As a poor college student turned money-saving adult, I often relied on fast fashion to keep my closet full and up-to-date. I didn’t think twice about it. If it looked cute and I could afford it, I’d usually buy it.

Fashion practices haven’t really changed much, except for the fact that it’s now more acceptable to buy second hand, especially with apps like Poshmark and Mercari. Even 3-5 years ago, it really wasn’t “trendy” or “cool” to shop vintage or used like it is today, meaning a lot of us were constant consumers of wasteful and toxic fabrics. With the constant inundation of fashion influencers on social media, a lot of us still are.

But what makes them so bad?

The Problem with Fast Fashion/Synthetic Materials

The problem is two-fold: fast fashion has both environmental and health repercussions.

Let’s start with the environmental. Fast fashion brands like Shein, Romwe, Forever 21, and H&M use mass production to make as many clothes as possible. In order to do this, they must employ a lot of people in big factories with less than ideal labor practices. These huge factories, which take away acres upon acres of natural resources, require tons of energy to keep production going. More energy = more pollution to our environment. Plus, according to The Atlantic, Americans send 10.5 million tons of clothing to landfills every year.

Then there are the health risks associated with fast fashion. Have you ever stopped to think about how clothing (and laundry detergent) are the only things we have nearly 24/7 exposure to, which is alarming considering that most synthetic fabrics have been found to have over 8,000 carcinogenic compounds including formaldehyde, flame-retardants, PFAS (forever chemicals), and heavy metals. These fabrics and their toxic compounds have been classified as cancer-causing agents from the EPA and have been shown to increase the likelihood of cancers, skin conditions, neurological diseases, and respiratory diseases.

What’s most alarming is that a recent study conducted in Canada found alarmingly high levels of lead in clothing produced from Shein, with children’s clothes exceeding the toxicity of adult clothes by 20 times the allowable amount! Plus, these clothes, because they’re treated with thousands of chemicals, don’t just break down when they’re sent to these landfills. They continue to off-gas their toxic compounds for decades while contaminating our air and soil (which gets into our food and water).

Types of Toxic Fabrics to Avoid or Reduce

There are several types of synthetic fabrics we want to reduce or avoid to lessen our body’s toxic load. This includes:

  • Acrylic
  • Polyester
  • Nylon
  • Spandex
  • Rayon

When it comes to these fabrics, it’s definitely more realistic to say “reduce” rather than “eliminate” because although there are brands out there that are listening to consumer whistleblowers regarding their concerns with synthetic fabrics, it’s often difficult to find accessible and affordable natural materials for all categories of clothes, especially in items like outerwear and athletic wear.

Better Fabrics

Luckily, there are some fabrics that are 100% natural, won’t harm your body, are durable yet biodegradable, and generally use sustainable practices. Those include:

  • Cotton
  • Linen
  • Bamboo
  • Hemp
  • Cashmere
  • Wool
  • Leather

**To further avoid chemicals like pesticides, it’s important to try to choose organic natural fibers whenever possible.

***Of course, if animal welfare is a concern of yours, you can further shorten this list to exclude those items.

The idea here is to favor quality over quantity. Find a couple of brands that fit your style and exchange items of clothing as you can afford to. And as you start to get rid of your old clothes, consider donating or selling them as opposed to throwing them in the trash so they don’t end up in a landfill.

An acrylic sweater I recently sold and replaced with a 100% organic cotton sweater of a similar style.

My Favorite Non-Toxic Clothing Brands

I am so impressed with the availability of high-quality companies committed to using all-natural fibers. Any time I want to exchange, replace, or buy something new for my wardrobe, here are the brands I check out first for both me and my family;

  • Pact
  • Nui Organics
  • Colored Organics
  • Bhumi
  • Kyte
  • Aran Crafts
  • Eileen Fisher

I do want to note that I will usually check Mercari first before buying something brand new from a website or store. They have a great save/notify feature that you can use to search for specific brands and keywords and then get notified when people post an item that matches your selected criteria. I recently did this when I was searching for a 100% wool sweater and was able to find a gorgeous pre-owned one for a hot deal!

Detoxing from Toxic Clothes

So you’ve bought fast fashion before and now you went to support your body’s ability to detox and heal from the potential damage these fabrics have caused. The most important thing to note when detoxing from anything is to make sure your detox pathways are open. This means making sure you are regular in the bathroom and can sweat.

Ways you can support your body in detoxing include:

  • Removing the source of the toxins (in this instance, this means stop or greatly reduce the amount of fast fashion you buy).
  • Drinking lots of filtered water to flush out the toxins.
  • Use chelating and binding herbs to “mop up” and remove the toxins in your body.
  • Dry brush or jump on a trampoline to help your body’s lymphatic system drain everything out.
  • Sweat in the sauna, which is the body’s preferred way to eliminate toxins!
  • Increase your intake of cruciferous veggies to increase antioxidant levels.

Clothing used to be an investment. We used to buy staples that we learned how to repair because we understood their value and longevity if we did so. Now, we have lost the art of sewing a simple hole, hemming our jeans, or adding embellishments; we shop impulsively and if we don’t like something about our clothes, we simply throw them out (not that they last that long anyway).

To make things worse, it’s really hard to avoid these fabrics altogether. You’ll notice in your own closet that a lot of your cotton clothes, for example, are actually a cotton blend, usually mixed with polyester and spandex.

Do better where you can and do what’s achievable. For me, I was already revamping my closet after I had a baby, so I intentionally kept things that had natural fibers and donated or sold the things that didn’t. I still have my fair share of toxic clothing items myself!

Maybe it’s practical for you to take a similar approach. Like all things non-toxic, it’s a little healthier and more sustainable to take small baby steps towards better choices, rather than throwing everything out at once and starting afresh. You really are making a huge difference in your body by making small changes!

This is a new favorite topic of mine so I’d love to know your thoughts below (or over on my FB group!). Have you started to learn about the dangers of synthetic fabrics? What are some of your favorite natural fabric clothing brands?