Care What You Wear: Organic & Fair Made Clothes

From: Fort Wayne (Indiana) News Sentinel http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/living/11955898.htm
Jun. 22, 2005

Organic and fair-trade clothes buyers feel good about their fashion BY JACKIE WHITE Knight Ridder Newspapers KANSAS CITY, Mo. - (KRT) - Kansas City nutritionist Karen Ialapi thinks modern American life has moved too far from the earth.

She frowns at the mention of processed foods. She praises the European fondness for vegetables served fresh from produce markets every day and boasts of her own heritage, "a great Italian family filled with great cooks." A former corporate health consultant, she is building a consulting business and working part time at a Whole Foods organic market.

So when she wandered into the Kansas City organic clothing boutique It's Only Natural three years ago, she was intrigued. She touched the soft fabrics and heard about cotton produced without chemicals. It was a turning point.

She has been transitioning her closet into organic clothing a little at a time since. A purple T-shirt here and a red dress there.

"You have to experience the clothes," she says. "They feel so good."

Ialapi is one of an emerging breed of consumers who are making purchasing decisions based on ethical issues beyond the aesthetics and value of the
clothes. As much as they want to look good, they like the feeling they are doing good with consumer dollars. "Just take one step," Ialapi urges.

They appreciate clothing produced with minimal damage to the environment. That includes materials such as organic cotton, hemp, the wood compost fabric Tencel, soy, corn fiber and bamboo. Recycled goods from the likes of soda pop tops and bike chains are a quirky part of the mix.

At the same time, more people are considering conditions under which clothing is made. Were the workers treated well and paid fairly for their labor?

These fair trade subjects are becoming part of the larger conversation on ethical consumerism, says Rebecca Calahan Klein, president of Organic Exchange, a national clearinghouse and resource center in Berkeley, Calif. For Ialapi and some other consumers, the two issues are tied together The idea is part of an ethics movement that is gathering momentum. Danny Seo, a style editor with Organic Style magazine, calls it "LO-HAS, Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability."

People are buying hybrid cars. They're talking about healthy food. They do yoga and seek a mental balance. And they're concerned with the environment, he says.

"It's the question of your footprints. How much are you going to leave behind on the planet?" he says.

Courtney Fuchs is trying to further the movement in the Kansas City area. A former lawyer, she opened the organic apparel store It's Only Natural more than three years ago. A dark-haired 44-year-old who looks the part of a model for the clothes she sells, she became interested after her daughter was born 13 years ago.

"I wanted to do what was best for my family, and I started looking at the side issues."

She was shocked when she learned that cotton production uses 25 percent of the agricultural chemicals and 3 percent of the cropland globally.

She opened her store the October after 9/11, when fashion retailing was almost at a halt. But her business was surprisingly brisk. People seemed to want something of value, she says. They were wary of malls and appreciated her emphasis on personal customer service.

Today the space is packed with colorful sweaters, T-shirts, shapely skirts and pants with labels such as Patagonia and Indigenous Designs. "Kansas City likes colors that pop," she says. The back area is devoted to children's
clothes.

Prices are mostly less than $100. Some customers are drawn to the look, if not the cause. When she started, ecologically aware customers were about 40 percent of the business. Now the ratio has shifted to 60 percent.

World's Window is another Kansas City area retailer with a selection of ethical clothing, offering both organic and fair-trade clothing. Earth Creations, for example, uses organic cotton, hemp and blends, all colored with clay dyes. Prices are less than $100, says co-owner Jan Buerge.

These stores appeal to consumers such as Shari Blaine of south Kansas City. She says she is leading a more thoughtful lifestyle these days, paying close attention to how her clothing is produced and under what conditions. She buys organic cosmetics. And she has been so anxious about commercial dyes in clothing, she experimented with making her own fruit and vegetable dyes.

Like Ialapi, she discovered organic clothing three years ago. It was an easy leap from another passion, organic gardening, she says, which she started when she was first married 33 years ago. "You have to try to make the best choices you can," she says.

Jane Miller had grown accustomed to hearing her daughter Dusty Miller talk of looming dangers to the environment. Dusty, 28, became a vegetarian at 14, and as she grew older, her environmental concerns increased. She joined the Sierra Club as a teenager, studied environmental science at the University of Kansas and now works as an environmental scientist.

"I thought it was really interesting" in the beginning, says her mother. But she became more serious about ethical shopping when she heard about Kathie Lee Gifford's Wal-Mart line being produced in overseas sweatshops.

Now the whole family has converted. Dusty's sister Amy Pinera and her three young children wear, as do Dusty and Jane Miller, organic cotton clothing. Eight-month-old Jasmine sports an organic cotton baby blanket.

Cotton production is at the center of the organic apparel debate because it requires a large percentage of chemicals and pesticides. Yet organic farming can be costly in most countries.

The transition is difficult. Crops have to be rotated. The land is left unplanted while the soil is conditioned.

And organic farming remains a small part of the cotton industry. Out of 40 million farmers around the world, about 25,000 are organic farmers, says Klein of Organic Exchange. Less than two-tenths of 1 percent of the world's cotton is grown organically.

It is a "niche market, although it has a certain level of resonance," says Ira Livingston, senior vice president for consumer marketing with Cotton Inc., an industry trade group dedicated to cotton promotion. Organic cotton is a $50 million industry, he says, compared with the $266 billion cotton market.

Demand for organic cotton, however, is on the rise, increasing 300 percent the last three years, Klein says. And the number of U.S. brands that offer organic cotton has gone from less than 100 in 2002 to more than 250
currently.

The Organic Trade Association told Newsweek magazine that organic fiber products jumped 22.7 percent in 2003, with women's clothing at the front. Patagonia, known for outdoor clothing, has been using organic cotton since
1996. In the beginning, the company lost business, says public relations manager Jennifer Rapp. Now other companies come to Patagonia for
consultation. "Nike has come to us and said, `How do we do this?'"

Nike is now the largest consumer of organic cotton, with a commitment to use at least 5 percent in every cotton garment by 2010, a move observers say has encouraged organic farmers.

And Seattle-based retailer Nordstrom has a task force researching the use of organic cotton in the company's private label brand in the next two years, public relations director John Bailey says.

Celebrities have helped to raise consumer consciousness of ethical
consumerism. Organic Style magazine recently featured actress Helen Hunt on the cover. Other models, including Angela Lindvall and Alek Wek, have also been there.

"You know you're doing something right when you have supermodels lined up to be on your cover," Seo says.

Earlier this year, U2 lead singer Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, launched an upscale organic fair-trade sportswear line called Edun (nude spelled backward). It is produced in non-sweat shop, family-run factories in Africa and South America and is now carried in most Saks Fifth Avenue stores.

Actor Woody Harrelson is also an outspoken environmental activist with Web site www.voiceyourself.com.

And upping the profile, Earth Pledge, a New York-based nonprofit group that promotes environmental programs, pulled off an "eco friendly" Future Fashion runway show on the eve of New York Fall Fashion Week last February. The designers included Oscar de la Renta, Diane von Furstenberg and Zac Posen, who used renewable, reusable or less polluting fabrics.

The garments, made of materials such as recycled bottle top sequins, organic cotton and recycled bike chains, were featured in the windows of Barneys, New York's high-end Madison Avenue department store.

Some designers are already well ahead of the curve. Stella McCartney, daughter of Paul, is well-known for her environmental focus. Linda Loudermilk, a West Coast designer, calls her own upscale line "luxury eco." She uses fabrics made from bamboo jersey, soybeans, recycled soda tops and wood pulp.

Loudermilk says when she was showing couture clothes on Paris runways, images of nature kept going through her head. She closed her Paris salon, went looking for ecological materials and moved to Southern California. She now sells her striking designs through specialty stores and on the Internet (www.lindaloudermilk.com).

"I have so much more serenity now, knowing I am trying to make a difference," she says.

Another powerful voice in the organic apparel field is Lynda Fassa, who founded the children's line Green Babies. She is a former Ford model who lived in Paris for a time and became concerned about chemicals in clothing after her daughter was born 12 years ago.

When she read a newspaper story about Texas cotton farmers who were going back to the way things were before pesticides were available, she went looking for them. She bought 50 yards of cotton T-shirt material, purchased paint at an art supply store and drew pictures of vegetables on the fabric. She learned to screen print, packed a bag of samples and made the rounds of New York shops.

"I was never so happy as when I was selling with my baby on my hip," she says.

Green Babies is now produced in non-sweatshop factories in the United States and abroad and carried in a range of retail stores, including It's Only Natural and some Whole Foods stores. Fassa recently added an organic lingerie line for women called Good Karma.

Whole Foods sells organic apparel in its flagship Austin, Texas, store and will add clothes to its new, more spacious stores, says marketing director Scott Simons.

Meanwhile, fair-trade and organic apparel are limited, but collections can be found in out-of-the-way shops and on the Internet.

Most industry observers think the ethical consumer movement is likely to gather speed. Scott Leonard, a partner in Indigenous Designs, says, "There is a buzz and overall raising of the bar of conscientious consumerism."

Ten to 15 years ago, he says, organic food stores were rough-hewn, with sawdust on the floor. Now you have spacious, sophisticated markets. In the next 10 to 15 years, the organic fiber market will become what organic food is now.

Indigenous Designs, founded in 1994 "to make a difference" with organic fair-trade goods, is selling to mainstream retailers such as Coldwater Creek and Sundance.

Ultimately, one reason may be the driving force.

"We all buy clothes to feel good about ourselves," Lynda Fassa says.

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Just a click away:

Retailers who offer merchandise to ethically motivated consumers are a very small part of the commerce picture. The Internet has become both an alternative marketplace and shopping guide for much of the merchandise.

Here is a small sample of the many Web sites that offer such clothing and accessories. Some can also be found in retail stores.

_No Sweatshop (www.nosweatshop.com); Offers sportswear made in union shops. Adam Neiman, president, says the idea was conceived by friends and family around the kitchen table in 2000. It launched in late 2002. A new sneaker in 2004 helped put the brand on the map.

_Global Girlfriend (www.globalgirlfriend.com); Sold only on the Internet. Colorado-based founder Stacey Edger started the company two years ago on a $2,000 tax rebate. Offers a marketplace for women artisans in cooperatives and nonprofit groups in low-income areas such as India and Africa. Has a wide range, from handmade jewelry to soap to handbags. She calls it a "women's rights" business.

_People Tree (www.peopletree.com); The London-based company works with 70 producer groups in 20 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to offer organic cotton and hand-woven fabrics. The selection includes striking prints and colorful, trendy items. The line is said to be favored by actresses Minnie Driver and Sienna Miller.

_Indigenous Designs (www.indigenousdesigns.com); The 11-year-old California-based company works with knitting cooperatives and other artisans in many communities around the globe. Offers assistance in quality control and planning management to market ecologically friendly fair trade apparel on the Web and in retail stores.

DID YOU KNOW...

_Globally, cotton production uses 25 percent of the agricultural chemicals and 3 percent of the cropland.
_Demand for cotton grown without chemicals has grown 300 percent since 2002. _Celebrities have boosted the profile of organic and fair-trade apparel. Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, launched a fair-trade organic sportswear line earlier this year.
_Actress Helen Hunt was on the cover of Organic Style magazine earlier this year. _Organic clothing, like organic food, can be more expensive than non-organic.

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© 2005, The Kansas City Star.

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