Graduate Student Studies New Shade of Green in Apparel Industry

Contact: Jessica A. Knoblauch, News Writer for Environmental Science and Policy Program: (517) 432-3823 or knoblau7@msu.edu

November 20, 2006

“It’s hip to be green,” says Kim Hiller Connell, a doctoral student and teaching assistant in the apparel and textile design program at Michigan State University. Hiller Connell is currently researching sustainable development within the apparel and textiles industry, and is focusing specifically on the environmental side of sustainable development.

Sustainable development is slowly growing in the apparel industry, says Hiller Connell. The use of organic cotton and hemp, common substitutes for conventional cotton, is becoming more common among manufacturers working to lessen their impact on the environment.

The use of the term “organic” in the apparel industry generally means two things: the soil’s fertility is maintained so that future generations can use the soil, and the use of pesticides is prohibited.

Hiller Connell is looking at the consumption side of the apparel industry in order to determine what factors encourage consumers to “go green” by buying sustainable clothing. “Though studies suggest that the majority of consumers have pro-environment attitudes, only a small percentage of those consumers are actually practicing pro-environment behaviors,” says Hiller Connell.

She explains that this may occur because there are barriers to getting consumers to purchase sustainable clothing. However, these barriers can be broken, she says.

One barrier that keeps consumers from buying sustainable apparel is the lack of awareness among consumers. “If you have two t-shirts in a store and the ‘green’ t-shirt costs five dollars more without explaining why, the consumer is almost always going to pick the cheaper t-shirt,” says Hiller Connell.

She adds that showing informative commercials on television and mailing pamphlets about sustainable apparel to consumers isn’t enough to change their buying habits. “By the time consumes gets to the store, they’ve already forgotten about the information,” she says. In order to be effective, “stores may need to have displays next to their products indicating why a certain product is better for the environment.”

The apparel industry must also address the issue of limited availability to purchase sustainable clothing. “Right now most of the sustainable clothing is only available online,” says Hiller Connell. However, many consumers still prefer doing their clothes shopping in the stores, making it harder for them to find sustainable clothing.

The availability of sustainable clothing is slowly increasing, though. Brand names like Levi and Nike are beginning to use organic cotton in some of their product lines, and even high end designers like Bono from U2 are selling sustainable clothing lines because they’re realizing there is a demand for green apparel.

Increased interest from designers can also cause premium prices for sustainable clothing to decrease. “Right now the supply side is limited so the prices are higher,” says Hiller Connell. As more apparel companies develop lines that use either 100 percent organic cotton or are blending percentages of organic cotton with conventional cotton in their product, prices will start falling.

Consumer assumptions that certain sustainable materials are uncomfortable is another hurdle for the industry. “There’s this perception that hemp is uncomfortable because when people think of hemp, they generally think of the hard necklaces,” says Hiller Connell. She says that the industry has decreased the hardness of hemp material by blending it with cotton to make it softer and more pliable.

In addition to research, Hiller Connell teaches an undergraduate class that looks at the environmental and social impacts of the apparel and textile industry. “We’re looking into things like how to design clothing that is not environmentally harmful,” she says.

For the final project, students must design a line of apparel that is sustainable. Some students use hemp and organic cotton fibers to construct their product line. Others try “vintage reconstruction,” the process of taking an item like a sweatshirt and manipulating the material to turn it into something else, like a zip-up.

Though some students seem unexcited about sustainable apparel, Hiller Connell thinks that it will be useful to them in the future. “Designing sustainable apparel is the trendy thing to do right now,” she says. As concerns about the state of the environment rise with every environmental disaster reported in the media, the likelihood that sustainable apparel will become more than just a trend increases. “It certainly seems to be the way it’s going,” says Hiller Connell.