Whilst researching American manufacturers I came across a nicely done video for a company named Tellason: http://vimeo.com/verticalonline/tellason. In the video they allude to not washing the jeans for a better wear pattern. I assumed they meant not pre-washing them as most jeans companies do to make their denim soft. Nope. Check out their website care section: http://tellason.com/about/laundering. They mean just don’t wash your jeans! Gross! How could you stand it?
Apparently this is not an isolated concept. This article was very interesting: http://www.news.com.au/weird-true-freaky/thirty-melbournians-wore-the-same-paid-of-jeans-five-days-a-week-for-three-months/story-e6frflri-1226234633404. In summary, they asked people to wear a pair of jeans for 3 months without washing them. The results: the jeans weren’t that bad afterward! Stains wore off and they never got that smelly.
Now I don’t think I’m quite ready to stop washing my clothes, but maybe part of being sustainable is evaluating when something really needs to be washed.
I'll wear my jeans 3 - 5 times before washing. I think Ed says he goes 7. and I think Andrea and Janna also go about 3-5 times (but in all of their cases, I'm sure they do it because they buy the expensive jeans and washing is more wear and tear on jeans than wearing; whereas I'm just lazy).
ReplyDeleteI am trying hard to break my wear once and wash habit. I feel like I would do better if I had a separate closet to hang the worn once but not dirty clothes. I think I have a mental block against hanging worn clothes up in the closet with all the clean clothes.
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