Essential Summer Pants | Helping Clean Up the Oceans

Slate Blue Cropped Pants below a Grey Fog Trapeze Tunic are a cool summer combo.

Essential summer pants

Many eco-conscious shoppers seek out hemp and Tencel pants—they know these fabrics are a great alternative to synthetics and they don’t contribute to microfiber pollution. Their natural breathability and antimicrobial properties will help you keep your cool on the sultriest days. I’m well stocked in Stovepipe Pants and Cropped Pants. If your size/color happens to be out of stock, I can usually cut and sew your request to order at no additional charge, so long as I have fabric on hand in your shade.

Grey Fog Stovepipe Pants paired with a Plum Swallowtail Top, crafted in sustainable hemp and Tencel.

A ball in my washer’s helping clean up the oceans

The news on microfibers keeps growing more troubling. CNN just reported new studies suggesting each of us drinks, breathes, and eats anywhere from 74,000 to 121,000 micro particles of plastic every year. As I’ve blogged about, microfibers pose an existential threat to ocean life too, and now we’re starting to understand more fully their impact on human health.

With these troubling findings in mind, I was recently delighted to discover the Cora Ball. The Cora Ball is a brilliantly simple way to keep microfibers out of our waterways and oceans. The brainchild of Rachel Miller who has a background in underwater archaeology and marine studies, this brilliantly simple sphere catches and traps microfiber particles as they’re shed from your clothes and housewares during machine laundering. Rachel’s invention was inspired by the action of coral reefs that filter and trap particles in sea water.

Although we own relatively few items made with synthetic fibers, as the owners of a couple of long haired cats we’ve found the Cora Ball does a fine job trapping their shed fur as well. I love low tech solutions like this, and the fact it’s made in Vermont makes it all the better in my book.

In many ways, the oceans serve as the most dynamic links between cultures, races and nations. When we do our part to help restore ocean health, we are ultimately addressing not just human health but those links that bind us together as one planet that depends on clean water for our survival. The World Oceans Day website has lots of resources and ideas about ways to protect the seas.