New Challenge Launches!

We're going old-school (is 3 years old school?) and digging in our closets to bring back our

No New Clothing Challenge!*

Join us in going vintage, thrift, recycled, hand-me-down or eco-friendly. Every single action has an impact in some way somewhere on this planet. Because of globalization, we are often disconnected from the impact of our everyday choices. For example, our new fall shirt might be made with cotton that requires 1/3 lb of chemicals to produce and manufactured in a pollution-emitting factory far away. Let's make a positive impact and equal the balance. Support local shops owned by locals that dig out wearable treasures from the past and present. This will make you more stylish because five other people aren't wearing it to work. Unleash your inner fashionista, while helping the planet.

Worried about bedbugs? Us too. Throw your clothes in a dryer right away to kill them off OR you could put them in the freezer for 2 weeks (really)!

More compelling reasons to do it:
The average American throws away about 68 pounds of clothing and textiles per year.
10% of all agricultural chemicals and 25% of insecticides in the U.S. are used to grow cotton.

The 12 to 15 percent of people who shopped at consignment and thrift stores in 2006 saved 2.5 billion pounds of clothes from re-entering the waste stream.

The manufacturing of nylon emits nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas with a carbon footprint 310 times that of carbon dioxide.

According to the USDA, in one year alone over 50 million pounds of pesticides were used on U.S. cotton fields. Pesticide and fertilizer use on cotton has been linked to ground and surface water contamination, and the pollution of drinking water.

In California, cotton ranks third in the state for total number of pesticide-related illness. Fish and wildlife and also impacted, with pesticides causing migration die-offs and diminished reproductive capacity.

For those of you living in the New York City area, we've attached a list of vintage and second-hand clothing stores in our area.

Resources:
Brooklyn is Vintage Store Mecca. Here are a few we know and like:
Beacons Closet (Park Slope + Williamsburg)
Buffalo Exchange (Williamsburg)
Black Bear (Park Slope South/Windsor Terrace):
BK Flea (Fort Greene)
Mesihmar (Park Slope)
1 of a find NYC (Prospect Heights)
Almost New (Park Slope)

There are also clothing swaps:
Brooklyn Clothing Exchange
S.W.A.P.P.
Five Boroughs Clothing Swap

Want to host a Clothing Swap? Rachel Avalon lays out the fundamentals in this video.

If you would like to join the Challenge, email brooklyngreen@gmail.com and say, "Yes! I'm ready to join the No New Clothing Challenge !"

*Challenge does not apply to underwear or environmentally friendly clothing. We think it's only fair.