L.A. Retailer Tests Eco-Fashion Market
Green seems to be all the rage in the fashon world, with major clothing brands including Levi’s, producing eco-friendly clothes and a wave of emerging fashion labels designing stylish apparel with eco-fabrics. But the tough question remains: Is there a market for these styles?
Mychelle Mordente and Joanne Firestone will soon find out. On Sept. 25, they opened Menemsha, a 750-square-foot boutique devoted to eco-fashions. It’s located at 12524 Ventura Blvd. in Los Angeles’ Studio City neighborhood. It is one of a small but growing number of boutiques that sell T-shirts, denim and contemporary fashions with an organic stamp of approval, according to the Santa Monica, Calif.–based Green Media Group.
The publishing company produces “Greenopia: The Urban Dweller’s Guide to Green Living,” a guide for the city of Los Angeles. This year, Greenopia found more than 44 eco-retailers that devoted at least 25 percent of their merchandise to eco-friendly fashions, footwear and accessories. The 2006 guide featured 35 eco-retailers in Los Angeles. The company also publishes a San Francisco guide.
Still, going into eco-business was not a sure thing for Mordente. She described herself as an avid environmentalist, but she did not know whether there was a burgeoning market for eco-fashion. “I took a leap of faith,” said the 31-year-old retailer. She also has co-owned and operated vintage store Raggmopp in Los Angeles’ Sunset Junction neighborhood since 1997.
However, the leap of faith is stylish. Mordente and Firestone gave the store a whimsical, yet organic, look. Branches of Manzanita trees hang from the ceiling. A 70-year-old garden shovel was used as a fixture. Reclaimed materials such as sandpaper were used in the window displays created by visual-display artists Andrea Minton and Rick Reichenberger.
Sixty-five percent of the store’s fashions are for women and 35 percent are for men. Mordente and Firestone hope to offer environmental fashions for every situation. A Linda Loudermilk gown retails for more than $600. Denim by Loomstate sells for $124. T-shirts by Mission Playground retail for $32. Mordente declined to forecast how much money the store will earn.
While the niche of eco-retail might be just starting, one example of an established eco-retailer happens to be the fleet of stores opened by environmental apparel company Patagonia, based in Ventura, Calif. There are 24 Patagonia stores in the United States, 14 in Japan, four in Europe and two in South America. In Los Angeles, boutiques offering 100 percent eco-fashion include Shades of Green, which opened Sept. 25 in Los Angeles’ Silverlake neighborhood. On May 1, the Avita Co-op debuted on Los Angeles’ fashionable West Third Street.
Demand for eco-fashions is growing slowly, according to Delilah Snell, who in April 2006 opened environmental boutique The Road Less Traveled in Santa Ana, Calif. She has devoted a third of her boutique space to eco-fashions, yet her boutique’s recent best-selling items have been homewares such as stainless-steel canteens. She said that it will take some time before eco-fashion becomes popular. “People are new to this. But there is a business here,” she said.—Andrew Asch
