Organic Style

A couple of summers back I was on a freelance kick and was researching green apparel. Only to find that apart from Linda Loudermilk, Edun jeans and a handful of other hard-to-find niche labels, there really were not too many stylish choices readily available to eco-conscious buyers – and even fewer without similarly niche prices.

Two years later, some mass retailers have picked up on the idea of sustainable fashion, but all in all the movement has remained at the gimmicky-one-off collection level. Take oft-cited Target who brought on Rogan Gregory for its early summer GO International Collection. Although company press releases laud Gregory’s “expertise at fusing organic material with skillful design,” and their goal of making “eco-friendly fashion available to women everywhere,” a permanent eco-option has yet to appear in their stores.

Fortunately news in WWD today could prove that the tide is finally starting to turn and clothing retailers are beginning to look at what large grocery stores have been switched onto for a few years: the feasibility of providing a broad range of organic choices at lower prices than specialty stores.

One of the biggest new mass offerings set to make it easier for eco-buyers? Bernardo Green, a Montreal label now based in New York that made a name for itself in recent years creating machine-washable and dry-able suede jackets of the sort you’d see in the frumpy sections of Nordstrom. Today’s word from WWD is that the company will be turning its attention to eco-sensitive practices, launching of a range of greener jackets that would look at home on the fashion editorial pages of a magazine.

Using hides from organically certified tanneries in Slovenia, the pieces price-pointed at a wallet-sensitive $71 to $79 will apparently go on sale at 18 exclusive Nordstrom locations stateside and 30 Marks and Spencer stores in the UK. So, if the Bernardo Green offering below is a little Leona Lewis Bleeding Love video for your liking you can check out other designs as of August. Next step, fair trade fashion? We can only hope.


Forget hemp, silver suede the latest word in green fashion.