Is modern clothing making us sick? With eco-fashion designer Jeff Garner
Russell chats to Jeff Garner, an eco-fashion designer, whose new documentary 'Let Them Be Naked' exposes the toxins prevalent in our everyday clothing and is trying to revolutionize the industry. Jeff is an Emmy-award winner for his previous documentary 'Remastered' and he's dressed the likes of Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and Kings of Leon.Find out more about Jeff Garner - www.prophetik.com Check out the trailer for 'Let Them Be Naked' (out in Feb) at www.redfordcenter.org WATCH the FULL INTERVIEW: https://rumble.com/v3lsopb-oh-sht-the-pilot-test-has-begun-in-ukraine-stay-free-213.html Find out more about the STAY FREE FOUNDATION: https://www.russellbrand.com/stay-free-foundation/
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I'm having a conversation right now with Jeff Garner, Who's a eco fashion designer whose new documentary Let Them Be Naked exposes, among other things, the toxins prevalent in our everyday clothing and is trying to revolutionize the industry.
If you're watching us on YouTube, join us over on Rumble for yet another story that demonstrates how the world we take for granted is pervasively toxic Whether it's our food or even our clothing. I've not heard
about this story before so I'm fascinated to meet Jeff Garner.
Jeff, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
I've never heard of it before and it's one of those things I suppose that it takes a little bit of introduction
because it's like I suppose eating processed food which we're all becoming a little
more aware of.
Something that we just take for granted, that fast fashion, easily accessible clothes are sort of part of life now.
They're beyond the luxury.
They're something that we feel entitled to.
And while occasionally we might think, oh, are these being made in sweatshops, exploitively in some far flung land?
That's the kind of thing we've become aware of in the last 10, 20 years.
considered the possibility that the process of making the clothes could somehow be toxic
to the people wearing them.
But what have you learned, Jeff?
Well, you know, I've been doing this 25 years and that's why I called it Let Them Be Naked
because the idea is that it's better to be nude than to be clothed in synthetics because,
you know, if you break it down and look at history, we basically, when we started clothing
ourselves with synthetics after the war, for example, we ran out of silk parachutes so
So we created nylon in the laboratory, right?
So DuPont created it, but we never studied the synergy of effect.
What does that nylon do when a lady goes from silk stockings to nylon stockings, right?
And that's what we're into today, because as we learned in the food industry, we have like, you know, what we put in our bodies affects our bodies, but we never thought about what we put on our skin, how our skin is permeable, it goes into it, goes into the bloodstream, and we've proven this through science, but you know, nobody's connected the dots, so to speak, and so that's what this doc is all about, it's like I'm connecting the dots Showcasing that, yes, if we put this nylon that's non-breathable, that has toxins in it, it does enter the bloodstream, it does enter your body, it does cause effects, right?
And there's all these synergies.
For example, say you go out running today and then you sweat and you have this mark underneath your armpit.
That's the aluminum in your deodorant mixed in with the heavy metals in your dyes.
So it's just science.
So there's an effect that happens.
What happens to your body, right?
And nobody's studying this because why would a fast fashion company put money into research to study what they already know is prevalent, which are toxins in their fabrication, and it's going to affect the human health.
So nobody's going to put money into it.
So that's why I had to do this doc because I know too much and I had to go to my friends and say, hey, I need some money to do this doc to expose this because more people need to know.
Because my mom, she basically passed breast cancer two years ago.
If she would have known that potentially there's these carcinogenic toxins in this bra, in this nylon polyester bra that could cause breast cancer, well, she would have chosen differently.
And that's the whole point of this.
So, you know, without getting too heavy into the science of it, but that's why I'm doing it.
So, yeah.
Thank you.
Tell me, mate, what evidence is there that microfiber toxicity can create respiratory, immune and gastrointestinal health effects?
I take your point that there is no appetite for expenditure on unprofitable advances.
We've talked about this a lot in Big Pharma.
No one will expend significant sums proving, for example, that natural immunity is effective or vitamin D or Numerous, now notorious, medications that potentially would have been effective in treating coronavirus.
It's just one obvious prevalent example.
And in big food, it's plain and apparent that excessive salt, sugar, artificial implementation and even preservation can be detrimental to diet.
And more broadly, holistically, it's becoming apparent and obvious that our species and our kind have to look at ethnographic and anthropological Information when it comes to designing a way for living i.e.
if we lived favorably in tribes of a hundred people for hundreds of thousands of years in harmony with our environment eating what grew when it grew and that was beneficial even like now they do those studies in the blue zone I was watching that documentary the other day with that dude and like in places like Occasino I think it's called and some provinces within Italy When they undertake these studies, it's generally people hang out with their friends and eat food that grows nearby and remain active, essentially live in harmony with our own evolution.
So obviously, I'm completely open to the idea that in the pursuit of profit, in the pursuit of fast turnover, in the pursuit of effective, fast dying techniques and manufactured techniques and fast durability, shortcuts are taken.
I mean, the nylon example is usually used to demonstrate the ingenuity of collaborative enterprises
in New York and London famously.
And of course it solved a significant problem at a historic time.
But I am seriously interested in the possibility that something we take for granted,
like the clothes that we wear, is just yet another one of those areas
where our unconscious assumptions lead us to make decisions that we wouldn't make
if we were well-informed.
So, is there any evidence that the lymphatic system is inhibited, for example, by the fibres used in the clothing you described?
And elsewhere, what evidence is there, whilst I appreciate it's often difficult to come by evidence that is unprofitable evidence?
There's a great book called Dress to Kill that Sid Singer did years ago, and he basically did a study in Fiji.
And he basically, you could imagine, you know, as all tests, you have to have a case study in which you had women in Fiji that never wore a bra before.
And then he basically put half of them in bras and kept the other half without bras.
So what he discovered was basically the women that were in bras, 90% of them developed cancer.
And so you can read his study and it's basically been buried a few times in that sense, but it's been out there, but it's been buried because you got to understand there's There's companies out there that don't want this to be known.
There's, you know, chemical companies that have made billions, 37 billion a year off of putting these toxins in the clothing and manufacturing.
So, yeah, there's ample proof, ample studies, you know, and basically, you know, in that book it goes into detail exactly what, you know, the problem that resides is simply, you know, biochemical levels.
For example, you know, you were talking about earlier about the respiratory system.
So, as you can understand, smoking took a long time to prove that it causes lung cancer, right?
So now we're in that same kind of space where we're trying to prove that these chemicals are off-gas in your clothing.
For example, if I'm in the sun and I'm sitting in polyester or nylon, it's going to off-gas carbon monoxide, right?
It happens in our cars.
Say you have a cloth, you know, covered car seat and you close the windows and it sits in the sun, it's going to off-gas.
You open that car door, you're going to smell that ammonia and that's the off-gassing.
So that new car smell, that's going to go into your lungs.
It's going to affect your respiratory system.
So it's these kind of things that we don't think about on a daily basis because we think somebody approves that this is sitting on a shelf selling in a retail store and it's safe for us.
And that's not what's happening.
Yeah, in this talk we're going to go through, obviously, the science and the proof and all that, but the problem is it's spread out.
It's in all different years, all different categories.
There's books, there's published studies, and we're putting it all together so that people can just see the steps and see all the connection points and all the synergies, and that's the important part.
So, no, I can't sit here and say, hey, there's this one book or this one study that proves it all, because it hasn't been put together.
So part of the endeavor of your documentary is to correlate and compile the various pieces of evidence that suggest that the fashion industry, or not even the fashion industry, maybe just clothing, fast consumed fashion, the needless consuming and endless acquisition Of commodities has detrimental side effects.
Now this is something that I guess most of us are to a degree unaware of.
Certainly me I was thinking then about like what about the t-shirts that we're selling like our merchandise which raises money for our foundation that will now make donations individually to people with addiction and mental health issues that no doubt that's you know that we've sort of gave that to cost effective t-shirt manufacturers that's
probably the sort of stuff that's affected in this way and it's interesting that even something like this that can
seem some what niche very quickly if you forgive the
a pun of the image once you start to unravel those threads you see it starts becoming connected to systems of aggregation
and consumerism that are fully immersive experiences for us whether it's the way that we eat food, the clothing that we
wear, the shoes that we wear, the TV that we watch, the way that we use technology.
We're living in a curated reality that just doesn't apply basic common sense, like it's plain that Synthetic materials will not harmonize easily with the processes of our evolution.
But as you have pointed out, there is no appetite to demonstrate the problems of toxicity inherent within these models, because it will mean a lot of money will be lost.
My understanding is that we're wearing more clothes than ever, purchasing more clothes.
Is it 80 billion pieces of clothing each year that we're just consuming mindlessly products that it's possible are possibly intoxicating and detrimental?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, when you talk about your merchandise, for example, I started in band merchandise when I was young in Nashville.
I did all the rock and roll bands and the Plastisol ink is what's used to set the, you know, to run through these dryers.
And I learned very quickly like, wow, nobody's wearing masks and this person's getting sick.
And so, yeah, there's, it's pretty much in every, you know, element of production.
So reality is we don't have You know, these policies that are protecting not only the workers but also ourselves from wearing it because there is a disconnect.
People think that the, you know, that these chemicals set in their clothing.
They don't wash out.
That's the other thing.
So, imagine all the washing that we do.
So, if you're working out in gym wear, you're going to go sweat in the gym.
Well, these fabrics aren't permeable.
They hold Smells.
So you ever walk by somebody, you can really smell them at a gym?
Yeah, I work out at Soho Farmhouse and I'm like, what is going on?
I'm wearing him.
I don't have to wash my hemp boxers every time I wear them.
That's the other thing.
These natural fibers are going to breathe.
You can wear them more often.
You don't have to wash them as much.
So there's all that water usage.
There's detergents that have all these chemicals in it as well.
These toxins that they don't have to disclose because they're protected as their special ingredient.
So you could see where it's just really taken over in our fashion world and that's why they say it's the second, you know, most pollutant industry and it really is.
That's something that you can change quickly and easily.
You know, all your listeners could literally go home today and change their detergents and that's a very quick Beautiful fix because that will change what the water, you know, I live next to the ocean.
It's going to go straight in the ocean.
It's going to go into water streams, etc.
So, you know, all these things are connected.
So yeah, so it's important.
At Community Festival this year, Vandana Shiva, activist and world teacher, gave me a scarf that was grown from cotton that is non-patented seeds, woven by people using traditional practices, dyed with natural indigo.
And she explained to me that this piece of fabric was revolutionary, bypassing, as it does, many of the systems of control that dominate Indian agriculture and textile manufacturing.
Of course, Gandhi, that great imperature for disobedience, revolution, opposing imperialism, began many of his campaigns with the simple assertion that he would only wear homespun cloth that he himself was in control of.
I sense throughout culture, whether it's food or farming, which are obviously ideas that are connected now with what you're talking about, fashion, within diet, Throughout the world, it seems that people are awakening to the idea that what is required are decentralized models.
As long as we are aggregating and operating with top-down structures where a few monopolies
or extremely vast enterprises are able to control markets, often because of practices
like you describe, fast turnaround, chemical support, lack of investigation in alternatives,
lack of local alternatives, inability for proper competition, inability even to have
ordinary craft and indigenous design and indigenous practices, because of this tendency, it's
almost like every area of ordinary life is dominated by consumerism, dominated by profit,
and things like the potential toxicity are kind of lost by the wayside.
So it can become quite revolutionary to step outside of these systems.
So I suppose what you're proposing, Jeff, is that, you know, well, where possible we step outside of these ecologically unwise systems.
But even then, when you mentioned the detergents and stuff, I feel like things like that are more expensive.
And I bet with like the sustainable fashion, Is that the first thing that happens?
It becomes more expensive, people can't afford it, because that's the reason a lot of people are eating terrible food, right?
It's because it's cheap, it's available, and there's not enough awareness about the alternatives.
Exactly.
So yeah, you nailed it.
So we're dealing not only with awareness, but addiction.
So people are addicted to cheap price points, right?
So it has to do with clothing as well.
They can go buy a new date outfit this weekend, H&M, Zara, et cetera, for 20 bucks.
I can't even buy this fabric for that amount.
You know, what I like to tell everyone, and all my buddies ask the same question, is like, we're dealing with a true cost issue.
So, for example, t-shirts in the 70s were sold for $7.
They're still sold today for $7, but gas has gone up, you know, food has gone up, housing has gone up.
Why isn't clothing?
Well, if you go backwards, you learn why.
Because of unfair, you know, ethical trade.
Their labor practices, you know, cheap ingredients, cheap fabrication.
So, you know, until we educate everyone to say, hey, the reason why I make this hemp t-shirt For $40, because that's my true price.
That's my true cost of buying the hemp because hemp takes more, you know, to make, etc.
My plant-based dyes that I hand do take more.
So, until we can turn it over and help people join this movement of, hey, wearing natural fibers are better for you.
You're not going to drive that commerce.
It's going to help get it cheaper.
And so we're kind of stuck right now because we want to give that availability to everyone.
But the fact is, I would go broke if I made a $7 t-shirt.
I would be paying for everyone's t-shirt.
Obviously, there needs to be a profound ideological shift.
We need to break away from the model of disposability and consuming.
Of course, the easily accessible off-peg items produced elsewhere using technology and techniques that may be detrimental, even carcinogenic, it takes us kind of a step.
When people talk about the radical change that's plainly required in the world, I sometimes wonder what that will feel like.
What would it feel like to untether yourself from media that doesn't like you and wants you done?
What would it feel like to untether yourself from food that is toxic?
To stop consuming in order to make yourself feel better?
Of course, I know that there's something that I do.
I'm still someone who tries to make myself feel better by buying something or watching something rather than staying deeply attuned to what it is I'm experiencing, allowing sadness or fear or grief to pass through me.
Sooner, just grab something off the peg to soothe it or stuff some sugar down my mouth in order not to feel it.
In a sense, it becomes quite seismic to reharmonize with nature in a kind of somewhat arcane way.
Just due to the nature of the processes of civilization, it is a form of progress to recognize these models aren't working.
This quick fix food that is processed and quick fix consuming and adorning yourself with fabrics that are potentially toxic.
It's not like the model is working.
Everywhere you look, you see that people are in despondency and despair.
Everyone is suffering because they can't afford fuel or food.
Meanwhile, the industries behind these products continue to prosper,
where we're given information that just doesn't make sense to us anymore.
So whilst what you're suggesting in some ways feels like radical and in some ways difficult to grasp,
for me I believe it's part of an essential holistic and fundamental change that is necessary.
And I suppose your opportunity to convey that to a large audience is going to come in the form of your documentary, Jeff.
So I understand you're in the process of making it now.
Where are you in the process?
We're about halfway through filming.
We just got done with London Fashion Week.
We had a show at Burlington Arcade, so I showed a new collection there.
Again, trying to build it up, but yeah, I mean, the documentary world is new to me.
I'm a designer.
I've been doing it for 15 years, showing for 10, and I learned very quickly.
I've done shows at Edinburgh Castle, at Chateau Fontainebleau in Paris.
I've done these beautiful shows, but I realized those 600 people who see the show, That's a small minute amount to make a change.
So I realized, you know, I have to go through this medium of a documentary and that could help create it because, you know, you got a lot of articles coming out, books coming out.
What happens is, as you are well aware, is that PR will spin things, right?
And so these chemical companies obviously have more money than I do.
These fast fashion companies have more money than I do.
So they're going to spin things.
For example, Victoria's Secrets was sued by 600 women for breast cancer.
And they were able to spin it saying it was the wire and the bra versus the fabrication, right?
So then it's an easy fix.
They don't have to change their production.
They don't have to change their fabric.
They can still make their bralettes for $14 and, you know, nothing changes.
They just change the wire from metal to plastic.
Because metal is a conduit of radiation, like you can get it from your cell phone, you can put it in your bra, etc.
And anyway, so they were able to shift that.
So, you know, we actually interviewed the woman in the dock who first, who filed the suit.
We also, there's also these uniforms, you've probably heard about airline uniforms.
And this one particular airline, this designer, Zac Posen, created a polyester purple uniform.
I've interviewed, this one mother was lactating purple milk from the uniform.
That's an issue, right?
So there are things that we've already discovered.
We got about half, you know, another month worth of filming.
They were going to launch it in February, hopefully with the Oscars.
And that's kind of our plan.
You know, I'm doing this for every mother out there, for every individual, everybody that has prostate cancer.
I just want to give back the power of choice to consumers.
And that's why I make, you know, hemp boxers for my buddies, because they don't have an alternative.
You know, there's something in the boxers and polyester, there's a positive and negative ion.
And when they hit, like when you're a kid and run across the carpet, and you could shock your brother or sister, That is, that's what's happening to your scrotum.
That's shocking.
So there's a reason why we have issues with impotence today and, you know, childbearing issues and etc.
because it stems from what we're wearing.
And we just don't realize it because men went from wearing wool boxers to cotton boxers, DVDs, to now these sexy spandex-type, you know, boxers.
And we don't even think about it.
Because men are like, let's put it on, let's go hunt, let's go run, let's do whatever.
We don't think about it.
So that's why I'm doing it.
Well, that's fascinating, mate.
Well done.
And you're right, there has been, I feel like fertility rates have dropped by maybe 50% in males.
So as well as dietary and environmental factors, clothing is plainly a component.
I hope that your documentary does the necessary work of revealing where further research is
required in order to demonstrate the shortcomings of an industry that seems to be part of the
immersive consumer experience, which in itself facilitates just more unconscious behaviour,
which appears is in some cases, literally killing us. You can follow Jeff's work by
going to prophetic. That's with a K dot com. We'll post the link in the description and look at the
trailer for his new documentary, which is out in February at Redford Center dot org. We'll put both
of those links in the trailer. Jeff, thank you so much for joining us for this conversation.
Best of luck with your both.
This is Madeira lace.
You can't really tell, but I did a project with Madeira.
What you're wearing now, incidentally, looks terrific.
And I'd be well into that shirt plus that waistcoat or vest, as a matter of fact.
They're both things that you've designed, Elaine.
Yeah, absolutely.
This is Madeira lace.
You can't really tell, but I did a project with Madeira.
You know, the lace is used as tablecloths.
And now it's, you know, we did a collection made of gowns and dresses out of the Madeira
lace because it's a dying art.
You got fabric, you know, linens in Scotland.
You got other textilers that are making these products and they need help.
You know, so, but yeah, this is Dai with Indigo from Tennessee Farm and.
Houndstooth from London.
Yeah, there you go.
I'd love to outfit you.
No, I'd love that.
I'm well into the idea.
Thanks, Jeff.
Jeff Garner, thank you so much, mate.
Thanks very much for joining us.
That is the end.
Thank you, man.
Thank you very much.
That's the end of the show today.
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