Clothing for the Chemically Sensitive

One of the most stressful things for a chemically sensitive person is to run out of clothing. I would wear clothing until it would literally be falling apart. Sometimes I would purchase clothing, wash it numerous times, and it would still make me sick, so I would give it to the thrift store. I was worried I would not be able to purchase clothing I could wear. I finally found some clothing I could wear, so the purpose of this post is to share what has worked for me.

Organic clothing is quite pricey, but I generally do better with organic clothing. However, I have found I cannot wear a lot of clothing that purports to be organic. Here is a list of the clothing that I can tolerate:

Esperanza Threads (http://www.esperanzathreads.com/). I have bought at least five pairs of sweatpants from this company and they have been the most chemical-free of any clothing I have come across.

Patagonia. (http://www.patagonia.com/us/home). I have purchased around 15 to 25 items of organic clothing from this company and have been able to wear all of them! I have purchased levis, khakis, collared shirts, flannel shirts, lots of white t-shirts, and other items. The clothing is expensive, but sometimes there are sales. Sign up to receive emails if you want to be notified of their sales. I have purchased two items of synthetic clothing from Patagonia and was not able to wear them.

Lands’ End (http://www.landsend.com/). I have done great with some white dress shirts (No Iron Pinpoint Oxford) I purchased from Lands’ End. I was able to wear them after boiling them and numerous washings.

Adidas. (http://www.adidas.com/). Polyester clothing generally lasts a lot longer than cotton clothing. I purchased some pants direct from Adidas’ website that I was able to wear after boiling and numerous washings. The pants are the Firebird Track Pants, Item:  X41215. They are black with white stripes and they cost $61.52.

JC Penney. I purchased some pants from this company and was able to wear them after numerous washings and boiling them: "Stafford® Essentials Pleated Dress Pants, Item #FC553-4780D, color: Grey Tic, $20.00 clearance." I also purchased the following pants from the same company but could not remove the chemicals: "jcp Flat-Front Dress Chinos, Item #FC560-8259D."


Socks:

Maggies Organics (http://www.maggiesorganics.com/). I have purchased a lot of socks from this company. I buy the “99% cotton allergy crew.” I have tried their other socks that have a lower percentage of organic cotton and I was not able to wear them.


Hanes. I bought three packages of these socks: "Hanes Cushion Crew Socks 10 Pack, 10-13-White." I put them through many washings--probably about 16 hours of washing. The socks still made me a little bit sick after all those washings so I boiled them in my roasting oven (see my post on boiling clothing) for about 16 hours. After I boiled them and washed them a couple more times I could wear them and they didn't make me sick. It is so nice to have plenty of socks to wear now. These socks are much less expensive than the socks from Maggies Organics, but it takes more work to remove the chemicals from them.