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Among the fresh produce and fragrant blossoms at the Bellingham Farmers Market, the colorful scraps of material at Texture Clothing attract the attention of visitors strolling by. The knit mits, as they are called, are material scraps sewn together to create versatile, fingerless gloves.

But the knit mits are just a small part of owner Teresa Remple’s business. Visitors to the Texture Clothing booth find a rainbow of colorful skirts, blouses and even underwear — made from a blend of organic cotton and hemp. Texture’s motto, “Clothing with a Conscience,” reflects the growing number of people considering the impact their clothing purchases have on the environment.

Julie (with slide of Julie): “I think it’s important to look at how things are taken from cradle to grave. Certainly with the clothing if look at how the plants are grown that can be a big difference. A lot of time it’s money driven. Sometimes this clothing is more expensive which I think deters people.

An NPD Group survey found the number of people interested in buying organic fashion products increased from 6 percent in 2004 to 18 percent in 2006.

Designer Betsy Cassell’s business, Intertwined Designs, began seven years ago when she started selling her hemp clothing at the Farmer’s Market.

Betsy (with another slide of Betsy): “I started with the hemp because of the environmental issue, and also because it was becoming kind of an in thing and I said hey I can really find a niche here.”
(Sound and photo of sewing machine)

Cassell works out of her home near Sumas, Washington. She starts with a bolt of undyed hemp fabric. She cuts the fabric into 3½-yard pieces using an industrial rotary cutter. The fabric is dyed in Seattle before Cassell uses a Serger and industrial sewing machine to cut and sew the fabric into pants and shirts for men and women.

Betsy: “The clothes just kind of started becoming a hit. People kept buying and asking for more.”
“Hemp is really easy to work with. I liked the idea of it. It doesn’t take any chemicals to grow it. It’s much more sustainable. It’s good for the soil that it grows in. It doesn’t take the pesticides. As a fiber use it’s great for clothes because it’s really breathable, it wears really well.” (slide of clothing)

Market vendor Gretchen Norman, who sells organic produce from her farm Holistic Homestead in Everson, buys some of Cassell’s clothing.

Gretchen: “Productionwise, I think it’s better to harvest hemp than mass-producing the other fibers we use.”

Conventionally grown cotton uses about 25 percent of the insecticides and more than 10 percent of the pesticides used in the world. In 1996, Patagonia converted its entire line of cotton clothing to organic with help from Organic Exchange, a nonprofit that works to increase the production and use of organic fibers.

Since then, sustainability has become more than a niche market. Sales of nonfood organic items jumped to $160 million in 2005 from $85 million in 2003, according to the Organic Trade Association. And stores such as Urban Outfitters and Wal-Mart have jumped on the organic clothing bandwagon.

Molly Purdin lives up the street from the Farmers Market and visits regularly. The Western Washington University industrial design student is a vegan and makes a point of not buying products that involve harmful processes for animals.

Molly: “That kind of trickles down to what pesticides are used to protect this cotton while it’s growing and how is that affecting animals,” she says.

In the booth next to Texture Clothing, Kate Burge and Rachel Price display yarn made from the fibers of Washington sheep and goats. They spin and hand-dye the fibers to sell for their business Spin Cycle Yarns. Price and Burge are critical of shopping habits that encourage the buying of many clothes that seldom get worn.

Price: I feel like people in general have an entire walk-in closet full of clothes which they never wear, which is just dumb. You might as well have a few amazing, wonderful things that you made yourself, or treated yourself to when you were at Farmers Market.
Burge: It’s amazing how many people who aren’t in the luxury item bracket save their money or choose to spend their money in a way that they’re buying the more expensive, local, organic.

Teresa Remple, owner of Texture Clothing, said consumers should take into account where and how a garment is made in addition to what fiber it is made out of.

“You have power and you have control. Wherever you spend your money … it’s voting.”