"Cotton requires 20,000 litres per hectare to grow. If you think about that, 20,000 litres, it is absolutely massive."
On my Talking Clean With Irene podcast, I talked about why we all need to change our undies. Change to bamboo undies, I mean.
Shaun Greenblo is the co-CEO of Boody Eco Wear, an Aussie family run business which focuses on slow fashion with sustainable bamboo basics, everything from undies, bras, activewear, and even baby clothes. Shaun told me "Boody was founded by my father and his best friend. And we pride ourselves on having that family culture."
Here are the 3 things I learned from my chat with Shaun
1. Bamboo doesn't need irrigation
Shaun said "when we start with the bamboo itself, it's grown organically, which means there's no artificial chemicals or anything that helps it to grow. Bamboo itself is a really sustainable plant to grow because it doesn't require any artificial irrigation, as opposed to something like cotton, which requires 20,000 litres per hectare to grow. If you think about that, 20,000 litres, it is absolutely massive."
"Then it is turned into a yarn, and in our entire process all the water is recycled. We make sure that there's no chemicals that are leaked into the environment."
For me, I was so angry thinking about other brands and how much they paid their workers. Fast fashion has just never resonated with me for that reason. Shaun agreed, "sustainability and ethics are one of our core pillars in why we started Boody. Everything from when the bamboo is grown all the way through to when it's put on you, we really try and make sure that we are doing the best by the environment and the workers."
"I go to our factories in China at least every six months to go and make sure that this is still happening."
2. Slow fashion means less clothing in landfill
Fast fashion is sort of my bugbear. I've never been a fan of fast fashion. I don't own very many clothes or shoes, but the clothes that I do own, I spend a little bit more money and they've lasted for years.
Shaun said "we've built our business on the fact that we develop only everyday essentials. We will never do embellishments, sparkles. It's just not us. We don't need to reinvent the wheel every season like big fashion companies. In that way, also, we don't have end of line garments that we can't sell. And there's a huge problem in the industry around that at the moment, as well as billions and billions of dollars worth of clothing that just goes into landfill."
"When you first wake up and you're getting dressed and you open your drawer, we want Boody to be the underwear, socks, t-shirts that you fish for, because it's just the reliable everyday essentials."
Clothes, you wash them and they get holes in them and they go fluffy. I noticed that hasn't happened with Boody, so I asked Shaun how long, on average, a pair of undies would last.
Shaun said "it's a funny one, because most clothing brands want their customers to keep buying, right? Whereas for us, we really want our products to be durable, reliable, and last a long time. The Good Housekeeping Institute recommends that we update our undies once a year. But saying that, we get customer testimonials all the time from people who have been wearing them for years and years. It keeps its shape. Another one of the qualities of bamboo."
I learned not to throw the blush and white ones in with dark clothing. Shaun said "we recommend cold to slightly warm wash. We always recommend eco-friendly laundry detergent. And we recommend line drying as opposed to drying in a machine for two reasons, one, because it helps to make your products last longer and keep their beautiful softness, but also from the environmental angle." I line dry mine and I've not had any issues with fading at all from the sun.
At the end of the cycle, it's time for the undies to go to heaven. I asked Shaun the best way to throw them away.
"What we recommend is turning your old undies or socks into rags to clean the house. They are compostable, but they do have some elastane in them. That's really for shape and drape. That means that they compost a little bit slower."
3. The wire-free bra started with customers
Boody bras have no underwire in them. When I first started stocking Boody, customers were asking if I could find one that was just padded with no underwire.
Shaun said "our bras came from a place of how we can develop a product that is just super comfortable and basic. We started off with our shaper crop bra, which was completely wire-free and seam-free." That's the Boody Seamfree Crop Bra.
"Larger-breasted women would come to us and say, we'd love something with padding. A lot of women would be using our bras for maternity bras, both pre- and post-having their babies, because of the no-wire. And there are no straps, they could just pull them down when they were breastfeeding."
"So we ended up developing a padded shaper crop bra, which is exactly the same as our shaper crop bra, but with some soft padding. They can also be removed for washing, because often when you've got bras and you put them in the wash, the padding gets all misshapen. It's actually, I think, taken over now as our best-selling bra."
I told Shaun I just wish when I was breastfeeding that I had that option, because I couldn't find anything. I had to get those really ugly maternity bras back then.
About the Author
Irene Falcone is the founder of Clean Nectarine and co-host of The Lee & Irene Show. She started her first clean beauty business in 2011 with $100 in her garage and grew it to $20m in four years. She has spent over 15 years reading the backs of beauty and wellness labels, is a Telstra Business Women's Awards winner and an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, and has been featured on A Current Affair, The Project, Sunrise, Channel Nine Mornings and Sky News.
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