Celebrate Green Blog

by Lynn

Watch out! I’m on my soapbox today!

I’m 65 years old and delighted to be alive. Unfortunately, many friends didn’t make it this far, so I refuse to complain–much.

But something has me a bit upset lately.

It’s the lack of eco-friendly styles and clothing for women of a certain age and accompanying–normal, if Reubenesque–OK round–shape.

I’m not a clothes horse and in fact, really dislike shopping, but I do need to cover myself up lest I cause a scene when I occasionally venture out in public.

Over the last five years, eco-friendlier clothing options have exploded for almost everyone. Need to outfit a baby? You no longer have to dress her in cotton doused in chemicals. Every item of what we used to call a layette (do they still call it that?) can be purchased in organic cotton or bamboo, both so much better options for baby and planet. And companies like Green Edge Kids offer loads of choices for older children.

Teens and younger adults can choose from among dozens of companies with designs made from sustainable alternatives. From undies to bathing suits to jeans and jackets, even wedding dresses, it’s all there for the picking, many even at reasonable price points.

Yet for us older, but still-hungry-for-eco women. Close to nada. (Eileen Fisher has an eco-collection that comes close to fitting the bill, but not exactly budget friendly.)

There is no other way for me to take this than as one more example of the tendency of our society to ignore any woman over the age of 40 unable to maintain the body of Tina Turner.

I (unfortunately), did not own Tina’s body when I was 16 and I certainly don’t have it now.

Just because I’m white haired, 5’2″ (actually I’ve shrunk to 5′ 1 3/4″,  but who’s counting), and voluptuous, am I simply undeserving of eco-choice?

Evidently designers think so.

It seems pretty obvious that companies that make clothing for us older, but still-breathing (and still clothes-wearing-money-spending) humans, don’t think we care. Or that we’re worth the bother.

(I can just imagine a bunch of cigar chomping executives lolling around a conference table sniggering, “Hey, what’s the big deal? They’ve been eating, inhaling and dousing themselves in chemicals for half a century. Why waste organic cotton on them?)

Well, I can’t speak for my generation. I can only say that I, for one, do want eco-friendlier choices in styles that are, as so many these days inelegantly put it, age appropriate.

Am I wrong? Am I just not able to find the clothes? Are they out there? Is anybody listening?

Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are a mother-daughter team and authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, and founders of Green Halloween®. Hear them every Wednesday at 10 a.m. on Celebrate Green! radio.