. The most important thing about all my clothes is that they fit. If it doesn’t look good on my body, I won’t wear it. I know my body type and what colors look good on me.

Color is important to me. I love blues and spring and summer pastel colors because I’m a blond, blue-eyed, fair-skinned person and those colors just look better on my skin. Of course I also tend to wear a lot of black, because every designer does black. Most people look good in black, so it’s a great option. If not, try navy or gray.

Until very recently I would have never considered “green” clothing. It was not even on my radar. Why should I bother to go that extra step to wear organic?

Now, of course, I know the difference between pesticide-laden cotton and organic cotton. And then there’s the sustainability factor with the clothing manufacturer. How do you get your fabric? Is it fair trade? Those things are important, and they’re becoming much more important to me.

But style is important to me too, and many of the organic fashions I’ve come across are either Pacific Northwest or grunge or hippie-granola-girl style. I like a little more tailoring. For me the new frontier is finding eco-friendly clothing with a more couture attitude so I can know my clothes are created in a way that won’t hurt me, the people who made them, or the land—and are still the most stylish looks of the season.

For years, Rachelle would complain about organic clothing styles—or the lack thereof. But now a few designers are starting to use organic fabrics and create genuine couture, the kind of stuff fashion magazines feature not because it’s organic, but because it’s real fashion. As with anything, there’s a learning curve. Designers and manufacturers are having to figure out which fabrics will work for which styles. They have to research the way a material will hang, not to mention how it will wear over time and hold up to cleaning. And when we’re talking about some of the newer materials, like bamboo and coconut fiber, being used to make clothing, you can appreciate the steepness of the learning curve.

Rachelle used to complain about clothing made from hemp. She said it was too rough. But now fabric manufacturers have been able to blend it with silk or with organic cotton to make it more wearable. Advancements in the whole dye and fabric world are happening all the time, too. As demand for these organic fashions increases, we’ll see more money being spent on R&D.

Rachelle is actually working with a friend to design her own clothing line. I think it’s great. It’s a passion of hers, and if it can help the environment, too, I’m all for it.

Recycled Clothing

In Chapter 3 I talked a lot about the importance of recycling, and I touched on the value of purchasing recycled furniture—whether you’re buying antiques, thrift-shop bargains, or items made from reclaimed materials. Recycled clothing fits into the same category.

When you purchase something that already exists, you’re saving natural resources and all the energy used to mine or harvest them, to ship them to a manufacturing facility, to transform those raw resources into finished goods, then to transport those finished goods to warehouses and retail stores.

So, what do I mean by
recycled clothing
? I mean preowned clothes and also clothing made from recycled materials.

You can find preowned clothing—and shoes—in all sorts of stores and in all sorts of styles. Thrift shops, flea markets, and swap meets are great sources of inexpensive clothing that isn’t ready for a landfill—it’s ready for a new life in
your
closet. If you’re looking for something more upscale, some thrift shops do specialize in higher-end merchandise, or you might try shopping in a consignment store (sometimes called a resale store). These stores specialize in preowned designer apparel.

Another excellent option is clothing made from recycled materials. Some of the designers working in the organic clothing realm are using vintage buttons, so they’re recycling in that sense. Other companies are taking cool vintage clothing—sweaters, dresses—and remaking it in more current styles and sizes. Rachelle was telling me about companies that take old cashmere from sweaters and blankets and scarves and that sort of thing and recycle it into new clothes as well as scarves and quilts.

But scarves aren’t the only recycled accessories you can find. Some pretty impressive—you might even say mind-boggling—purses are made from all kinds of recycled materials, including automobile seat belts, license plates, bicycle inner tubes, vinyl records, 35mm slides, blue jeans, soda cans, old soda can pop tops, juice boxes, candy wrappers, skateboards, and magazines.

When you buy recycled clothing and shoes and purses, you’re keeping all of these items out of landfills
and
you’re reducing energy use and the use of natural resources.

Rental Clothing

Another great option, in terms of conserving resources (not to mention money) is renting.

What sort of clothing can you rent? For men, tuxedos are certainly the best-known rental option. But you can also rent a business suit for a job interview, say, and if you won’t actually need that suit when you start working, renting it makes a lot of sense.

The same goes for ladies’ clothing. How many times do you really plan to wear your wedding dress? Once, right? So why buy it, wear it once, then have it take up space in a closet or up in the attic for the rest of your life? Oh, and you can rent prom dresses and bridesmaids’ dresses, too. (Rachelle tells me your bridesmaids will be especially grateful if you choose this option!)

Vegan Shoes

Clothing isn’t the only thing we wear on our bodies. You’ve got to put something on your feet.

As you probably know, most vegans do not wear leather. They avoid leather belts, leather jackets, leather shoes—even leather upholstery on their furniture and in their cars.

My choice to wear vegan shoes (and belts and so on) isn’t just about animal cruelty issues. It’s also about the environment.

In Chapter 5, “In the Garden and Kitchen,” I discussed that it takes a lot more land, water, and energy to raise animals than to grow grains and produce. Choosing organic vegan shoes made from plant-based materials is environmentally friendly, too.

Don’t assume vegan shoes are much more expensive than other shoes. What did you pay for your last pair of name-brand athletic shoes? My vegan athletic shoes look just the same and they feel the same to me. Any minor difference in cost is a price I’m willing to pay.

A word of caution: You can find inexpensive nonleather shoes, but some of them are not all that well made. There are companies making really cheapo shoes out of plastic because it’s less expensive than leather. It’s hard for me to find those shoes in my size and in styles that I can tolerate, and when they’re badly made, I end up throwing them out after a few months. Plus they’re made from petroleum. Any way you look at it, those shoes are a bad investment.