Green Cotton

Welcome!

Green Cotton is returning after a summer-long hiatus. We have missed reporting on the eco-apparel industry and sharing our ideas and insights with you. We hope you will welcome us back to the blogging world and check back regularly for all-new content. As always, we will be reporting on the latest initiatives when it comes to all things green, taking a particular interest in eco-friendly, organic and sustainable fabrics and products. Over the next few weeks, we will also take a look back at some of our past posts (we’ve covered everything from cotton, tencel, bamboo, hemp, soy and jute to Fashion Week runway reports) as we look ahead to the exciting future of eco-fashion.

As you well may know, the world of eco-fashion has come a long way since Green Cotton started up three years ago. Now, eco-items are becoming much more commonplace. The phrase “green fashion” is no longer used as an oxymoron. Big box stores carry “organic” clothing lines (or so they say; we’ve expressed our doubts over this occurrence before, on account of the actual cost of authentic, certified organic fabrics– see our examination of Loomstate for Target). More and more independent designers are opting to use organic or recycled fabrics (Kelly Lane, whose on-trend pieces sell at Jute & Jackfruit, is one favorite example). Mainstream fashion magazines are featuring more “eco” items (see People Style Watch’s monthly “Easy Eco” column). And you no longer have to search far and wide for the perfect pair of eco-friendly and/or organic, recycled, vegan and, yes, trendy pair of shoes– one glimpse of eco-chic brands Mohop and NeuAura, and you will never again think that “green” footwear equals “crunchy,” “hippie” or “Woodstock” (unless, you know, that’s what you’re going for).

Here at Green Cotton, we’re thrilled to note all of the major advances in this growing industry and any positive changes taking place in mainstream fashion. As we transition from summer to fall, expect to see some major fashion coverage (especially with Fashion Week coming up!). As we’ve done in the past, we will be reporting on emerging trends with an “eco eye,” presenting you with earth-conscious alternatives to what you see on the runway and on clothing racks. We love to showcase green products and companies that are doing wonderful work, giving back to the planet and its people.

That said, Green Cotton plans to attend this weekend’s GreenFest in Boston. We hope to see you there!

Check back soon for new articles. We’ll be “greening” over some big fall trends and also highlighting a different fabric each week, discussing what makes it eco (or not). You can also keep up with the goings on at Jute & Jackfruit at the JJF Blog and follow us on Twitter!

Thanks for stopping by!

Image from http://www.organic-cotton.us/organic-cotton1.jpg

Green Cotton has some exciting news to announce: this week, we are joining up with 9 other fantastic eco-blogs to form a collective group entitled EcoChic Weekly.

EcoChic Weekly aims to bring you the best, most relevant and interesting information and material in eco-fashion and lifestyle all at once– so you don’t have to dig around on the web for it. Once per week, I will post a summary of each of our members’ top weekly posts. If you are interested in taking a sneak peak at who we are, please see the left sidebar under the EcoChic Weekly badge (like the one above). I will also go through this in detail next week.

As such, I would take this opportunity to (re) introduce Green Cotton to new and existing readers and provide an overview of what we are all about.

Green Cotton is a blog about eco-fashion and sustainability. We focus on:

* Organic fibers (especially organic cotton, but also wool, cashmere and hemp)
* Sustainable fibers such as bamboo, soy, silk, and jute
* Eco-fashion trends, styles and issues
* Companies, pioneering individuals
* Fair trade production and sourcing
* Farming issues, new technologies and more

Three hot areas of focus for us in the last several months have been:

1)    Bamboo: taking a look at the pros and cons of bamboo fabric. See our series of posts: Bamboo resources, Bamboo processing I, and Bamboo Processing II for more on this topic.

2)    Organic vs. Conventional Cotton: For example, how much is the market growing? What is the difference between conventional and organic cotton?

3)    Hot style trends from the lens of  eco-fashion. We tracked the NY Fashion Week and London Fashion week, so if your interested in the latest style trends from the masters with insights on greening these trends, we encourage you to check out those posts.

We encourage you to check these posts out to get a sense of our content. Also recently we did a series on green celebrities (and how green they really are), organic denim, organic vs. synthetic dying and more on synthetic dyes, lingerie, and a variety of other textiles such as jute and hemp.

We look forward to connecting with you and hearing from you at greencottonblog@gmail.com. Sign up for our RSS feed, too! Stay tuned next week for our first official EcoChic Weekly post.

Over the weekend, Green Cotton underwent some significant upgrades that I am very excited about and would like to share with you:

1)    Green Cotton’s new domain. We switched to a new host so now we have the exclusive domain of www.greencottonblog.com.

2)    If you were using an RSS feed for Green Cotton, please resubscribe to this new site. The original WordPress hosted blog (http://greencotton.wordpress.com) will no longer be updated.

3)    We added the ‘Add to Any’ feature to individual posts. In line with the latest media sharing tools, Green Cotton now has the capability for readers to share any of the posts with whomever they like using social networking and media bookmarking tools (such as del.icio.us, Facebook, Digg, MySpace and others). Pick the one of your choice. Please check out this feature (at the bottom of every post) and let us know what you think.

4)    Green Cotton joins Facebook. There is now a Green Cotton group on Facebook devoted to building an online community interested in eco-fashion and sustainability. While this group is an extension of the blog – (e.g., sharing snip-its of various posts we do) it will also include much more. There is a discussion board, the wall, and we want this group to be interactive. We want to hear from you. Join up and let us know what you think– what issues should be covered etc. The discussion topic of the day is on Factory Green and web 2.0 hitting the apparel industry – tell us what you think.

5)    The other place to check us out on Facebook is the Green Cotton page. This page is a great place to get up to date info on the blog and find out about new articles and companies we are reading about.  Come join us!

One of Green Cotton’s goals is to foster an online community passionate about the environment, fashion, style and sustainability. We’d love to hear from you– through our comments board, email, on facebook or elsewhere). Tell us what is on your mind and what’s new or hot in your neck of the woods.