Lean, Mean, Green : Environmentally Correct Clothing Enters the Kingdom of--Dare We Say It?--Chic
Surprise--not everyone is dying to own the latest creation by Giorgio, Karl, Donna or Calvin. People with “green” hearts want green sleeves--at the very least.
Better yet, give them an eco-ensemble made of hemp, organic cotton or recycled drapes; a spiffy pair of shoes constructed from old magazines, diaper remnants and rejected coffee filters; a trendy handbag, vest and belt resurrected from rubber tires; a classy coat made from reborn soda bottles, and stunning jewelry crafted from discarded glass jars.
As Earth Day passes its 25th anniversary, there is good reason for closet celebrations. Once, the only correct clothes were Birkenstock sandals, good-intention T-shirts and tie-dyed skirts. Now, the ecology-minded can buy whole wardrobes made from waste and other Earth-friendly ingredients. But the look is so far from trash and so close to upscale fashion that calling it “eco chic,” as some do, doesn’t seem a stretch.
The apparel sector, one of the fastest-growing environmental industries, has a few big-time participants--Esprit, the Gap, Patagonia, Levi Strauss, VF Corp., Dyersburg Fabrics and Courtaulds Fibers among them. But there are far more small players in this field of dreams, where everyone is talking about quantum leaps.
George Akers is one. In 1990, he founded O Wear, a Los Angeles company that makes organic-cotton sportswear. He sold it a year later to VF Corp., the nation’s largest apparel manufacturer, but recently reacquired his “baby.”
He was the first California apparel manufacturer to buy cotton from organic food farmers and to encourage its production, for which O Wear earned the first United Nations Fashion and the Environment Award in 1993. A trip to England--and an introduction to “green” (unbleached and undyed) cotton in a store--had turned Akers into an “environmentally concerned businessman. I started reading, and I found cotton is the most polluting thing that we farm.”
At the outset, he could only find tagua-nut buttons to go with the cotton. Today, he can order 40 button styles--made from walnuts, coconuts, recycled metals and plastics--as well as labels made from recycled soda bottles.
Up next, for accounts including Fred Segal in Santa Monica, is sportswear made from fabric containing 50% recycled plastic, 50% recycled cotton waste (taken from the floors and tables of cotton mills). Akers also plans to use vegetal leather trims, made from a leather-look natural latex material introduced late last year by Deja Shoe.
Two-year-old Deja, located near Portland, Ore., and another U.N. honoree, makes shoes with 50% recycled contents, water-based adhesives and Amazon rain forest latex, tapped from trees. Yet nothing about the footwear, except the hangtags, screams recycled or Earth-friendly, an important principle for responsible companies that want to stay in business and continue making a difference.
“People don’t want to compromise anything for the environment,” says Deja owner Julie Lewis. “I’d say 5% of those who truly care would wear something out of style because it was good for the environment. For the rest, it has to look good, be priced right and be as durable as the virgin or non-environmental product.”
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Deja was a major exhibitor at the recent Los Angeles Eco Expo--an eye-opener for many, including Shannon Davidson, who typically works with St. John Knits, Nordstrom and Nolan Miller. Davidson produced the expo’s fashion show and found the participants divided into two groups.
“Some were loving hands from home and some were really competitive,” she says. “I was very naive about this whole thing. It was an education. For the models too. I think they were wondering: ‘What are we going to have to work with?’ They had no idea what to expect. But once they got there, they loved working with the clothes.”
They were expecting “dowdy things,” opines organizer Nina Merson, noting that the expo drew 49 fashion-related exhibitors this year compared to nine in 1991. “Everyone thinks if it’s environmentally responsible it’s going to be dowdy, dreary, depressing. That’s just not the case.”
Davidson was so pleased with what she saw that one week after the show, she was wearing a whimsical block-printed shirt from Blue Fish. The New Jersey company’s ethnic-fantasy separates are made from organic and reprocessed cotton, trimmed with handmade clay buttons and sell for $58 to $250 in Nordstrom’s Savvy department. Quite a coup for a company that believes in what owner Jennifer Barclay calls “sensible ways to produce.”
For Lindsay McGrail, sensible means separates made from old drapes and drapery remnants. Last weekend, she opened her own store, Re-Hangin’ It, in Thousand Oaks. Two years after making a tank top for herself that stopped traffic, McGrail has a retro-inspired collection, priced $60 to $130, for men and women--and a client list that includes actor David Hasselhoff.
Having a store of their own is one way eco-merchants say they can educate consumers. Some, such as Canadian-based Robin Kay, have been selling and educating for 20 years. Kay’s only U.S. store, Robin Kay Home & Style in Santa Monica, stocks her naturally colored cotton knits for women. The hand-cut and -sewn separates, which could hang in any designer department, are priced less than $100 and made in what a spokesperson calls “a zero-waste factory.” The store also carries Kay’s natural cotton sheets, towels and unisex robes.
Other merchants, such as the owners of Hawaii-based Planet Guardian, are quick-learning newcomers. Their store is only 9 months old but already has its own line of sexy, silk-hemp dresses--marketed under the Grass Roots label--which is causing a stir.
“Right now there’s a lot of interest from the eco-shops,” says co-owner and co-designer Helen Zeldes. “But we’re definitely going to bring it to larger stores. We already have over 200 names of people who came by our booth and wanted to buy the samples. There was one woman who wanted a dress for a wedding and another wanted it for her college graduation.”
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Eco-dreams are filled with thoughts of hemp--the kind that is worn, not smoked. A once highly prized American crop that requires no herbicides or pesticides and can be used for thousands of products, hemp must now be imported from Canada, Europe and Asia. Lobbying for its U.S. legalization, proponents cite the fiber’s illustrious history, which includes a 1942 U.S. Department of Agriculture film called “Hemp for Victory,” its numerous environmental benefits and increasing popularity.
“Three years ago, people laughed when they went by our booth at the Action Sports show in San Diego,” says Steven Boutrous, a partner in Two Star Dog, an Emeryville, Calif., company that makes hip, casual sportswear in hemp, recycled cotton and Tencel (a low-pollution wood-cellulose fiber) for men and women. “Now you can’t go to a major trade show without seeing hemp out there.”
Yesterday’s laughs--and legacies--are part of today’s eco-apparel. One design team works with berries, nuts, clay, mud, leaves and the shells of insects to naturally dye garments. Other designers create chic patchwork clothing out of rags and remnants. Still others--including Sharon O’Connell, owner of Irvine-based Tangled Webscour the country for odd supplies. O’Connell turns kids’ marbles and rare glass bottles into unique jewelry.
While Tangled Web is still a speck on the eco-fashion map, Dyersburg Fabrics has won national attention. Its E.C.O. (environmentally correct origins) fleece fabric, made from 89% recycled soda bottles, is used by Patagonia and numerous other outerwear companies, including Philadelphia-based Rainbeau, which trims its designer-class garments with buttons from naturally shed antlers.
“We’ve kept 62 million bottles out of the landfill,” says Karen Deniz, Dyersburg’s director of merchandising.
That’s the kind of statistic Akers, of O Wear, likes to use when he addresses fashion students. “I tell them: ‘We’ve designed our way into the situation and the fastest solution is to design our way out.’ It’s like preaching to a choir,” he says with glee. “All you’ve got to do is show them. Their eyes get big--every one of them.”
