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Going Green: Clothes Made from Organic Fabrics Are Catching On

If you want to know one of this year's hottest fashion trends, don't look to pink. Or black. Or anything metallic. This year, fashion is going green. Green as in T-shirts and jeans made of organic cottons that haven't been doused with harmful chemicals. Green as in dresses that weren't made by Third World garment sewers in sweat-shop conditions. Green as in fabrics that were made by villagers in India, Africa and South America who are being paid fairly for their artisan work.

Mainstream America, more than ever, is looking at the uglier side of fashion and opting to buy popular fashion from retailers and designers as concerned about fair trade and organic farming as they are about style.

"The natural fibers market is following in the footsteps of organic groceries," said Shari Keller, a clothing designer in Asheville, N.C., who uses natural cotton fabrics made in India in her collection of clothes sold at her store, Mehera Shaw, Carrboro, N.C. "SIt's really coming into the mainstream. People who are fashionably dressed are now more willing to walk the extra mile for these products."

It's still just a fraction of the $173 billion U.S. apparel industry. But it is growing, especially where products are more widely available, such as California and the Northeast. Sales of organic fiber products in 2004 hit $85 million, up 23 percent from 2003, according to the Organic Trade Association.

Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association, said the key to building the business has been educating consumers on the conditions most clothes sold in America are made under.

"Nine times out of 10, people don't realize what they're wearing was made in a sweat shop," Cummins said. "But that's changing. It's still got a ways to go. It's still where organic food was in sales volume 10 years ago."

Leading the charge is an unlikely designer -- U2 frontman Bono. He and his wife, Ali Hewson, teamed up with designer Rogan Gregory to create a brand called Edun (nude spelled backward) that pledges higher standards for labor practices by hiring family-run businesses in Africa and South America to sew garments. Their Edun brand jeans, just one part of the collection, are sold at most Saks Fifth Avenue stores.

But long before Bono got involved, people were embracing socially and environmentally conscious clothing. They were mostly those considered hippies and tree huggers, who, while being pioneers, also helped create a stereotype about organic and natural fiber clothes as frumpy and unstylish an image that today's designers are desperately trying to shed.