Going eco-friendly is becoming more popular among fashion designers.

By: Mitra Asgarinik

I'm not talking about bringing the '60s and '70s back, but about using environmentally friendly fabrics and dyes in garments.

More designers are deciding to go green and think of mother earth first when designing their collections; with you, the consumer, still in mind of course. If a garment is not good enough for Mother Earth herself, then it certainly is not fit for us either. The outfit you're wearing now could be hurting the earth. How so you ask? Growing cotton uses 22.5 percent of all the insecticides used globally. To manufacture one T-shirt requires 257 gallons of water to grow the cotton needed. Furthermore, to get that T-shirt your favorite color using bleaches and dyes creates toxins that seep into our ecosystem (NaturalHealthcare.Ca). Thanks to eco-friendly designers such as Linda Loudermilk, these poisonous techniques?are becoming a way of the past.

Designers are starting to use environmentally safe fabrics such as hemp (the most friendly of the fabrics), wool, silk, linen, organic cottons, and even bamboo. How are these fabrics considered eco-friendly? It takes far less land and chemicals to prouduce these materials. They can also be replenished in a short amount of time, compared to a millennia.

Don't get scared though. Eco-friendly does not mean you will be wearing a potato sack for a dress or a grass skirt. (A lot of designers are recycling once used products such as bottles, bottle caps, and other various rubbish however) What these eco-friendly designers produce are far from basic and far from pre-historic looking. Linda Loudermilk has produced chic, bold pieces for her new line that are full of color and style. She is also opening a boutique that will feature nothing but eco-friendly pieces.

So, what can you do to fulfill these green designers' dreams? Make sure you're caring for these eco-friendly garments the eco-friendly way. Not only will you be keeping your organic clothes in great condition, you also get brownie points for caring for these garments with the environment in mind.? NaturalHealthcare.Ca offers tips to help keep your garments in excellent condition and pure.

Use the sun instead of bleach! Let your whites bleach naturally by hanging them outside (still soapy and still wet) so they're in direct sunlight and for at least five hours.

Use the sun and lemon juice to get out stains. To combat stains, add lemon juice to the problematic spot and hang out in the sunlight the same way as mentioned above.

Eucalyptus oil for grease stains. Eucalyptus oil won't damage your fabrics and well get out nasty grease stains.

Tea tree oil for a sure clean. Tea tree oil will disinfect your laundry when hot water is not available. It has antiseptic, anti-bacterial, germicidal, and fungicidal properties.

Hydrogen Peroxide gets the job done. Use Hydrogen Peroxide (but just a pinch, because it's harsh on fabric fibers) for stubborn stains like blood.

So what are you waiting for? Go out and do some good for the earth and yourself and go green!

Linda Loudermilk presents an eco-friendly?silk jacket and pants.

Photo courtesy of Elle.Com

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Edun trenchcoat that can be found at Barneys New York.

Photo courtesy of Elle.Com