LOS ANGELES — Imagine this: models parading on a runway dressed in bamboo jersey form-fitting dresses, sherpa coats made of recycled plastic bottles and even slacks made of soy products.
That is the vision of model-actress-activist Angela Lindvall, who is negotiating to bring her ecology-friendly show to New York Fashion Week in September, providing as many as 40 designers, including Stella McCartney and Zac Posen, with sustainable fabrics.
The timing comes as West Coast designers such as Linda Loudermilk are helping to propel a green makeover that is wending its way through the fashion industry now that natural beauty products and health food stores have won the wallets of the eco-chic.
As the 35th Earth Day is celebrated on Friday, organic fashion is taking hold as a viable business attracting retailer investment. U2 frontman Bono this year launched the organic line Edun with his wife, Ali Hewson, and denim designer Rogan Gregory. And a growing list of influential apparel names, such as Nike, Timberland and Nordstrom Inc. have incorporated Earth-conscious fibers into their merchandise.
“There’s a whole trickle-down effect happening,’’ said John Howell, an organic marketing consultant who has worked with the Body Shop and Calvin Klein. “People are interested in the natural-organic category across the board, from what they eat to what they put on. It’s not market-driven, but the other way around.”
The category is no longer driven by hemp-based, sack-like dresses. Designers are using organic cotton grown and harvested without pesticides, trying out fabrics that use renewable resources such as bamboo and even creating fashion out of old clothes.
At the same time, companies are re-examining their marketing strategies, delivering messages that are less preachy and more hip.
“It was marketed like medicine — it’s good for the environment and it was the right thing to do — but no one wanted to take it,” said Danny Seo, ecostylist and special projects editor at Organic Style magazine, where ad pages rocketed 81 percent in the past year and circulation climbed 18 percent to about 750,000.
Instead, companies rely on product design or harness the power of celebrity to create buzz for their brands. The Bono connection certainly didn’t hurt Edun.
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“To have such a spokesman, certainly raises the bar,” said Michael Fink, senior fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue, which exclusively carries the line. “But also, the design is so strong and attached to such an incredible humanitarian issue that it was one of those magic moments.”
Women’s clothing is the fastest growing category in organic fiber consumer sales in the U.S., according to the Organic Trade Association. Women’s represented 38 percent of 2003 sales — the most recent data available — which grew 22.7 percent from 2002 to $85 million. Berkeley, Calif.-based Organic Exchange, which promotes the use of organic agriculture, said global sales of organic cotton products tripled from 2002 to 2004 to $240 million. Of that, apparel accounted for $220 million.
That means fiber sales are also sprouting.
Organic Exchange, whose founding member is Nike, credits the sneaker giant for the spike in fiber sales, noting demand for organic cotton fiber grew to almost 20 million pounds in 2004 from about six million pounds in 2002. The organization projects sales will increase this year to 30 million to 40 million pounds. Nike’s organic cotton program alone used three million pounds of organic fiber last year, making it the biggest buyer of the fiber. That is also helping suppliers in Turkey, Pakistan and India that benefit from partnerships with well-financed apparel firms and can keep prices competitive. Organic cotton typically carries a 20 percent premium above conventionally grown cotton.
Nike first launched its organic cotton collection in fall 2002 and carried it for a few seasons, but ran into supply delays. Its focus is working on blended programs (37 percent of its cotton fabrics include 5 percent organic cotton) and in integrating organic cotton into its edgier White Label collection for fall.
“That consumer is more likely to be attracted to the sustainability story,” said Eraina Duffy, Nike’s sustainable innovation director for global apparel.
Nike, like the rest of apparel’s eco-minded, is responding to cultural cues.
Beauty products made with natural ingredients and not tested on animals have revolutionized the trade. Health food stores are now hip outposts to buy granola by the pound thanks to Whole Foods Market. Cars have turned the corner with the popularity of economical and luxury hybrids made by Toyota and Ford. Even hotels have gone green, such as Hotel Triton in San Francisco, which recycles 60 percent of its waste.
Fashion is the new frontier and many organic companies are aiming high.
Branding herself the “Neiman Marcus of environmentalism,” Loudermilk is focusing on building a lifestyle company in Los Angeles with her two-year-old Luxury Eco by Linda Loudermilk apparel line as the foundation. She plans this year to open a 1,500-square-foot store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, carrying the collection as well as a line of bamboo jersey, a housewares line offering high-thread count organic sheets and beauty products.
“Luxury and eco normally aren’t put together and we’d like to be the first to do it,” Loudermilk said.
The line, which doesn’t stop at organic cotton, also offers eco-friendly products such as sasawashi slacks (made from a Japanese leaf used to roll sushi) and sweaters crafted from recycled plastic bottles and organic wool (gathered from sheep who are fed organically and bred humanely) knit dresses.
The road to getting to these products hasn’t always been smooth. Loudermilk has had to partner with fabric manufacturers in creating the product. Fabrics also have to undergo stress tests to verify their elasticity and longevity. “I jumped off a cliff and built wings on the way down,” Loudermilk said.
It’s a similar path taken by New York-based Loomstate, an organic denim line from the makers of Rogan denim. Two years in the making, Loomstate hopes its supply chain investment in cotton, gin and spinning facilities will pay off over the firm’s life. It is tailoring merchandise for fashion fans with polkadot-printed pockets and clean washes.
“We’re not focusing on the environment side of the company as a marketing hook,” said Scott Hahn, chief executive officer of Loomstate. “We want to just make a sexy fashion jean that people want to buy.”
Retailers such as Barneys New York and Bloomingdale’s have picked up the line that wholesales for $72 to $79 and is on track to gross $5 million this year, Hahn said.
Organics isn’t the entire story. California-based companies, such as Deborah Lindquist, Claudette and Koi, are focusing on redesigned clothing made from castoffs.
Claudette has earned a celebrity following — Brad Pitt and Rebecca Romijn — for its deconstructed T-shirts, skirts and dresses reworked from rag house togs. The nine-year-old line, run by Anamyn Turowski and Paula Scolaro, wholesales from $72 for a camisole to $200 for a cashmere sweater.
Last September, Claudette opened a 600-square-foot store in Studio City, called ynop3, featuring its three-year-old edgier ynnub line and kid’s label Claude, which can be found on the babies of Reese Witherspoon, Cindy Crawford and Angelina Jolie.
“It used to be harder for retailers to buy one-off type items, but they now appreciate its custom appeal,” Scolaro said.
Even existing contemporary lines are taking a dip in eco-friendly waters. Park Vogel, a hot, year-old T-shirt line owned by Julie Park and Vanessa Vogel, began working with an Australian converter last year that Vogel said uses 80 percent fewer chemicals and recycles 85 percent of its waste water from its dye baths. About half of Park Vogel’s production now originates from the mill and sells at Fred Segal in Santa Monica and Nordstrom.
“It was an easy decision since it wasn’t affecting our price and we were able to churn out the same beautiful product,” Vogel said.
The saturated contemporary market prompted Joyce Azria, the designer and founder of Joyaan, to test bamboo. She shipped five styles for spring, including bamboo minidresses with novelty chains and deep V-neck, reversible tops to Harvey Nichols in London and Girlshop.com.
“It’s always nice to have novelty in your product to set yourself apart from the competition,” she said.
For Azria, as with others, there’s a learning curve when working with alternative textiles. She has had to replace some of the pricy product — wholesaling from $113 to $172 — at stores since bamboo clothing can continue growing on hangers.
“The nature of the fabric becomes longer and leaner and it’s something we’re working on with stores,” she said.
What’s still up for debate is the name to assign this category. Granola-infused symbols of organic and eco-fashion can still create a barrier, said Michael Korchinsky, whose San Francisco-based company, Wildlife Works, produces organic apparel benefiting a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya and employs local people to sew. He has been named the producer of the June 4 fashion show in San Francisco in honor of World Environment Day.
“We’re trying to avoid calling it the eco-fashion show because people won’t show up,” Korchinsky said. “We win when that distinction goes away and it’s a fashion show that happens to be comprised of materials good for the planet.”