Fashion Going Eco-friendly with Bamboo Shirts

Fashion. Food. Environment. Health. Bamboo. Wait… bamboo? How does the last word connect with the rest of the things mentioned? Simple. From feeding pandas to providing picturesque backgrounds for Kung-Fu movies (i.e. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), there’s never a day that bamboo is out of the picture in many people’s daily activities. 

If bamboo could talk, it would narrate you its journal about its daily account on people walking on it, cooking and eating with it, sleeping on it, writing on it, painting with it, eating it, wearing it, and bla bla bla… If bamboo is a person, it’s a jack-of-all-trades, that from health to fashion it speaks of its versatility and great benefits. 

This incredible grass – yes, surprisingly enough, bamboo is botanically in the grass family – grows like nothing else, from as much as 1.5 to 2 inches per hour.  Even without harmful pesticides or chemicals, it shoots its way up to the sky. Wow! It reminds us of the giant beanstalk from a fairytale by Benjamin Tabart. 

With the bamboo fabric’s advent in the fashion industry, it has become the latest and one of the most popular sustainable eco-fabric. Numerous known designers are already opting for greener fabrics, and the use of bamboo fabric in their garments is among the bigger brands’ top choices for several reasons. 

Shirts from bamboo fabrics are admired for its luxurious softness, similar to cashmere. They drape like rayon.  They are more breathable than cotton and even as smooth as silk (minus the hassle and expense of raising silk worms); plus they’re not heavy on the pockets, at least not as much as the other fabrics cost. What’s not to love, eh?  

And thanks to the generous online sources, we’ve learned that there are two kinds of bamboo fabrics. First, the bamboo linen, which is produced in a mechanical process, is similar in producing hemp and flax fabrics. This is not very popular because it’s much more costly and labor intensive. Second, the bamboo rayon, which is manufactured chemically by cooking the bamboo leaves and shoots in caustic soda or lye. 

Despite the ecological advantages of the bamboo fibers, consumers are still unaware of the use and benefits of the fabrics. Yet, interest in going eco-friendly is continuously growing in the fashion world and designers are already thinking of ways to tap into more environmentally-conscious shoppers.  After all, being wise consumers doesn’t only mean saving money, but saving the environment as well.