Editor’s note: Please join us in welcoming Jason Phillip to the Green Options writing team! A freelance writer and editor based in Chicago, Jason will be focusing on the "green scene" in the Windy City for us. Mayor Richard Daly has committed to making Chicago the greenest city in the country, so we’re looking forward to Jason’s reports on these efforts.

My idea of sustainable fashion has always been making sure the clothing I wear gets as long a life as possible. I like keeping things in my wardrobe forever, and when they finally can’t be worn even one more time, replacing them with something from a thrift store that I know has had at least one previous owner. I like to think I’m buying classics, and also keeping material out of the waste stream. If I’m not buying something new, my purchase doesn’t help spew any carbon dioxide into the atmosphere or exploit any sweatshop workers, right? Plus, I can save a bundle outfitting myself with recycled duds.

But as most fans of "thrifting" know, it can be tough to shop this way all the time. There’s an element of luck involved—you have to make do with what fate presents you. The scavenger hunt feeling can be addictive, but sometimes it’s just not practical—like when building a professional wardrobe, or looking for outdoor apparel with modern weatherproofing performance. No one has ever accused me of being a slave to fashion, but sometimes you gotta go retail. And for the eco-conscious consumer, going retail may now mean seeking out environmentally-friendly garments. In just the past year, it seems, the fashion industry has really begun to embrace the environmental ethos, and the choices available to consumers interested in ethically-produced clothing are growing by leaps and bounds.

Case in point: I got a pair of recycled sandals as a gift this year, after my decade-old pair of slip-ons finally gave up the ghost. My wife—never a fan of the old dork cork classics, but nonetheless tolerant of my penchant for comfort over style—found a decent looking replacement pair that compared favorably in the looks department, and had some impressive sustainability features. I appreciated the fact that the soles are made from recycled car tire tread, the straps consist of used (but clean) bicycle inner tubes, and the thread holding it all together is organic cotton. Alas, the whole shoe is less than the sum of its parts; the sad fact is that the new togs just make me miss my old pair. They don’t feel anywhere near as sturdy, they fall off my feet when I walk because the straps can’t be tightened, and the stitching in the soles looks like it’s about to wear through after only three weeks of use. Did I mention I owned my old pair since the mid-1990s? These "sustainable" sandals don’t seem like they’ll last through next summer. The warm glow I felt around the purchase of this innovative product has faded pretty quickly, replaced by the creeping realization that I’m going to have to make another summer footwear purchase soon.

So now I’m weighing the relative merits of buying conventional but long-lasting versus green but disposable. Can a consumer item really claim to be sustainable if it leads me to make even more purchases? Obviously my disappointing sandal experience is just one tiny drop in a rising sea of eco-friendly fashion, but I can’t help but think there are a lot of frustrated expectations to wade through while clothing designers work the kinks out of their green creations. I want to be part of the greening of our culture, but I also don’t want to pay for the privilege of being an early-adopter guinea pig. As fashion guru Tim Gunn from the reality show Project Runway regularly tells the ambitious designers competing for fame and fortune for the cameras, "Make it work, people!" Once I know it works, then I’ll be happy to own it.

Fortunately, Chicagoans will get a chance to decide for themselves which cutting-edge ideas work, and which don’t, in the sustainable designs of dozens of retailers and designers at the EcoModa fashion showcase on Sept. 27. Hosted by Foresight Design Initiative as part of its Sustainable Convergence ’07 party, EcoModa will highlight the ways emerging designers from Chicago, established designers from the region with their own boutiques, and large-scale clothing manufacturers like Patagonia and Nau are creating clothing and accessories that are easy on the earth.

Such an event seems extremely topical at the moment. Eco-fashion is hot right now, as both mainstream and environmental-focused media have rushed to cover the trend in recent months. Entire issues of E Magazine and VegNews have been devoted to telling the story of how eco-fashion has moved beyond the era of Birkenstocks and hemp ponchos. High-end fashion designers around the world have been experimenting with sustainable fabrics and dyes that treat the earth more gently, and they’re creating stunningly beautiful garments with them.

These trends strike me as exciting in a "gee-whiz-that’s-what-the-future-may-look-like-someday" way, but what about us eco-conscious folks who need a new work outfit today and for whom haute couture is just not in the budget? Eventually fabrics utilizing exotic materials like bamboo, corn, organic cotton, and recycled materials will trickle down to the everyday department store shopper, but how long will that take? Many new concepts in eco-fashion out there seem like great ideas on paper, but not thoroughly tested in the real world.

Along comes EcoModa—a chance to enter the big tent of this cultural trend and kick a lot of tires. Skeptical about the aesthetic potential of a skirt made out of recycled t-shirts? Wondering how to avoid supporting off-shore sweatshops? Curious about how high-end designers work a sustainable material like bamboo into their garments? Anybody with even a passing interest in sustainability who’s not a nudist will probably find something at the event to capture their attention. I think we’re just beginning to see what committed, creative people with sewing machines can do with the task of making a billion-dollar industry a more ethical one. In the not-too-distant future, we may look back on the way we dressed ourselves at the turn of the 21st century with the same disbelief that we feel today when confronted with the historical realities of hoop skirts and whalebone corsets.

To get a little background on the upcoming fashion showcase and find out what to expect, I recently sat down with Peter Nicholson, the Executive Director of Foresight Design. He told me that each year the Sustainable Convergence event brings together over 40 nonprofit organizations, business enterprises, and service providers doing work in the sustainability realm in Chicago. The Sustainable Enterprise Fair portion of the event features dozens of information tables and networking opportunities with environmental movers and shakers, but Convergence is also a big party, complete with sustainable food and drinks, music, and free giveaways.

"We work a lot on building community," Nicholson says. "Changing the way we do things, whether it’s biking to work or buying local produce, is better done in concert with other people who are trying to do it too."

The event was originally conceived as a way to bring together (as in "converge" … get it?) different groups of Chicagoans—the business community, members of the general public interested in sustainability, and design professionals—all in one place and all around the concept of packaging green ideas so people will want to use them. "I believe we’re going to design our way out of this crisis. Advances in technology will get us part of the way there, but how do you incorporate them into people’s behaviors? How do you package it so it is useful? That’s the role of design."

Not simply a stereotypical gala fundraiser, Sustainable Convergence is meant to showcase great ideas in sustainable design in a setting where people can support and learn from one another. Rather that have a separate space for a runway show, the fashion designers will be mixed in among the nonprofits and green businesses promoting their products and services. The idea is to cross-pollinate among different subgroups of the overall "green community" in the city.

I asked Nicholson why he and his staff decided to make fashion the featured design discipline at this year’s event. He swears that he had no idea it would become the green issue du jour it is now when the idea was considered over a year ago. The draw for Foresight, he says, was that eco-fashion could take design out of the abstract realm and be presented as something that everyone can relate to on a daily basis. He says the EcoModa will be compelling because of the breadth of the 40 different "looks" that designers will present. Nicholson says attendees can expect to see "everything from everyday wear, to kids clothing, to more fancy stuff." He also says focusing on the intersection of sustainability and fashion design "offered the opportunity to show not just one product or approach, but a whole range of possibilities."

That newly emerging range of options is what I think makes this the right time for a showcase like EcoModa. Whereas once "earth-friendly" clothing was synonymous with "hippie wear," the entire fashion industry seems to be on alert to the new trend in eco-sensitive—if not socially just—design. As a casual observer, it’s gratifying to see what can often seem a pretty frivolous and self-absorbed industry waking up to the need for better environmental stewardship. And as it wakes up, it can lead consumers to a deeper understanding of how garments get into their closets. It can present a different path than the mindless consumerism that follows the pattern of See-Want-Buy-Discard-Repeat at the lowest monetary cost to the consumer. Hopefully, the trend will spread to all the segments of the market, in order that eco-fashion not stay a niche within the industry. Indications so far are encouraging. As Nicholson says, "It’s not couture and it’s not crunchy. It’s—dare I say it—mainstream. Or at least it’s headed that way."

Just like organic food and green architecture have come of age and have presented a new set of choices to consumers, the American public may someday have to reckon with labeling and branding messages that have never been part of our retail shopping lexicon. Now is when we start to shake out the relative merits of terms like "upcycled," "compostable," "reclaimed," "fair trade," and "low-impact" (to name a few) as they apply to the clothing and accessories we wear every day.

Even more important than learning to parse the buzzwords, though, I’ll be attending EcoModa on the lookout for designers that would make Tim Gunn proud. In Season 2 of Project Runway, the contestants on the show were challenged to design an outfit using materials they scrounged from piles of refuse at an industrial recycling center. This design challenge was mostly just a reality-TV stunt ("You’ve got 8 yards of bubble wrap, 2 rolls of duct tape, and 90 minutes…Go!"), and most of the creations didn’t hold up to being worn by an actual human being for even the few minutes it took to slink down the runway. When it came to eco-fashion, the Project Runway kids didn’t really make it work. But I’m hoping that EcoModa will feature some design solutions that reflect some deeper thought and that capture the promise of the "recycled dress" concept. I’ve got a feeling that here in Chicago, known as "the city that works," the audience at this event won’t be satisfied by mere aesthetics–this eco-fashion is going to have to work. I can just picture Tim Gunn wandering the exhibit space in one of his impeccable suits, stopping to peer over his glasses at a beautiful design that makes you forget how small its ecological footprint is, and intoning with sincere appreciation, "Mmmm…very impressive." It could happen.

Like the discriminating Mr. Gunn, I plan on not being shy about questioning a few of these visionaries about what really works in their designs. I value what they’re doing, I really do. I’m even willing to pay a premium for a dress shirt or a raincoat or a pair of pants that does everything I expect it to because it does those things in a sustainable way. But I need to be satisfied that it’s going to keep delivering on that promise for a few years before I’m willing to spend my thrift-store dollar on experimental eco-smart threads. Call me crazy, but I want my next "sandal of the future" to have a real future. Otherwise, there’s a world of second-hand clothing out there just waiting to be reclaimed.

To register for Sustainable Convergence ‘07, click here. Ticket prices vary by date of registration.

I have long fallen prey to the “disposable clothing” phenomenon (NYT via Treehugger), buying clothes as absolutely cheap as possible. And of course, they fall apart rapidly. However, while Wal-Mart and Madison Avenue are not moving quickly towards sustainable clothing, there is a large movement towards shifting our manufactured clothing supply to use sustainable materials.

Organic Cotton

A few weeks ago I needed some new undershirts, and decided to go organic. There are a variety of manufacturers out there (see the organic cotton directory); I ended up going with Maggie’s Organics, due to their commitment to 100% organic cotton, as well as their utilization of fair trade in manufacturing their clothes. The shirts were certainly more than the disposable kind at Wal-Mart (13.95 for one shirt, rather than $10 for 3), but the payoff was great. The shirt is actually more comfortable than the bleached, poor-quality shirts I used to buy, and it can be worn with pride.

There are many other materials that are alternatives to plain old cotton. Of course the two conventional alternatives to cotton are wool and polyester. However, to me I feel that both of these fabrics have their own issues: wool is not always gathered in the most humane of ways (and sheep can be particularly environmentally destructive) and polyester is made of petroleum products. This doesn’t mean that you can’t find sustainable alternatives to the traditional wool and polyester (Patagonia utilizes recycled polyester for their clothes, and there is a humane wool movement). But there are two other fabrics that I’ve tired out: hemp and bamboo.

Hemp and Bamboo

Hemp clothing is widely available (see a list of hemp clothing retailers http://www.greenpeople.org/Hemp.html ) and has proven to be far more durable than conventional cotton clothing. I get my hemp from Patagonia , who make very nice hemp shirts and pants. Hemp also has the benefit of being typically a looser weave, so that it keeps me cooler in the hot desert sun.

Bamboo clothing is just starting to move into the forefront of the alternative clothing world. Bamboo is a very fast growing plant, which also takes in five times the amount of CO2 of an equivalent stand of trees (benefits of bamboo), and can be spun into fabric. I got a Bamboo shirt from Kavu—the fabric is tough but supple, and does not wrinkle much. There are lots of other bamboo retailers out there if you search for them.

All decked out in my sustainable clothes, I feel like I’ve made a small stab at changing the way I dress myself, and the impact what I purchase has on the earth. While it will be some time before I can say I have a sustainable wardrobe, buying some organic, hemp, and bamboo clothing is a small start towards a better world.