What’s up with all that trash we get from the dry cleaners these days? We used to get a plastic bag and a hanger. Bad enough. Now I get my dry cleaning back with pink foam covering the top edge of the paper-covered hanger and both sleeves of my dress shirt stuffed with enough tissue paper to wrap an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. So I do my best by unwrapping my overprotected garments and setting aside all the plastic detritus to return to the cleaners. Bummer.

Well, there’s finally another way. Reusable dry cleaning bags from  Jendarling (pronounced jen-dahling) and Green Garmento are starting to pop up both in the news and on the street. Jendarling makes uber fabulous organic cotton twill and hemp luxury garment bags for fashionistas or environmentalists who wouldn’t be caught dead carrying big plastic bags around in public. The Jendarling Lux Line goes for over $100, the Lux Lite is closer to $35.

On the opposite end of the financial Richter scale is Green Garmento for just $9.95. It’s a recyclable laundry bag that serves as garment bag, duffel bag, and dry cleaning bag all-in-one. According to Jenny Nigrosh from Green Garmento, the entertainment industry in Hollywood alone could save 100,000 pounds of plastic a year by scrapping single use plastic dry cleaning bags. Check it out…

Launch Date: Summer 2005
Number of Employees: 4
Location of Headquarters: Seattle, WA
Location of Manufacturing: Seattle, WA
Design Heroes: Vivienne Westwood, Rei Kawabuko, Natalie Chanin

While Camilla focuses on the creative end and Davora more on business development, both women contribute to the look and feel of their handmade line. “We try to blend utility and seduction, to find ways clothing can be both useful and ornamental. As entirely independent designers, we walk a fine line between experimentation and commerce and hope to offer something novel and desirable with each new collection.”

Cradle-to-cradle describes a method of manufacturing that is extremely efficient and virtually waste-free. This phrase was coined in the 1970′s by Walter R. Stahel, and popularized in 2002 by McDonough and Braungart, authors of the book, Cradle To Cradle: Remaking The Way We Make Things. Cradle to cradle manufacturing is the natural evolution of cradle to grave manufacturing; cradle to grave holds companies responsible for disposing of the waste created by their products after they are no longer in use. Cradle to cradle certified production goes one huge step further and creates quality products that can be used, and then either reused or disassembled and recycled or with ease and without creating any waste.

Another level of cradle to cradle production is manufacturing items that are biodegradable and kept free of toxic dyes or materials. This is exactly how the wool for Helen Riegle’s Rain Bag is produced. In 2007, Chris Riegle, Helen’s husband and business partner, heard about a Cradle To Cradle-certified wool flannel made without toxic dyes. He sourced it from the mills of world-reknowned wool producer Pemberton. Helen took the C2C-certified wool and cascaded nickel studs down the strap and gusset, lined it with organic cotton, and trimmed it with PVC-free vegan leather trim to create the Rain Bag. Inside this spacious hobo, she put a zippered pocket, cell phone pocket, and a swivel key clip. The Rain Bag reflects the beautiful synthesis of fashion, function, and sustainable design prevalent in all of Helen Riegle’s collections.

When it comes to sustainable materials, Helen has also experimented with organic cotton, recycled polyester, hemp, recycled leather and micro-suede, which Chris has painstakingly sourced for the line. What’s next for HER? They will soon be incorporating a new Cradle To Cradle-certified material dubbed “eco-intelligent polyester” for the upcoming 2008 Holiday season. Chris explains, “It has been designed to be safely and perpetually used, reclaimed, and reused in high-quality products… not just downcycled into something less…For Spring/Summer 09, we plan to incorporate recycled cotton into several of our signature styles.” HER Design has consistently led the handbag industry in conscious design and remains a shining example of their credo: “Challenge conventions, live responsibly, embrace style.” Sustainability most definitely reigns at Helen Riegle.

So you’re back on campus and in need of some essential school supplies-new shoes, a bag, a hot party ensemble? You’re sure that once you obtain these key study tools, your semester will go swimmingly. Well, Greenloop definitely has the ideal pieces to make you a better student (or at least just look like one.)

The Abalone Top by EcoSkin is perfect for a stud-filled study group, an afterschool cocktail hour, or blowing off academic traumas at the local nightclub. Made of eco fibers bamboo and tencel, the Abalone Top is sleek, sexy and sustainable. This hot little number from EcoSkin deserves to be matched with some very affordable organic cotton jeans from Good Society. Good Society denim is designed in Japan and made in India, which is one of the biggest hubs in the world for organic cotton. The two pieces together are sheer genius.

If clothes make the man, then shoes make the woman (happy). Rushing through the quad each day will call for kicks that are both cute and comfortable. These adorable strappy Toepaz flats by green design gurus Simple Shoes are made of hemp, recycled tires, and bamboo. Dress ‘em up, dress ‘em down, these vegan zapatos are gonna make your studymates green with envy. Oh darn.

Clearly your new mountain of scholarly tomes is going to require a bag strong enough to handle the weight and cool enough to erase the overloaded-with-books dork factor. What could be more perfect than the Vy & Elle “Bookman”? This utilitarian messenger bag gets points for both convenience and cool. It features pockets-within-pockets to help organize all your school supplies, and each Bookman sports one-of-a-kind graphics. Vy & Elle produces their entire line from recycled PVC billboards, upcycling material headed for the landfill and transforming it into wearable art. Pretty smart. In the case of sustainable design, fashion may indeed inspire academic greatness…Or it could just make you feel more enthusiastic about actually attending class.

Perfectly Imperfect

You know how you have a few pairs of skivvies that are your absolute favorites-the ones that always get worn first after laundry day? Well, my organic cotton Perfectly Imperfect boy shorts are the number one pick in my underwear drawer. Incredibly comfortable (as in they totally cover my entire bootylicious backside) and super sexy. PI also has fabulous panties and thongs. Dress em up, dress em down-Perfectly Imperfect underwear by designer Jadie Kadletz are good every day-and night-of the week.

Enamore

Now, ordering underwear from all the way from Brighton, England is not necessary, nor is it particularly sustainable. But, if it is absolutely essential that you have the sexiest lingerie on the planet, Enamore is worth the splurge. Their hemp, silk, and organic garters, camisoles, panties, and “shorties” are truly mindblowing. (I will refrain from making an inappropriate joke here.)

Urban Fox

Urban Fox Lingerie by Doki Doki Designs is for the youthful, fun fashionista set. Bright colored garter and panty sets are made from a bamboo and cotton blend and range from XS to XL. Thank goodness there’s eco lingerie for the more voluptuous goddesses out there!

She And Me

Made in the USA out of modal, with silk trim and just a touch of spandex for stretch, these sexy boy shorts by Shirin Azad and Mitra Sanai of sheandme are hot, hot, hot. Modal is 100% biodegradable material made from beech trees. sheandme also donate a portion of sales to Tahirih Justice Center, which provides free legal services to female immigrants and refugees fleeing human rights abuses in their home countries.

Bueno Style

If you gotta have some saucy message on your panties to sass your boudoir buddies (fyi: risque commentary is appropriate for articles on underwear), then these little lowriders are for you! Bueno Style has created a simple message about health and sustainable agriculture to plaster across your pelvis: Eat Organic. We all should really.

American Apparel Sustainable Edition

American Apparel boy briefs are for girls, too. These unisex-y underwear are made in LA, are totally sweatshop free, and come in a rainbow of fruit flavors. And you can trade em back and forth with your mate…or not. They also have thongs and panties for the ladies. (Clarification: these styles are not unisex.)