ECO-CHIC NYC: upcycled T-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies

In my ongoing effort to green my life it has been quite challenging to find contemporary looking eco-apparel. That’s why I was glad to discover Brooklyn based Playback and their sustainable clothes made out of recycled materials at the Green Festival in New York. As featured in my slideshow I like the whimsical graphics of Playback’s T-shirts but even more so their versatile hoodies in dual-colored fabric. Playback’s eco-friendly T-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies are made from materials such as post-industrial cotton scraps, plastic and glass bottles that are combined with recycled cotton or polyester to add softness and durability. As part of the production process Playback sorts the recyclable scraps by color to avoid using extra dye. A demo at the Green Festival showed how post-industrial fibers create waste specific colors such as "Soda Bottle Green" or "Water Cooler Blue" that hint at the garments former life. According to Playback each recycled PET bottle t-shirt is made from the equivalent of 8.5 twenty oz plastic bottles and each recycled t-shirt of about .4 lbs of textile scraps. All post-industrial materials are collected, sorted, and spun into yarn in the USA. Afterwards they are turned into contemporary eco-apparel in Guatemala. The environmental benefits of using recycled materials in fashion are many. Obviously waste is kept out of landfills but also fewer natural resources are depleted. Who else do you know that creates contemporary eco-design in the New York area? I would love to hear about it through comments or twitter.