The hot trend in the market is organic clothing. With chemicals taking a toll on human health and environment, there is a growing concern for global warming which boosts the demand for organic products.
Organic Clothing:
Organic clothing reduces one's exposure to allergens, and other irritants. They also improve soil fertility, cotton yield, and saves water. Organic clothing is made from hundred percent organic materials like soy, organic cotton and hemp. Variety of clothes like skirts, blouses, shirts, pants, socks, bathrobes, pillow cases etc are made from organic fibres.
The industry is further enhanced by fashion designers who design their collections with organic fabrics. The clothing is put under global spotlight through fashion shows, and runway models who pose with trendy outfits made from organic fabrics. Designers are working towards making these clothes more appealing, fashionable and economical to suit the preferences as well as the shopping budget of the consumers.
Herbal dyeing:
Herbal dyeing is still one step ahead of organic life style. It supports the core concept of organic cotton to eliminate the impact of harmful chemicals and pesticides. Apart from growing cotton, dyeing is a major area of concern for people who have chemical sensitivities. Garment finishing techniques like wrinkle free, and non-shrink may be harmful for people with sensitive skin. They may cause nausea, breathing difficulties, seizures etc. Herbal dyeing avoids this entire hazard. It avoids the many ailments that are common with conventional clothing.
&sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(1875)%>" target="_blank">Fibre2Fashion had an exclusive interview with Aura herbal and organic textiles discussing about herbal clothing. It discussed about the versatile facets related to customer preferences, industry evolution, current and future trends of the clothing.
How does the herbal clothing differ from other fabrics?
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How has the industry evolved since you started out?
Fueled by the eco fashion trend of the early 1990s, organic cotton farm acreage in the US grew from 100 acres in 1989 to 25,000 acres in 1995, as apparel companies from Esprit to Levi's introduced "eco" clothing lines.
But there were inherent problems: Organic cotton items were more expensive, and customers weren't willing to pay a premium for them; companies had trouble telling the organic cotton "story" without making their conventional cotton items looks bad; and supply of organic cotton was volatile, since the industry was so new.
Consequently, the bottom fell out of the market, many companies went out of business or stopped offering organic cotton lines, and organic cotton farming dropped to 10,000 acres in 1996. Now the big apparel manufacturers have hit on a new approach: blending. Levi's, Nike, and The Gap have all begun buying organic cotton again, but instead of trying to sell pure organic lines, they are asking their mills to blend organic cotton into the conventional cotton process.
Although for these companies organic cotton only represents 1 to 3 percent of their overall cotton usage that adds up to more than all of the pure organic cotton used by smaller companies combined. In 1997, Levi's, the largest apparel user of cotton in the world, purchased over one million pounds of organic cotton, while The Gap and Nike purchased half a million pounds each. The effect has been the beginning of restabilization of the organic cotton market. During the past years the children's market has been growing very fast.
Consumer demand, business opportunities, increased access and knowledge about organic cotton and product development by the retailers are the factors, which have resulted in huge demand for organic cotton.
Consumers all over the world are increasingly becoming environmental and health conscious. Developing concerns for protecting ecology and preventing global warming is boosting the demand for organic products across all categories and Textile is no exception to this global trend. Purchasing an organic textile was considered more of an emotional and philosophical decision, unlike purchase of organic food, which has obvious health benefits. As more and more statistical data emerged, every one realized the importance of organic cotton too. However no doubt that due to consumers increasing demands & Pressures, the large retailers & buyers is very strongly pushing Organic textiles
The greening of the apparel industry is a significant and evolving trend that is likely to affect every facet of this enormous global industry. Under both internal and external pressure to reduce the environmental impact of growing, processing, treating and dyeing fibers and to eliminate exploitation and inequities in labor practices, textile and apparel companies are eager to show consumers a new, sustainable approach to fashion without sacrificing style or profit.
In this environment, manufacturers and marketers of all kinds-tiny boutiques to huge mass-market chains, low-end to high-end pricing, brand identities including yoga clothing, infant clothes, glamorous designer fashions, menswear, and outerwear - are seeking to identify themselves as sustainability minded and authentic.
Wal-Mart is the largest purchaser of certified organic cotton, but many emerging designers are also aiming in the same direction. There is pressure on the supply chain, and pressure to quickly develop new technologies and systems that will demonstrate an environmentally and socially conscious commitment. During past years manufactures have expressed their willingness to introduce different kinds if sustainable natural fibers like wool, linen, bamboo cotton, Soya cotton so now the industry is expanding within and offering much option to end consumer beside organic cotton.
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One another trend which can be noticed in the industry is use of low-impact dyes and inclination towards natural dyeing. Also companies are aiming towards give the sustainable packaging solution which a very new development in the industry and now organic cotton market is offering almost every kinds of clothing which was initially limited to sensitive clothing like baby apparels or hygiene clothing.
What are your perceptions regarding the challenges for herbal clothing in the current market?
What is likely to be the share of herbal textiles and apparels by 2010?
A recent packaged facts report on the international market for sustainable apparel estimates that the global market for sustainable apparel is growing at 83% and reached US$ 2.1 BILLION in 2007, or 0.47% of the entire global apparel market worth US$ 450 billion. Brand and retail demand of organic cotton products projected to increase by average annual rate of 110% as company continue to implement long term commitment to market.
Organic cotton sales have increased 83% from 2006 to 2007, and are expected to 6.8 billion $ by 2010. Currently these organic cotton products use synthetic chemicals for the dyeing which can be converted in natural herbal dyeing process whereby the products meet the standard of eco friendly products.
Therefore the market potential is huge. European countries and government have promoted organic textiles and are working to enforced law in 11% of all textiles sales should be from organic textiles. Herbal dyed is most eco friendly form of processing compared to other processing technique. Therefore, the market potential is huge and our sales are growing 100% every year.
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How does herbal clothing qualify to be ecological and environmental friendly?
The process used to finish Auras textiles is completely chemical free, which we believe an important benefit to our product which has a significant positive impact on environment as well.
Manufacturers today are taking into account, the fact that organic garments are ethical, and are striving to set new market trends. Apparel business is very enormous, and there is always a resistance to change. But, in any market, demand is the pivot, and manufacturers will only do what the consumers want. With consumers dictating the market today; having an organic wardrobe depends wholly on the consumers choice.
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