No matter how well you look after your clothes, it’s hard completely avoid needing new textiles. While many of us try to buy second hand, hire, or borrow for special occasions first, sometimes we have no choice but to buy new.

We’ve created a beginner’s guide to help you with your purchasing decisions.

A beginner’s guide to fabrics

A basic guide for fabric choice is plant based first, then animal, then synthetic. Man made cellulosic fibres are another category but vary so greatly in their environmental impact that they are almost impossible to generalise about.

Plant based
Plant based fibres include cotton, linen, and hemp. As their name suggest, they are made from plant fibre and biodegradable, however the dyes, embellishments and thread used to create them might not be.

Animal based
Wool, merino, possum merino blend, cashmere and mohair are the most common animal fibre fabrics. All of these are, in theory, 100 per cent biodegradable at the end of their life, but like plant based fibres, this depends on their treatment.

Synthetic
Polyester is the most common synthetic fibre, followed by nylon, then elastane (also called spandex or lycra). Synthetic fabrics are made from oil bioproducts and do not biodegrade, instead breaking down into smaller and smaller fragments called microplastics.

Man made cellulosic
Man made cellulosic fibres often go by the catch all name "viscose rayon".  They include rayon, bamboo, viscose, lyocell, and model. As their name suggests, they are made from plant cellulose, which sounds environmentally friendly. However, the process to turn cellulose into a useful fibre requires a lot of energy and creates a lot of chemical waste, more so than traditional plant based fibres. 

The exception to this rule is TENCELL Lyocell. This fabric, which received the European Union’s Award for the Environment, is made from Eucalyptus trees in a 99% closed loop system.

Confused? That’s okay, we found someone that can help.

We just touched on fabric types, but not the environmental impacts of farming, animal welfare, manufacturing, transport, or whether those involved in production are paid a living wage, use child labour, or provide safe conditions for their workers.

To do so would require a huge amount of time and research. Lucky for us, Baptist World Aid's Ethical Fashion Guide not only covers the environmental credentials of hundreds of different brands, but ethical standards too.

While there are limitations to their rating system, it’s the most comprehensive and most relevant to residents of Geelong we could find.

Looking up common brands in the guide were surprised to discover expensive doesn’t always equal better. For example, budget brand K-mart beat department store Myer, and was given special mention by Baptiste World Aid for being the most improved brand over the last ten years.

(Before you email us, yes, we know, this is for clothing only – the guide does not cover toys and homewares.)

Lastly, how you shop matters.

Online shopping is definitely here to stay. However, it creates approximately double the greenhouse gas emissions of traditional shopping.

Don’t feel guilty, instead, we recommend you check out this guide to online shopping - it has some great tips on making sure you get it right first time, meaning you won’t need to return your item, or be stuck with something that is not quite right.