Wearing Trees
I HAVE A BLACK DRESS that swings through the skirt down to the mid-calf. It has a slight split on one side that shows a little leg while you’re walking and a little more at a run. It is sleeveless. The waist is slightly dropped and sits just above my hips. It is cut on the bias. I can wear a jacket over it when there is a nip in the air. It is the perfect length for my long coats. I wear it with brogues and boots, with sandals and heels. I love to wear it on dates. It is effortless in the best sense, by which I mean it is both comfortable and flattering. I could name several important events in my life that I have worn it to. Job interviews. Dinners with new friends in new cities, when I was anxious and unsure of leaving the house. I could tell you about nights I abandoned it on a beach in a town I didn’t live in so I could run into the water, knowing I could shake the sand out later. I have worn it backstage at Burberry runway shows in London. I have worn it on press trips to Tokyo, Dubai, Marrakech, and Milan. It is made of viscose, so before it was a dress, it was a tree.
One warm summer evening in 2021, I was at an event hosted by the brand that had designed it. I approached the company’s PR director and explained the story of the dress and how I’d love to know more about where the fabric was sourced. She walked me to the brand’s creative director, who and said there was no way of knowing where that viscose was sourced from but, given the time frame (the late 1990s), it was unlikely they’d be proud of the answer. Viscose in that period was usually sourced with few limitations and little consideration of the ecological consequences. Given the immense beauty of forests, and the trees, plants, animals, and birds they provide homes to, this is a particularly sad truth and one of fashion’s most well-disguised secrets.
This adapted excerpt from regenerative fashion researcher, writer, and consultant Lucianne Tonti’s Sundressed: Natural Fibers and the Future of Fashion, takes a look at the true cost of producing an increasingly popular textile often marketed as eco-friendly. Read more in our Summer 2023 issue.
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