Sanford and Sons Middle Floor Merchants have a tight grip on what the fashion-conscious want — dresses to dressers; handmade soaps to hand massages, scarves of silk to silk satchels.

Park on Broadway, waltz in to Sanford and Sons (try not to be distracted by all the great antiques, you can come back for them later), follow the signs, take the stairs and tah dah, you’ve ventured into shopaholic dreamland. To the left and right are mini shops, microcosms of sweet commercialism if you will.

A common fashion trend is one that’s easy on Mother Earth and uses sustainable materials for going green. Underground Green Eco-Clothier offers durable woven hemp towels, Country Girl Gardens (an aptly named from-the-earth ingredient-rich line of lotions, potions, creams) and tons of sweet clothing lines and products made from cotton, bamboo and flax and other organic fibers. Sweet Skins line of items come from a small female-owned company in Eugene, Ore., that’s tapped into the art of transforming plastic pop bottles into fleece material for pants, hoodies, hats and more. These items may cost a bit more, but remember — the T-shirt made from hemp or recycled materials will still be around after 200 washes whereas the one made from acrylic-Spandex and like blends that you bought in June … wait, isn’t that what you use to clean your bathroom floor with?



[Sanford & Son, 743 Broadway or 744 Commerce, Tacoma, www.myspace.com/middlefloormerchants]