Does this make my butt look big? Are vertical or horizontal stripes slimming? Am I falling off this top? Common questions when faced with the dreaded three-way mirror in a two-piece, but do you ever stop to ask if your suit is biodegradable? Possibly not, but if designer Linda Loudermilk has her way, it will certainly start.
At Swim Week in Miami Beach, Loudermilk unveiled what it calls the world’s first fully compostable swimwear developed from a vegetable starch that was turned into fabric. While that may make some girls a little nervous about going under water in a suit created to dissolve, Loudermilk assured viewers that the suit won’t start to decompose until it’s buried in the ground, at which point it will break. down within 180 days.
Loudermilk joins a movement of “eco-couture” designers who are consciously choosing to use sustainable materials like wood pulp, hemp, bamboo, and recycled plastic bottles or repurposed materials like military parachutes instead of conventional synthetic textiles. Producing swimsuits makes a lot of sense: if you spend time appreciating Mother Earth in all her oceanic splendor, you might as well take a moment to see if she’s simultaneously destroying her with the clothes she wears.
Consider a pretty costume made from bamboo with an organic women’s tunic or, if you’re trying to practice energy conservation while perfecting your tan, rock a solar-powered bikini. That’s right, I said a solar powered bikini! The suit is covered with photovoltaic strips that capture the sun’s energy so that after a little time outdoors, you can safely charge your phone or iPod. (Just make sure to unplug them before you take a dip!)
However, the eco-friendly couture movement faces challenges for swimwear, it has been a struggle for some designers to produce swimwear from eco-friendly materials. You see, most girls like their outfits to be able to hold a shape or form a shape and that’s not the easiest thing to do with materials that lack chemicals. Aqua Green, the company that makes the Eco Swim line, offers an improved “eco-cell” foam bra cup created with biodegradable vegetable oil that won’t leave thousands of polyester bra cups in landfills to baffle future generations into a archaeological excavation. The suits themselves are made from recycled nylon and cotton.
And while the biodegradable suit may only make a small dent in the clothing waste cycle, it goes a long way toward sparking new suggestions in designers, who in their business of innovation, perhaps material selection can be as bold like their styles. Perhaps the new frontier of fashion lies in being brave enough to move away from the synthetic materials that are classic options and opt for alternative materials like bamboo.
And maybe one day, women all over the world will be able to brag about how their outfit not only makes their waists look smaller, but also reduces their carbon footprint!