Fashion to the Rescue!
While we think the best way to shop is to shop a lot less, when your jeans are full of holes and beyond looking attractively distressed, you might just have to spring for some new ones (but do try patching first, or making cut-offs). There are two ways you can shop more sustainably for your next pair of Levi's: Go straight to the Levi's site and filter your search for sustainability factors, which include jeans made of cottonized hemp or Tencel. You'll see a little sustainable icon next to your results. (Fun fact: Levi's was founded 170 years ago in San Francisco, by Levi Strauss, a Bavarian immigrant who saw a need for “clothes built to endure anything.”)
Even better, go to Levi's secondhand store where you'll find jeans pre-softened for you. If everyone bought just one used (instead of new) item of clothing this year, the secondhand site tells us, it would save 449 million pounds of waste. You read that right. We're sitting here trying to envision the pile that 449 million pounds of clothing represents. (It sounds Everest-sized to us.)
