Latest / Two Girls and a Cup of Wellness / Toxic Clothing: How Your Clothes Add to Your Toxic Load with Lydia Wendt | Ep 35
Transcript
- Crissy and Marie: Hey everyone, we are back for another amazing Two Girls in a Couple Wellness conversation. This is Chrissy. And this is Marie. And today we have the beautiful Lydia of California Cloth Foundry. Welcome. Welcome. So exciting. Lydia Wendt: Thank you. Thank you, Chrissy. Thank you, Marie. Nice to meet you both. Thank you for contacting Crissy and Marie: Yes. Lydia Wendt: me. I I love what you guys are doing. I listened to a couple of them already and just inspired me. Thank you. Crissy and Marie: Fantastic. Yeah. Well, you know, a couple weeks ago, Marie and I were like, okay, we gotta watch the plastic detox and get excited because this is definitely a topic that we have been wanting to bring forth on the show. And so we're watching it and I'm sitting there and I'm watching it. And then you come on and you talk about your journey and you talk about everything that you're doing. And I just got chills, I hit pause and I just emailed right away. And that was the one topic that I didn't know much about. I've studied endocrine disrupting chemicals for years and I've read Dr. Trisande's book and stuff, but I I kind of been afraid to go the clothing the clothing route because it's it's it's another rabbit hole I haven't gone down yet as a nurse practitioner. So yeah. Lydia Wendt: Yeah. Yeah. So you read his book, yeah, Leo. Crissy and Marie: I love that book. I talk about it all the time. I'm such a geek. I love that book. And it's amazing. She reads a lot, which is fantastic. I mean, and you you really do try to educate yourself on a lot of different I do, because I work on with a lot of hormones and you see you see these girls going into perimenopause in their early thirties, and I'm like, this didn't happen 20 years ago. What is going on? And I've read I've read The Silent Spring, I read that years ago, and I've always been on this like holistic health kick from the First cancer patient that I ever had. But, you know, just getting that word out. In fact, this week I was educating young girls at a rowing club event in their 11 to 18, just talking about their cycles and their periods. And I just put in a little section about endocrine disrupting chemicals. And then I talked about how they can, you know, remove some of these toxins, plastic water bottles. And then I said, And, you know, just start thinking about your workout clothes. And then one of the girls said, Miss Webb, am I just gonna have to be naked all the time? And I said, Let's not go that far. Lydia Wendt: Wouldn't that be great? Crissy and Marie: But maybe I wouldn't hate. I mean, it bring it back to the basics. We're all gonna move to one of those nudest colonies. Well, let's yeah. Let's let's let's Yeah, Lydia Wendt: Well back to natural, right? Yeah. Crissy and Marie: back to natural. I mean, when you really think about how our ancestors grew up when they really didn't have all of this technology and all of the different options for things, it really was very basic and simple and simple. And not to say that your line is your line is so beautiful. I was looking through some the let's talk about your amazing clothing line and the like your inspiration behind that and you know really kind of what got you here today. Lydia Wendt: Yeah, thank you. Thank you both. well I I wanted to add that Leo is all also a runner and he's done a couple of interviews and talked about the plastic in your clothing. So he yeah, you can you can find that as well. And I'm just gonna go back to the girls that you just spoke with between the age of eleven and eighteen. And the question is is very sweet. Do we do we just, you know, exercise naked, right? But As as you mentioned, there was a time where all clothing was natural, you know, all fibers were natural, all colors were natural a hundred years ago, you know, and there were athletes from the beginning of time. There were marathon runners Crissy and Marie: That's true. Lydia Wendt: in in cotton, in wool, in hemp, in flax linen, and and I'm sure in naturally dyed clothing. And that didn't inhibit their performance. And what I think that we're being inundated with now is as Chris Chrissy mentioned, the modern day overwhelming bombardment of consumerism and especially performance in in my area, or as as you're the the girls were speaking about, their athletic clothing, right? The performance of plastic fibers. the nylons and the polyesters. They're supposed to wick really well. They're supposed to not show sweat lines. They're supposed to make you run faster and longer and climb farther. But we have already shown as human beings that we can do that naturally without all of these petrochemicals. And I would argue that the petrochem petrochemicals that are in all of our food packaging, all of our clothing, our shampoo bottles to our makeup bottles to all of the plastic is inhibiting actually our natural performance and our natural immune system, which Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Lydia Wendt: is something that, you know, I don't really talk about in the clothing, but I never get sick. Like I I might get a sniffle here or there. It's probably allergies or a fire nearby because I'm in Los Angeles. But I do believe that when you cover your body with natural fibers and natural chemistry, natural dyes, you're allowing your re your immune system, your intuitive immune system to be able to at least be at rest. And when something comes into fight, that something comes into your body or into your environment, I think that it can fight a little bit better because you're not constantly fighting the toxic chemicals that are on your skin. Crissy and Marie: Sure. I love that. Right. Lydia Wendt: You know, you're you're running in it and it's it's it's you're shedding those fibers. You're constantly surrounding yourself with a layer of toxins that never lets your body rest. Crissy and Marie: Wow. That's so Right. That's definitely not something that we have thought about. But that's so true. It's like you're giving your immune system time to rest, right? It's not overly working on on other things. So when it is needed, then it's like, all right, cool. Get into action. Yeah. That's I never put that two together. I sometimes I like think I'm stupid. Like I should have thought about that before. But you know, I talk about a lot of gut health with patients and like let's just rest your gut. Let's just do clear liquids or some bone broth. Let's give our gut a rest because if it's constantly digesting, it's not going to heal. But it makes the same thing about our the body. Yes. And Lydia Wendt: Yes. Yeah. Crissy and Marie: as I so I also teach yoga. I also teach hot yoga. And same thing. I am just at this moment in my life where I'm like, I cannot continue to wear. these clothes when I'm teaching or when I'm practicing. And I gotta find something. So where right. Lydia Wendt: Yes. I wear this top we're gonna plug. Okay. Crissy and Marie: Love it. Lydia Wendt: I wear the bralette and I mean it's not super supportive. It does compress if you're larger breasted, but you're in yoga class, right? Or I'll Crissy and Marie: Right. Lydia Wendt: wear my cami with a little shelf. We're working on an athletic collection, but I only wear my clothing. I do hot yoga Crissy and Marie: Okay, basically. Lydia Wendt: every Wednesday and I also do a a flow that it's really hot here and they don't cool the room. So it's a medium hot yoga every Crissy and Marie: AKA hot Lydia Wendt: Saturday drenched in my clothing. And it's so what if you've got sweat marks? So what if Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Lydia Wendt: it's a little bit, you know, heavy and sticking to you. It's like I wear my sweatpants or my track shorts and that's what I sweat in. A a tank top. the all my clothing, only my clothing. And I do believe that that also has something to do with my stronger immune system because when you I I'm not an immunologist and or I'm I'm not a doctor. But in theory, if if you're not feeling well, if if you don't have a fever or something, I if I don't feel well, I try to do a little exercise to boost my immune system to fight it. And I think that if you're exercising in clean, healthy clothing that has no petrochemicals, not even the reactive dyes that are used on natural fibers, because all of these t-shirts that you see or cloth, you know, organic cotton with a little bit of spandex in it. If it's a color, it's reactive dye. That's a petrochemical. So no petrochemicals, no dyes. unless it's a natural dye. And I do believe that that can help you to live healthier and possibly help to boost your immune system when it needs it. Crissy and Marie: Mm. Yeah. Yeah, the dyes are scary. I talked about that in the last episode. My grandmother was a master dyer for wool and she ended up with Alzheimer's. And my mom believes there's a link because when you start reading about these dyes and she was in the kitchen simmering wool. Neurotoxicity. Mm-hmm. Lydia Wendt: yes. Yes. And on the east coast there was a wool mill near the lake and the small town that I used to go to when I was a kid every summer in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. And there was Crissy and Marie: in New Haiti. I used to camp there. Lydia Wendt: yeah, I mean it like every other person I speak with are like, yeah, we have a we have a connection. Yeah. It's just a Crissy and Marie: Six degrees, right? The six degrees six degrees. Uh-uh. Mm-hmm. Lydia Wendt: Exactly, exactly. It is such a beautiful place. And there was a wool mill right there. And the town has has and I don't know enough about it, but everybody knows that it completely killed the river from that the wool mill depended upon. So Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Lydia Wendt: the you know, the the and I don't actually think because wool takes natural dye really beautifully. But I actually don't think that it was from the natural dyes and the natural mordants that wool traditionally was colored with. I actually think it was the newer over fifty, sixty years, the newer chemistry. that was just, you know, it was fast, it was petrochemical, and it was toxic. Yeah. Definitely. Crissy and Marie: Mm. Lydia Wendt: Sadly. Yeah. So now Crissy and Marie: All right, I'm gonna get my spinning wheel out and knit some undies. Lydia Wendt: Yeah. I mean that's beautiful. We're working with wool as well. and so let's go back to where I began and just Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Lydia Wendt: really basically started in the industry as an assistant and you know intern. I think I mentioned that on in the film. I was an intern and assistant designer when Tom Ford was at Perilous America. I was working at you know, running around doing assistant design and fittings and fashion illustrations for Calvin Klein, for Jones, New York. Then I worked with Bloomingdales and JCPenney's and many different brands that we did private label for. So it was all in the nineties. And that's how I cut my teeth and that's kind of how I learned that all of these natural fibers that we all loved and revered were being replaced by the less expensive plastic fibers, the polyesters and nylons that we would blend in with the naturals to ensure that this fabric was the right price. And it was all petrochemical dyes by then, obviously. And it also ensured that it would control the shrinkage. And because every fiber, every season comes in In a different lot and it will shrink differently because it grew differently, right? Whether it's an animal fiber or a cellulose like a a cotton or a linen or a flax. So creating that insurance and stability with these petrochemical fibers and dyes and finishes, like the PFAS, which is a huge issue right now. And that was also added to ensure color wicking. waterproof performance even on top of plastic fabric. They would add PFAS to to make it even more perfect or plastic or perform, right? So all of that was happening when I was just cutting my teeth in the fashion industry and I stepped out to have children and that's when I was and I was teaching while I was having children. just after I'd had my second. And and during that time of teaching, that's when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And that's when I before that, sorry, backing up. Before I was diagnosed with breast cancer, first I really wanted to be a healthy mom. So even before my first child, I was really careful with what I ate and how I lived and with my partner. So that we would be really healthy and and fertile and have hopefully healthy children, right? And I was already thirty five, so at that point I was like on the cusp, I guess, of of being like an older mom. So which is funny because I would say that Crissy and Marie: Or so oddly enough, they call it geriatric pregnancy. I was like, that's the worst Lydia Wendt: I know I didn't want to say that word. Crissy and Marie: name ever. Lydia Wendt: I saw it on my chart. I was like, no way. This is what? What? So I was Crissy and Marie: No yeah. Lydia Wendt: always focused on healthy and I had my two kids within three years of each other and was really focused on a healthy home. and redid the home to make sure there wasn't any plastic, there wasn't any nylon carpeting, there was nothing in the windows like curtains or no fibers were going to be off gassing. there wasn't going to be anything unhealthy in our home, including their beddings, including what they slept in. And I could never buy pajamas for the kids because if it's labeled a pajama for children, that means or sleepwear for children, they have to douse it in fire retardants. I don't know if you knew that, but I was Yeah, I was on the proof kick, but because I knew knew about textiles and I was also part of Crissy and Marie: my goodness. I just wow. No, I don't I didn't know that. I was on the food kick with my kids. I was on the food But yeah. Yeah. Lydia Wendt: activist community of textile leaders in San Francisco that were all saying you've got to join us and sign these petitions, we have to fight this. I don't remember what the policy was, but it actually passed and it was it was in effect for many years in California, the state of California, where all beddings, mattresses, upholstery, and sleepware for children had to be doused in petrochemical fire retardants. So I only got them loungewear to sleep in, and that didn't have to be doused in it. And I paid a lot, or we did, a lot of money for mattresses that were organic cotton with wool blended into it and brass springs. So that if you have wool which is a self extinguishing fiber, the state of California allowed that mattress to be sold without dousing it in fire retardants. So I already was on that mission. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Lydia Wendt: And then I was diagnosed a year and a half. I was weaning my child, my second child at like a year and a half. And because I tried to breastfeed for almost two years. And when I was weaning her, I felt a lump which I just thought was a clogged duck. But then ducked. And and and then it and then it just didn't. go away like I normally they do. And that's when Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Lydia Wendt: I went into and was diagnosed with breast cancer. And that's when I really like, as I turned up the heat or or really, you know, drew the line in the sand that there wasn't going to be any compromise as far as ingredients surrounding my children or myself. And then I started California Cloth Foundry after that. And that was the mission and purpose with that company was no petrochemicals to be the purest and and really show how it can be done. And it's was done for thousands of years. So with modern technology and advancements that we have in innovations in formulas and mechanical engineering and chemical engineering, you could take all of those pure ingredients and create the same thing that we're used to. today. So that's that's what I've been doing. Crissy and Marie: Wow. God, it's just so heartbreaking. Wow, you know what I mean? What are we doing to ourselves? It it Lydia Wendt: There's so much going on right now. You can see it everywhere. I don't want to make Crissy and Marie: Yeah, it's just it makes me wanna cry. Lydia Wendt: it depress depressing, you know. There's like sixty minutes. I don't know if you saw that one. I think it's Australia or New Zealand. Sixty Minutes just did a huge thing and I just posted about it. And this is the largest experiment that we didn't even know that we were doing Taurus to the human race. Right. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. And people don't people don't know. I spoke three weeks ago at a woman's Christian retreat retreat and talked about a plastic water bottle and the rest of the weekend they're like, sorry, we have plastic water bottle. But they were everybody remembered that one statement that I made, you know, about drinking out of a plastic water bottle. And they don't it's you just don't know. And I learn every day. I learn something new every day. Yeah. But Lydia Wendt: Yes. Crissy and Marie: there's just a lot of people that want people to tell them what to do, right? And so having powerful conversations like this, the amazing documentary, documentary, documentaries. There we go. Couldn't say that word. you know, putting those out into the world and just talking about it and getting more and more people to to do this, to start to learn something new every day, or make a small shift in and a small change in their daily routine every day. It adds up. And the more that we know, the better we do. And just getting the word out there. Yeah. Just with the polyester and the the boys' underwear. Did you read that? Lydia Wendt: Yes, and they in this sixty minutes they do mention that from toothpaste to undies. That was the and that was the the the quote that I Crissy and Marie: I gotta watch that. Lydia Wendt: put on there. They they did an intervention just like the plastic detox. And and they actually did clear out I mean their their the blood tests and the urine tests Crissy and Marie: Mm. Lydia Wendt: had positive results, right? So yes, the the solutions are there. and we need to get out there and and really share them because nobody should be, as I say, my goal, my purpose is to wrap everyone in nature, but I'm a traditional fashion designer, so it's gotta be it's gotta be beautiful. It's gotta fit Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Lydia Wendt: well. It needs to make people feel good. It might not be a power stretch like the compression wear that everybody is accustomed to at the moment. But we don't have the funding that all of these big Nikes and Adidas and innovation companies do have. But with funding, you can do it I you know, it can be done so fast and efficiently with funding and partnerships. And these outliers like us don't have that ability. You know, we're we're we're screaming from or broadcasting from the top of every mountain. Listen, this is what's happening. Try us one piece at a time. Change your wardrobe. Just take a chance, right? And Crissy and Marie: Yeah, yeah. Lydia Wendt: just see what happens. First with your underwear, right? Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Well, that's my husband watched a plastic detox and he started freaking out. I'm gonna throw everything away. And I said, let's just start with our underwear, Paul. You know, and he he got underdog or hemp underwear and he likes them. So Lydia Wendt: Yeah. Crissy and Marie: yeah. It's Lydia Wendt: Good. Crissy and Marie: it's it's eye-opening. That's that's all I can say. It's just eye-opening because I think for the longest time I never really thought about performance wear fabrics, right? And textiles in my clothing. I just For the longest time, I just wore stuff and I I loved it until a big one that starts with the letter L came around. And I really truly loved their clothing when I was doing yoga. but right, Lydia Wendt: Everybody did. Yes. Crissy and Marie: right. But just like we changed and shift to to that doesn't mean that we can't shift and change to another, like, okay, I'm gonna go organic, I'm gonna go cotton, I'm gonna definitely try different. fabrics out in different companies like yours. And I'm definitely on the mission right now to to try some things out and make that shift and that change for myself and for my body. Because too, as being a breast cancer thriver myself, I, you know, there's a lot of things that when you are diagnosed or have a traumatic situation or a life's event, That makes you stop and pause and look at your health and your wellness and your body and your life. You gotta make changes, right? You turn your pain into purpose. I say that all the time. And Lydia Wendt: Yes. Crissy and Marie: like like you with the organization, me, it's this, it's my book, it's it's getting the information out there in any way that we can. So I so appreciate you for just coming on and sharing your story and sharing your, experience and all the amazing things that you're doing because and yeah conversations matter. Stepping away from that amazing life, right? Being like, you know what, this is like to work with those designers and those companies was probably amazing. And just being like, you know what, I can't do this morally, Lydia Wendt: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Crissy and Marie: right? Lydia Wendt: Yeah. And and the thing is, I mean, it was it it's quite a i when you're young, all you want to do is is make a difference in the business side and the prestige side and and the volume side. And so then switching gears completely to something that's a hundred percent natural and and really focusing on that and not and and And knowing that what I did before was great as a learning ground or a a teacher, a teaching, teaching myself and my and my path to to value something different, right? It valuing less about status and volume and commerce. And well, commerce is very important because you can't survive as a business without it, but really focusing on what is the most important purpose for for the rest of my life. And that is to make really beautiful, really clean, really healthy clothing. And yeah, stepping away, it wasn't really stepping away, it's was just baby steps into the next, right? The next type of life. Right. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Growth not stepping away. Like I say, thinking outside of the box of medicine, thinking outside of what you're taught to, to be like, well, wait a second. Yeah. What is really going on with this Lydia Wendt: Right. Right. Crissy and Marie: patient? Should I just give them this prescription or think about why this is happening to them? Yeah. Well, Lydia Wendt: Right. Crissy and Marie: people need to ask more questions. That's like a great kind of segue into this. Like people need to ask more questions and not just like, somebody told me to put this on or somebody Somebody told me to take this supplement or do this movement. But it's easy. It's the easy way. 5,000%. That's what I'm saying. Like people need to ask why more often. And, you know, it's funny. Today, my husband, I told him a story about something and he started asking me like 5,000 questions. And I looked at him, babe. I'm like, babe, I'm not the news reporter. I don't know what happened. I'm just telling you the story that I heard on the news. He's like, Well, I'm a sales guy. I ask questions. I'm like, Good point. And I probably should be asking more questions too, right? So it just I don't know how it all came back around. But that is maturity because again, the more we know, the more we ask, the more we know, or the more we learn, whatever. And the more changes that we make and we grow and we expand and we become more mature and on to the next thing and we can make changes. Yeah. Lydia Wendt: Yeah, thank you. one thing that I was thinking, and I don't know how it came up, but we were talking, well, I guess about medicine, but the colors and the colors in natural dyes, many of them were discovered through medicine or through food. Crissy and Marie: that's interesting. Lydia Wendt: Yeah, and the majority of dyes, in fact, I don't know of one that isn't. the majority of dyes are medicinal. So that's an added bonus if you're talking about, you're, you know, there's not enough stretch in this, we're working on it. Use the mechanical stretch. But here's a bonus. So this is blended with white cotton and color-grown cotton. This is just natural white cotton, but color-grown cotton has natural tannins in it. That's why, like tea. That's why it is this color. There's all different, like darker brown, medium brown, Crissy and Marie: That's interesting. Lydia Wendt: kind of a load in green. And those tannins are very healthy for you. They're not only is it antimicrobial, antibacterial, but they're also good for your blood. And Crissy and Marie: Just Lydia Wendt: so when I sweat in a color-grown hoodie or a color-grown shirt, my sweat smells cleaner and different. than it does in Crissy and Marie: Interesting. Lydia Wendt: in the bio white that's bleached with hydrogen peroxide or in you know the natural and we also change the color with a little bit of iron it's a color shifter it's a mordant so we add iron like from your multivitamin ferrosulfate Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Lydia Wendt: and my sweat smells different again like it's antimicrobial and it's healthy it's like Crissy and Marie: Interesting. Lydia Wendt: it doesn't You get that the you get the and I hate to talk about sweat, but there's this Crissy and Marie: Yeah, yeah. Lydia Wendt: way that your body, when you're sweating or just living in it, reacts with the with obviously we've talked about the with the clothing that you're Crissy and Marie: Mm. With the colouring that you're wearing. That's really interesting. Lydia Wendt: wearing, especially when you're heating up, whether it's in the sun on a hike where your pores are opening up and the sun is beating down and beating that fiber and the dyes into you, or whether you're sweating heavily in a in in a yoga class. And I got a I got an email from someone that wanted to buy our textiles by the yard. It's it's a gentleman who was an athlete and a cyclist and he had some melanoma on his leg. And he was ra and he was also an herbalist, and he was wrapping it with whatever organic cotton he could buy, just whatever at a at a store, or maybe he was ripping up t-shirts, but he said it was just clean organic cotton and logwood. And logwood die. And so logwood is actually a medicine that is a a blood builder, and it also has some sort of natural chemotherapy to it. And so he wrapped his leg every day, every morning, and every night with this cotton dyed with logwood. And Crissy and Marie: Interesting. Lydia Wendt: the melanoma finally went. Crissy and Marie: Wow. That's really Lydia Wendt: Yeah. Crissy and Marie: cool. Lydia Wendt: Yeah. So the as I say, like Logwood has as blood building, marigolds, astringents, and also for dysentery, they used marigold tea. There's, you know, many of the colors we did. a collaboration, two collaborations with Gaia Herbs, where the elderberry we dyed, our hook. Crissy and Marie: I've died with Elderbury. Lydia Wendt: Elderberries is so beautiful, right? Crissy and Marie: That's beautiful. Mm-hmm. Lydia Wendt: So we have these elderberry hoodies died in in immune-boosting organic elderberries from Europe. And Crissy and Marie: I never thought about that. Yeah. Lydia Wendt: and we had the sleep set died in California poppy and valerian and also marigolds to color shift. And that's like for pajamas. So not only are Crissy and Marie: Mm, Valerian, maybe for pajamas. I love that. Lydia Wendt: you right. So not only are you sleeping in or exercising or living in something that's Not going to bombard your immune system with toxins, it actually is enhancing and maybe helping. Crissy and Marie: That's amazing. It's my mind is blown because I just you know, I I knew we were gonna talk about a lot of amazing things and and fabrics, but like just that concept of you're helping your immune system by just not overloading and over bombarding it with all of the toxic overload, right? But then also what you're putting into it and dying with can also assist even more so. Lydia Wendt: But that's been Crissy and Marie: So cool. Lydia Wendt: a practice forever. It's not those are thousands Crissy and Marie: Ever, forever. Lydia Wendt: and thousands of years old. There were, you know, newborn babies were wrapped in in hemp that was naturally dyed in in maybe its own the hemp leaves or in indigo and and it was medicinal. It was beautiful and traditional, but it was also medicine. There was a reason for it. So there were more stories behind the colors that we have just lost. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Yeah. I think that's it. It's just the losing of the historical importance of it all. Right. And and the what's the word I'm looking for? The the rituals to it as well, right? Like so many rituals were like I guess based around like what are you wearing and the, you know, like the elevated expression of the the clothing and stuff like that. And I feel like This is coming back to that, you know? Lydia Wendt: Right. Crissy and Marie: Right. And and I love that you said before, you're like, I'm still a designer at heart. I want them to look pretty. I want them to fit good. I want you to feel good when you're wearing them. Or like you said, Lydia Wendt: Right. Exactly. Crissy and Marie: I want you to be hugged in nature. I'm definitely like saying that a lot. That might be the name of this podcast. Nature nature. I loved it. I love when you said that. Yes. wrap you with nature. Yes. Lydia Wendt: Yeah, hugged in nature, that's nice. Yeah, right. Human nature. Yeah. And yeah, yeah. And the thing is you you've heard, I'm sure, about forest bathing or nature bathing, right? Why would Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They prescribe it in Japan. Lydia Wendt: that's yes, for your health and it completely makes sense, right? Those Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Lydia Wendt: are those are that's old wisdom. So why then wouldn't it make sense that if you wrap yourself in nature, especially if you can't get out to nature, wouldn't that be assisting just in a small way, rather than wrapping yourself in petrochemicals? Which, you know, it's crude oil and natural gas. And coal, right? Those are those are the three ingredients in all of these performance fibers and fabrics over the last 50 years of Crissy and Marie: Mm. Yeah. It's terrible. Lydia Wendt: experiment. Crissy and Marie: My goodness. So Lydia Wendt: They call it the toxological experiment, right? Right. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. It it really is. And great name. The companies are very powerful, as we know. Yes. You know, but but getting it getting the word out there. Where you I'm just gonna say I'm I had sheep and I had Angora goats, so I'm kind of like a wool nerd. So where do you get your fibers from? What countries or farmers? Lydia Wendt: so nice. So the wool is climate beneficial wool certified by the fiber shed in Northern California. And Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Lydia Wendt: the wool producer that we partnered with for our collaborative cloth, it's called, is Lonnie from Lonnie's Lana. And so she is California, Nevada, so up north. And that's the only Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Great. Lydia Wendt: wool that we have sourced so far. And We also sourced a little bit of linen, flax linen from Belgium, and the lensing, which is Austrian, lensing modals, so tensel modals. So that's the only brand of yarn that we would purchase that is it's not synthetic, it's synthesized wood pulp, and it's also forest Crissy and Marie: Hmm. Lydia Wendt: S FSC, which is for stewardship council, it's all certified. they grow it themselves and they harvest harvest the birch wood themselves. So that's lensing modal, which tensile model, which is a silk like yarn that we blend with like this one, with color grown and with white cotton. so that's the only import would be a little bit of Belgium linen and some of the silk like yarn that we buy from Austrian, Austria, the company lensing Tensal Modal. The rest of it comes from, as I said, Lani's Lana is Northern California. Cleaner cotton is the Central Valley of California. We have color-grown cotton from New Mexico and Arizona, organic organic, organic cotton from Texas. We have some Delta cotton from the Mississippi Delta. Cotton of the Carolinas. Yeah, that is that is it. Right now. Yeah. Crissy and Marie: It's great. That's so cool. I think a lot of people are on board with buying more made in US, right? And as long as it's made in US in a clean way, I think people are wanting to not purchase from larger countries anymore. So people get out. Go to the website and buy yourself some organic Lydia Wendt: Thank you. Crissy and Marie: US made amazing cotton. clothing because they're there. I went on the site. It's such cute clothes too. They all just look like you are, like you're wearing a hug. Like, yes.Feels so good. Lydia Wendt: Thank you. We also have a line of men's that we just haven't photographed yet. So we will be doing another photo shoot. We've got some nice men's hoodies, crew, boxers, finally. We made boxers. Crissy and Marie: Right. Nice. Lydia Wendt: and underwear as well is coming back through. We our hipster is coming back through. We'll do a thong, whatever. We're doing we're we have more styles coming through, but we had done some menswear for the film so that the couples could at least wear. some of our clean clothing for the film and we just didn't produce in volume so now we are for men and more of Crissy and Marie: that's great. Lydia Wendt: of the base for women. So thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Crissy and Marie: Well, I know what I'm buying for Christmas. So guess what guess if my husband listened to this listens to this, guess what you're getting? For Christmas, babe. That's part of Lydia Wendt: Good. Well and the other thing, the made in America, it's i it it's also about, you know, the more the more dollar or the higher dollar or how do you say it, the more you spend here in America, the better it is, the the farther your dollar goes as far as the economy goes. So that's one. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Lydia Wendt: The other is that I say lensing model, a tensile modal, because tensile modal is a is compostable. It's certified by a a Swiss science certif certification organization as clean and healthy and compostable fibers. But there is a lot of rayon and viscos that is not very clean. And in America in the 90s, or just the turn of last century, no well, the nineties to two thousands, they banned a rayon process because of the chemicals that were highly toxic and neurologically damaging. And so all of that chemistry in the rayon industry was shipped overseas, mostly to China, but all over the world to make viscos and to make bamboo fibers that are are viscos bamboo. and so in America we banned those chemicals. So we know that anything that is being processed here as far as the fiber goes, it's it's stricter than something Crissy and Marie: Mm-hmm. Lydia Wendt: that has been produced overseas. So that's another reason. We know our ingredients and we also know the labor force. And you're not quite sure about the ingredients or the labor force when it's coming from overseas unless you're a really large company and you have the the financial stability to be able to vet and police that supply chain like a Patagonia does. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Which is so important. Yeah. You know, and and one of the bigger companies, too, just the way they treat employees. I want nothing to do with that. If a shirt's three Lydia Wendt: Right. Crissy and Marie: dollars, hmm. Yeah. Yeah. With a dollar fifty pair Lydia Wendt: That's questionable, right? How could it be? It doesn't make sense. Crissy and Marie: of socks, what's going on here? Yeah. You know? So yeah. People start thinking about that. Yeah. Definitely start thinking about that. We've talked about over consumerism before and it's definitely easy to do. Right. But yeah. Lydia Wendt: It's Crissy and Marie: Yeah. And and you know, I think that talking, well, let's just talk about that for a second, because I actually have a story. So Lydia, I I don't know if you you probably don't know. How would I say that? you don't know, but my mom had just recently passed away. And what I find was like so difficult was walking into her house and there being just tons of stuff. Like this somewhat she just bought a lot of stuff and when I think there's so many sites right now that make it easy for people to buy something and get it right away. And it's cheap enough that it doesn't matter if they use it or not, because it was, it was only a few dollars, right? But I think coming from like a child's perspective, we don't want to be cleaning your houses. Right. Yeah, all nobody needs 50 of the same thing or even four of the same thing. So I think just this overall concept of back to the basics is what's just screaming in my body and in my and it has been for a couple of months, but this conversation is just reiterating that for me. I just back to the basics. Get back to the basics. Lydia Wendt: Yeah, I'm sorry to hear about your mom and thank you for sharing that because I also believe in that practice. And I think that unfortunately, this fast lifestyle that we're living with all the information highway in every way that it's coming, whether it's AI or social media or our news media, what are even our podcasts, right? All of this information is coming so fast. We also consume like that now. And making it A little uncomfortable to say no to yourself or to say no to others is something that I think that is gonna help our mental health as well as our our bodily health, right? I think Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Yeah. Lydia Wendt: it's all connected. And we do get a lot of pushback because of the price. And you you guys did mention the price, like how can something cost $3 or $1.50 for a pair of socks? And I understand that the you know, a lot of people can't afford our clothing, California Cloth Foundry's clothing, and there is a you know, there is it with volume, we can bring some prices down. We can make a few simple basics that will be less expensive. Totally understand that. But if you cannot afford our clothing, besides underwear, just buy simple white cotton underwear, white or natural. Don't buy all those colors because that is also an issue with the petrochemicals in the dyes. But if you're gonna buy anything, just buy a few pieces of underwear and keep washing it, and buy a few pieces of clothing that are well made and consignment, and light colors, and no polyester or no nylon. You can find it, it's out there. We've had Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Lydia Wendt: such an overproduction of apparel. and other stuff as you just mentioned over the last twenty years, you can find it used. So slow down a little. That's it. Crissy and Marie: Yeah. Yeah. Slow down a little. Yeah. Cause like honestly, when you walk into your closet, right? And and just like imagine this. You walk into your closet when it's really nice and clean and organized and not like ninety five things everywhere, you feel more clear in your mind. It's like that yen. Zen yin. Yin yin. Yin yang. Zen, the zen of your house. The zen, yes, the yin and Lydia Wendt: Yeah. Crissy and Marie: the yang. Yeah. But like when you walk into your closet and you've just got your clothes everywhere and it looks like a hurricane just came through or tornado just came through and there's just stuff everywhere, you feel that. You feel less like clear minded and yeah, the anxiety and you're just like, ugh, don't want to do anything less Zen like and Lydia Wendt: Yes. Less than right. Mm-hmm. Crissy and Marie: less peaceful. And you don't feel I know for myself, I don't feel creative. I don't feel like I can Gather a thought. I just I'm like, ugh, all right, I'm just gonna walk out of here and I'm just gonna leave it alone. Right. But when it's so the same thing for your house, the same thing for your closet, the same thing for your clothes. It all matters also in your energy too. So like Lydia Wendt: Right. Crissy and Marie: slow it down, clear it out, create some space. Lydia Wendt: Right. Even with color, right? Simple, simple colors. I mean, I was talking about a lot of different colors earlier, but going back to the basic three colors, you know, white, natural, this camel color, color grown. I I don't say cam maple because it's not because I mean there's camel hair, camel for alpaca, whatever, but you know, a deep dark green, you know, some simple colors and simple pieces. You're gonna learn how to use those so you don't need all of this other specific performance stuff. Right. Crissy and Marie: Stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's so underwear and bras for me. And then I'm gonna go to the sports clothes. That's my thing. Because I don't like s I don't like sweating. It makes me nervous if I'm sweating and I'm sucking in this stuff. But yeah, small changes. I think that's best for our listeners. Like just start small. Yeah. And don't get overwhelmed like with anything else. That's with everything that we say, every single podcast. Is just start somewhere, make one small shift, one daily habit, make it something new and different every day. And, you know, just stick with it. That's that's all we can say. That's all we can say. And we just gotta show it for ourselves every single day. And then and just reach out to amazing people like you in the hopes that you'll say yes and you do. Thank you so much. What an honor. It's Lydia Wendt: Yeah, no. Crissy and Marie: truly an honor. This has made my day. Yeah. It's made my day. My week. Probably my whole week. Lydia Wendt: I appreciate you both. Thank you very much. Crissy and Marie: Yes, you are amazing. I'm so so grateful for you. And I know our community will be as well. So you guys definitely head over to her website. We'll link it below and give you all the information. But go get yourself some amazing California cloth foundry clues. All right. Until Lydia Wendt: Thank you. Appreciate it. Crissy and Marie: guy until next time, guys. Thanks so much. Bye. Lydia Wendt: Thank you. Bye.