29) Compostable Clothing, Natural Dyes, and Localized Fashion Systems with Lydia Wendt of California Cloth Foundry

When you think about the best end of life for clothing, we may think of recycling or upcycling those clothes. But what if we could compost them? What if our clothes could return to the soil from where the fibers to make that clothing was grown? It might sound like a far off dream — especially when we consider that most clothing today is made from synthetic fabrics (i.e. plastic fibers like polyester) — but there are actually a few brands working to make fully compostable clothing a reality.One of the brands making significant headway in this realm is California Cloth Foundry. This small slow fashion brand believes in creating a healthy wardrobe the natural way using botanical ingredients that we could consume and avoiding all petroleum-based fibers, treatments, and dyes. Not an easy feat in today's fossil fuel-addicted fashion industry. So, to dive into how California Cloth Foundry is doing all of this, I sat down with founder and designer Lydia Wendt.In this conversation, Lydia is sharing:What fully compostable clothing is and what elements might make natural fiber clothing no longer compostableWhat the challenges are as a brand to create compostable clothing andWhat natural dyes are and how they're different from low impact dyes Lydia is also going to talk about how California Cloth Foundry is going beyond doing less bad and investing in creating a positive fashion system. And Lydia is going to share some interesting reflections on her previous experiences working in big fashion and why she decided to create a local and traceable supply chain for her label — and how sourcing locally and producing slowly allows California Cloth Foundry to produce is a sustainable way. **If you're enjoying this podcast so far, a rating on Apple Podcasts can go a long way in helping this content reach new audiences and also helping me get more amazing guests on this podcast. So thank you in advance for taking a moment to do that!! FULL SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPThttps://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/compostable-clothing-natural-dyes/  CONNECT WITH CALIFORNIA CLOTH FOUNDRYWebsiteShopInstagram  CONNECT WITH CONSCIOUS STYLE:Conscious Life & Style WebsiteInstagramPinterestConscious Edit NewsletterYouTube