Originally Posted in Technorati
After seeing the industry grow from 240 million dollars a year in the nineties to almost 6 billion dollars in 2011. Zaroff has a lot to be proud of. But she remains focused, open, and dedicated to the principle that eco-fashion can be great looking, silky soft and good for people and the planet. This is the first article in a series.
Bryan Ogden: I understand you coined the term "Eco-Fashion". I was wondering what you were thinking when you came up with that nomenclature.
Marci Zaroff: When you look back on my background I had from a very early age embraced the world of health and wellness and ecology and environmental consciousness - After getting a business degree where I always knew that I would be focused on what’s known as triple bottom line business - Which is profitability, social responsibility, and environmental sustainability - I ventured off and I founded a school in New York City that did all environmental education with a focus on food and beauty, and that ultimately gave me this opportunity where it became very clear that there was a missing link in that whole wellness equation. When you started to look at agriculture you could see the interconnection between food and beauty and fiber.
When I went out into the fiber and then ultimately the textile market to see what existed in the context of ecology organic sustainability I came up blank. There was nothing out there that would appeal to someone like me. and so my inspiration for coining that term was to fuse my background and expertise in ecology and wellness and then bring it in to the fashion industry so I could show people who were fashion forward that you don't have to give up environmental or social responsibility. And likewise show people who were subscribing to a conscious lifestyle that you could also be fashionable. And so bringing those worlds together in the early years and we're talking mid nineties was somewhat paradoxical because they had always been perceived as, you know, opposite ends of the spectrum.
When I went out into the fiber and then ultimately the textile market to see what existed in the context of ecology organic sustainability I came up blank. There was nothing out there that would appeal to someone like me. and so my inspiration for coining that term was to fuse my background and expertise in ecology and wellness and then bring it in to the fashion industry so I could show people who were fashion forward that you don't have to give up environmental or social responsibility. And likewise show people who were subscribing to a conscious lifestyle that you could also be fashionable. And so bringing those worlds together in the early years and we're talking mid nineties was somewhat paradoxical because they had always been perceived as, you know, opposite ends of the spectrum.
Bryan Ogden: So you were saying that there are some essential business practices - I see the language you are using as transforming, the term eco-fashion didn’t make sense then.
Marci Zaroff: What I really wanted to demonstrate that environmental and social responsibility were not mutually exclusive with style and quality. It was not a function of this or that, that you had to choose one or the other, by marrying those worlds ecology and fashion you could in essence have no compromise. You could look great you could have beautiful clothing with great design that fits well, that’s great quality, that has a wonderful hand or softness. That all of the attributes price value everything you are looking for are still there.
OH AND BY THE WAY! That product is also better for the environment better for human health for farmer welfare for our planet and ultimately for future generations. And so when I used the term triple bottom line and actually now there are two more layers to that which are passion and purpose - The focus you know in those early years was how to bring people and planet and profit together. In the context of a business model. And shift the paradigm of business because of course at the end of the day business is an extremely powerful vehicle to transform and revolutionize the market. To educate and to ultimately effect positive change in the world.
Bryan Ogden: Sounds very optimistic, the fashion industry in my humble experience is turgid and full of all kinds of creative ideas that go in every which way - have you had any negative experiences or any resistance because of your perspective?
Marci Zaroff: In the early years my primary goal was to break every stigma, so in essence organic and natural or sustainable fiber and fashion had a stigma of being crunchy, boxy, beige, boring, made of hemp. I cant tell you how many times I had people ask me "can you smoke it after you wear it?" It was that idea that it had no style and that it had no design to it. So I had to break that stigma. The second stigma was that it was going to be overpriced. So "ok maybe this is a better product because it is green or its sustainable but how much more is it going to cost?" Well we are in it from a business standpoint I had to create a model by getting into the trenches and trailblazing from the farm gate all the way up to the finished fashion.
So we actually say "Our product is farm to finish fashion" and through that mix we're cutting out a lot of that excess markup baggage so we can pass that value on to the end consumer and our fashion is not only priced competitively with our conventional counterpart but there are many times when our prices are even better. We have that added value in that we are also sustainable. So the main stigmas really had to do with price or design the next piece to that puzzle is making this accessible because the next roadblock is "where do I find it?Well I see sometimes green fashion runway shows and I see attention in the media but either that product is inaccessible I can't find it or it looks great on the model but it wouldn’t look good on me or it's way too much money and I could never afford it." So those have been the negative roadblocks that I have always worked very hard to overcome.
Bryan Ogden: So the roadblocks you faced were predominantly in the construction of an industry that supported your principles and in convincing the consumer that what you were offering would be breaking the existing ideas about what's ecological fashion.
Marci Zaroff: Absolutely! So if you think about the history of the fashion world its always represented a very material world its about the way you look. If you look at the ecological wellness world and health industry its the opposite its about the way you feel it's about making choices that impact the quality of your health and your life and the planet. How do you take those worlds that are somewhat of a dichotomy and bring them together where both of those worlds can embrace each other and it starts with and your talking about clothing and your talking about bedding it starts with it has to look good you cannot give up the way something looks you can't sell it on the basis of the fact that its sustainable green and organic people won't buy it. You have to sell it on the fact that it's great product it's everything that our conventional counterparts are in terms of style and quality and fit and all those things I said before and then there’s these added layers that is not so easy it's somewhat of a complex road to travel because it means getting into the supply chain and dissecting it. Understanding it on a whole new level and on a level that the fashion industry never embraced because historically it was only about the way you look not about the way you feel and therefor the impacts to the environment and human health were discounted they were never even looked at. But if you really pull the curtain back on the fashion industry it is one of the most polluting industries in the world. In fact most people have no idea that conventional cotton is one of the leading causes of air and water pollution.
Bryan Ogden: Wow..and I didn't know that. Wow, I mentioned facing difficulties you are taking such a hard stand to the traditional industry. Have you heard from your competitors in any way? Have you found that they give you any response?
Marci Zaroff: Well it's interesting when I coined the term "Eco-Fashion" in 1995 it was really uncharted territory it was somewhat of a blank canvas, it took a number of years to do that development work get into the trenches and ultimately build a model that gives access to fibers and materials that could lend themselves to fashion There is a process, Rome wasn't built in a day.
Bryan Ogden: Of course - you had to remake the industry. (laughing)
Marci Zaroff: Rebuilding from scratch! So through those years there was always two steps forward one step back there was a learning curve there were a lot of developments that did or didn’t work along the way and partnerships that were formed and clearly I had to convince people to buy into my vision and that was part of my own entrepreneurial tenacity. That I would convince farmers to convert to organic or factories to embrace this concept. I was on the team of people that actually wrote the organic fiber standards the first certification for organic fiber in the United States. And then we created the global organic textile standard. It took six years which has already gone through three iterations and is still a work in progress. Our industry is still in it's infancy. So in answer to your question there are a multiple of efforts now that the industry has come so far along you've got major sourcing agents Li & Fung. And major department stores like H&M, Barney's and Nordstrom, and designers like Stella McCartney, and major brands across a wide array or categories within the textile fashion and home industries from Nike and Patagonia, to fashion designers to retailers doing their own private collections. Because I helped to pioneer this marketplace my authenticity became a very strong value add for a lot of these brands and retailers. Philosophically I believe very strongly in collaboration we're all in this together so I founded a brand in 1996 called "Under the Canopy" which in essence is the premise that we all live under the canopy of the planet's eco-system together, "Under the Canopy" was a lifestyle brand that partnered with a wide array of retailers across many different channels of distribution. In the spa industry we launched the first organic accessories, for Aveda for Origens and for Jurlique, in the home industry we launched the first organic home collections for Bed Bath and Beyond and for Fortuneoff and the first organic sheet program for Target, and first organic kitchen program for Target, we launched their first organic program in general. We worked with major retailers on apparel for women and men and then for kids. Such as Macy's and a lot of different catalogs. We have have worked across these channels to get the word out. It's been a very exciting process. Now where there used to be just a handful of companies - In 2001 there was 240 million dollars worth of global organic retail sales - and projections for this year 2011 are almost 6 billion in sales. So we've seen tremendous growth through the years in this space.
Bryan Ogden: You were saying retailers, I understand you are opening some boutiques, some shops?
Marci Zaroff: This year I launched a new sustainable lifestyle brand called "FASE" which is an acronym for Fashion Art Soul Earth. It's F A S E. Face the future, face the truth, face the facts and face each other. There's a lot going on behind the scenes because the brand will be very experiential very engaging we will be integrating artists for inspiration into the brand. The concept of soul is that we are bringing in the element of fair trade we've been working with fair trade USA for many years in developing the first fair trade certification for textiles. So when you go to Starbucks or Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream and you see Fair Trade - We are going to be launching the first fair -trade certified textiles in the US this year and next. So it's the concept of community and humanity and then of course earth being that FASE is built on this DNA with all sustainability principles from fiber to manufacturing. And so this brand will be launching officially in 2012. The retail stores which are going to be lifestyle stores and very experiential are going to be opening in late 2012 or sometime in 2013 it's still a work in progress behind the scenes and recently I solidified a strategic deal with a company called Portico and we are finalizing this roll up now it's going to be Portico, Under the Canopy, and FASE, all living together in one brand group crossing over multi - channels of distribution. So you've got your high end your mid tier and your mass market brands. All sharing that DNA all sharing core values and operation and marketing opportunities. It's an exciting venture that’s going on behind the scenes and next year will be a thrilling, thrilling year.
Bryan Ogden: Wow, so your boutiques are a sort of flagship for the brand that extends out into these other retail channels?
Marci Zaroff: The FACE retail stores, the reason they are a big part of the brand in terms of opening these flagships is that we want people to be able to feel the brand, touch the brand, understand the brand, because it embodies a life style, a conscious lifestyle, so all the building materials will be green, and the music will have a global sensibility to it, and when you walk in you'll feel a part of something you'll feel connected. We're gonna have art salons we're gonna have eco-salons, we are going to have things going on so that it becomes that third space. An opportunity for people to go beyond the product but also to feel a part of this transformation and this movement ... really. Because that's what it is, eco-fashion has become a movement. And FASE is getting behind the next frontier of eco-fashion which I am calling an eco-renaissance which s the rebirth of popular culture when you are looking at the next generation and the millennials when you look at the kind of purchase decisions they are making it's no longer limited to price performance and quality - they are taking into consideration the social and environmental parameters and efforts of brands of products of companies and that's getting integrated into the kinds of services and products that they are buying. And it's only going to get stronger so this whole movement toward this eco-renaissance and this rebirth after what was the modern dark ages, and rebirth through creativity and collaboration and expression and inspiration and education and all these things coming together. This next generation is poised for some major change in terms of shifting popular culture and the kinds of companies and brands that are going to get to play in tomorrow’s market.
Bryan Ogden: You had mentioned that folks are actually considering if this is going to be an appropriate decision for me. Is this an ethical buy. How is this going to impact the environment when I buy and use this product? Does that bring any design limitations to fashion? Are traditional couture and high fashion designs made irrelevant?
Marci Zaroff: In the earlier years I would have said yes because the market wasn't there. But through incredible innovation that’s going on globally there are new fibers and new materials and new resources constantly for instance a fiber called Tencel which I am rebranding as "ECOlyptus" is made from eucalyptus and what it is is the cellulose that has been extracted from eucalyptus and then broken down with a non-toxic recycled detergent. And its made in a closed loop system which means minimal impact it's an extremely ecofriendly fiber and it lends itself to fashion it's very soft and silky we've also worked with all different types of organic cotton fabrics - in the earlier years we were much more limited now were doing royals we're doing corduroys denims tissue weight jerseys incredible beautiful fabrics. there's a whole movement with recycled polys which s recycled plastic bottles being taken out of landfills broken down into textiles and then made into fabrics and designs. There's a lot of vintage in recycling going on. If you look at some of the couture designers out there like Linda Loudermilk, or Stella McCartney you can see how they have integrated some really beautiful sustainable fabrics and fibers. There are a lot of fashion shows that are springing up not only in fashion weeks in New York and in LA but at college universities all over the country. I do a lot of pubic speaking an I am amazed I was recently at a Boston College where there were a thousand students at a major sustainable fashion show. It was very exciting.
Bryan Ogden: You are talking about being excited about all this change and about this cultural transformation - so I'm hearing that this energizes your passion, I say this as kindly as I can, you are the mother of this movement in some ways - so I wonder what kinds of feeling do you have about your baby getting some feet. And starting to walk on it's own and get out from under your wing even?
Marci Zaroff: I feel honored I've always joked that I feel like a little kid in a candy jar. That I could be doing something that I love that has a lot of creative expression. Integrated but also something that’s trans-formative and something that is reinventing an industry and revolutionizing it is incredibly inspiring and with all the collaboration that going on right now and all the efforts and I've got my finger in a million different things so everything from launching fair-trade textiles to executive producing a documentary expose on the fashion industry called "Thread". To working as a consultant for some new start-up brands to launching my own brand group partnering with those three brands I mentioned. I'm at a point now that I can touch almost like a ripple effect of throwing a rock on the water - multiple efforts at the same time vs. being just single -handedly focused. So whether I'm going down to Haiti to explore new factories down there or I'm looking at new innovations in fiber I feel like there's never been a better time and we're at a tipping point for this industry where those efforts are starting to come together to create an exponential very positive and lasting change. I've always believed if you're not a part of the solution you're part of the problem. So if I hear that it's Wal-Mart that’s embracing organic cotton or it's Li & Fung or whoever it is I am a supporter If I can help them - and that’s why I have partnered with so many retailers along the way because every step makes a difference the Lou Tsu quote "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step" A step forward is a step in the right direction. Any way I can help I am open. I do mentoring and I serve on a number of boards so for me I couldn't be happier and I feel very very grateful.
Bryan Ogden: I'm really happy you've had this time describing all of this amazing event that’s going on, this transformation, really of our culture and our planet what we wear and how we use fabric is so everyday for all of us. Can you show us or send us anything picture wise about your upcoming shop? Do you have any design ideas that you have scribbled on napkins, Do have some art that is being produced toward these shops so we could get an early look at them? I bet everyone's pretty excited to see what you have up your sleeve.
Marci Zaroff: I can't exactly show store designs - they are a little preliminary at FASE a first look at a new brand from Marci this point. But I can send designs of product, People can visit FASE on Facebook and join FASE and get a look on some of the fashion shows we've done recently. As soon as the FASE stores are further along all those people will certainly be notified, people can sign up on MARCIZAROFF.COM and soon we will be posting more and more photos. It's all about progress and innovation and moving forward. And I do believe very wholeheartedly that this is no longer about staying ahead it's about not being left behind. So the fashion brands and retailers of tomorrow need to be looking at this and how they can integrate and make these changes in their supply chains their business models and their marketing platform. It is very relevant and when you hear the statistics, and I know you weren’t aware of cotton's impact, conventional cotton represents less than 3% of the world's agriculture but 10% of the most toxic pesticides and over 25% of the most harmful insecticides to produce it. And you look at textile waste that occupies over 5% of landfill space the average US citizen is throwing away 68 pounds of clothing a year so there's over 1 million tons of textiles thrown out every year so we are looking not just at the fibers and materials but how do we look at energy and waste and water, chemical use 1 trillion kilowatt hours are used every year by the global textile industry which is 10% of total carbon impact in the world is used in the textile world, 20% of total water pollution is from textile water treatment and dyeing. So you can look at behind the scenes - the impacts. And everything we do to start looking at those impacts is going to be better for all of us in the global community.
Bryan Ogden: I'm a bit overwhelmed there’s a lot of information here to process. Can you give us a single place where someone that's inspired by this interview could go to engage to participate to put their hand to the plow? Is there someplace you would encourage people to sign up to get on board?
Marci Zaroff: I am working on creating that portal through MARCIZAROFF.COM and it is a work in development. There are a few B2B sources like the Textile Exchange, Source for Style, but there really isn’t one source for the consumer yet, but I am working diligently to make that happen.
Bryan Ogden: Well I understand that you have the industry up and running and the designs to do and your shops to open and the speaking engagements (laughing) I hope that other people can partner with you to get some things done.
Marci Zaroff: Never a dull moment.
Bryan Ogden: There's only one Marci - maybe soon we can clone you.
Marci Zaroff: Work is love made visible! it's Khalil Gibraun. From the book "The Prophet" If you love your work it's not work it's love
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