RACKED.COM: What is ‘Rainforest-Free’ Clothing, and Why Should You Care?

Article by Betsy Andrews. Originally published on March 16 by Racked.com  

On a night before Valentine’s Day, the Victoria’s Secret in Manhattan’s Herald Square was dressed up in pink Cupid’s arrows. Visitors from around the world were shopping for holiday lingerie. A young Japanese tourist named Ayano checked out a pair of black pajama bottoms printed with tiny white hearts whose label read “40% modal.” She was shocked to learn, when I told her, that the pants she was considering were made out trees.

And not just any trees, most likely, but ones that had lived for hundreds of years in ancient and now-endangered forests. It’s these trees that L Brands, which owns Victoria’s Secret (as well as Henri Bendel, Bath & Body Works, Pink, and La Senza), hopes to save by going what’s been called “rainforest-free.” The $10.7 billion conglomerate is among the most recent clothing companies to pledge to rid their supply chains of fabrics made from old-growth trees.

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