Category: Shopping_CN

Whenever an eco-friendly cleaning company asks to send me samples, I jump at the opportunity—as long as I like what I see on their website in terms of ingredients, packaging, and philosophy. It’s hard to find innovate green products where I live in rural Ontario, Canada, so I gladly accept whatever these companies want to send my way.

This year’s Oscars saw a lot of glamor. Everything was bejeweled and sparkling. There was Lupita Nyongo’s golden Prada gown, which was embellished with thousands of paillettes and beads, and Jessica Chastain’s multi-colored, all-sequin Gucci gown. Timothée Chalamet’s cropped Louis Vuitton jacket was also adorned with black sequins. And, of course, there was Zendaya who wore a white silk crop top and long silver skirt by Valentino.

There is a thrill to buying something new to wear — but does it need to be newly made to feel special? And do you need to own it? For many younger shoppers, who have grown up in the sharing economy in which ownership is less important than for their parents, buying jeans second-hand or renting a designer dress is not unusual.

Few industries tout their sustainability credentials more forcefully than the fashion industry. Products ranging from swimsuits to wedding dresses are marketed as carbon positive, organic, or vegan while yoga mats made from mushrooms and sneakers from sugar cane dot retail shelves. New business models including recycling, resale, rental, reuse, and repair are sold as environmental life savers.

Last September, as New York Fashion Week was taking place for the first time in a year, Kathy Hochul, the new governor, sat front row at the Prabal Gurung show, marking a fresh era in the relationship of the fashion industry and the state government. “This is where all the eyes of the world are when it comes to fashion,” she later told Vogue.

On the heels of the international climate summit …

The fashion industry is a profligate source of pollution, even when making baby clothing. Lauren Gregor founded Rent-a-Romper to help parents find and reuse baby clothing. During the first years of a baby’s life, they change sizes and styles faster than a teenage fashion plate.

For something that you use to get clean, most hand soaps have a pretty nasty ingredient list. But no matter how negative their environmental impact, you can’t just avoid them the way you can other product categories. Handwashing is important for health and safety. There are lots of ways to make your hygiene routine more sustainable. But finding truly eco-friendly hand soap is surprisingly difficult. Ultimately your choice will depend on your own personal environmental priorities.

A climate activist, bearing a white banner with the words “Overconsumption = Extinction” in bold block lettering, joined the models on the runway for the Louis Vuitton show at the Louvre museum, the final event of Paris Fashion Week.

Sustainable products are in high demand. More than 75 percent of Americans say purchasing sustainable products is at least somewhat important to them, according to a survey released last month by Adweek and the intelligence company Morning Consult, with attributes like “biodegradable,” “plastic-free” and “ethically sourced” being the most attractive to consumers. Target is among the retailers looking to answer the call by stocking more sustainable products — and its latest effort looks to push underrepresented founders and their solutions forward.