Jenny Hwa’s loyale clothing: Made In The U.S.A.

In 2005, Jenny Hwa and loyale clothing received the OSSA Award from the Sustainable Style Foundation and the Youth Award from the Collage Foundation. loyale contributes 3% of annual profits to Green Corps, a non-profit which has to date trained over 400 young people as our next generation of environmental leaders. Jenny has garnered quite a lot of great press over the years, most recently in Plenty magazine. Victoria E once quoted Jenny as a fan of Francoise Hardy. loyale clothing is carried by 45 retailers around the country. On the eve of another fashion week in New York, Jenny and I talk green shop for a little bit.

We keep looking for ways to make the anti-nuclear movement as cool as green is now. Maybe a line of anti-nuke yoga clothes? (says I half jokingly…) You pioneered organic cotton in yoga wear… Probably planted seeds for the Green Yoga Association. How is it that sustainable fashion has become a political statement, in the way we spend our dollar? Are we witnessing a re-organization of human culture around green ideals, one that may possibly alter the global world economy? Is the result of our green buying decisions being felt by cotton producing nations? Is the eco-fashion movement making a difference?
 
The eco-fashion movement is making a significant difference because it is creating a dialogue.  This dialogue begins to get people thinking and then acting.  People want to make a positive impact in their lifetime, but feel overwhelmed or don’t know where to begin.  With green clothing, for example, people know they need to buy clothing and get dressed in the morning, suddenly they hear about all this buzz about organic cotton t-shirts and say hmmmm…why do I care or need this?  Then perhaps do a bit of internet research and see that conventional cotton farming is using 25% of the world’s insecticides and that 14 million people a year in the USA alone are drinking pesticide contaminated water – that is the epiphany moment, when they realize why it is important to support organic cotton farming and then they tell their friends about it.  This is how green fashion is going to make a difference – each person taking a small step that creates a chain reaction.  This is my motivation behind loyale…It is not just about clothing, but the message and setting off a positive chain reaction.

Last year I attended a fund raiser you hosted for the Green Corps, a wonderful organization which places young volunteers into the heart of some pretty radical environmental direct action groups. I keep telling the advisors at Planet Green that it would make for a terrific reality show. There’s again talk of a Civil Service Corps, which once was a Clinton campaign promise but dwindled into AmeriCorps, for a handful of college grads. How do we put millions of young people to work restoring this planet?
 
From my experience, it is actually the younger generations that are taking the green movement to the next level.  They are accepting the reality that the planet is changing due to previous generation’s negligence.  For example, many universities, large and small, from Oberlin to Yale are making huge strides in greening campuses from reducing energy use to instituting organic gardening.  The whole hype about living a green lifestyle is just that, it is living your life while considering your personal footprint and how you can reduce it…it is a daily habit like brushing your teeth. I see the youth taking this lifestyle very seriously and that is why we support Green Corps because the younger generations are making a huge impact and they need all the support they can get.
 
ELLE has been a big supporter of your line, and for good reason. We’d all love for Hachette Filipacchi Media to make the leap of faith, and launch a green fashion magazine. I keep looking for the trip switch that will make that happen… Can they chance it, given the political implications, when HFM is owned by Lagardere, the largest defense contractor in Europe, with EDF as business partner? I feel a massive reshuffling of the deck coming on, as allegiances are changing, as the green world grows. I’ve always said fashion will save the world. What will it take for Hachette to take the green plunge?
 
Unfortunately, large companies do not want to be early adopters and then suffer the consequences…look what happened to Rodale’s Organic Style.  If that magazine had launched 4 years later than it did, it would most likely have been a runaway success.  As the movement gains strength and green designers continue to raise the bar and exceed expectations in terms of taste and style then the launch of an eco-magazine backed by a large publisher is inevitable.  In the meantime, there is a fab new eco-magazine called Boho and they walk the talk with all recycled paper and eco-inks, as well as gorgeous content. 
 
Manhattan is changing… I took a stroll around the Lower East Side the other day, the local neighborhood association held a green fashion show. It seems as if every other boutique is a green boutique. It’s a good feeling, hope it doesn’t end. But fashion is infamous for being fickle, so how do we keep things fresh, how do we bring green to the suburbs, to the mall, to the rebirth of old downtowns?
 
Like any movement, especially grassroots ones, it takes time to spread the message and many people may be wary up front, especially with all the green washing going on these days.  In general, I believe that people want to make a difference; this innate desire will fuel the green movement, but it is not going to happen overnight and the movement itself has to remain authentic.

An interesting development this year, is the importance of being green in all aspects of one’s profession. In fashion this means how we produce fashion photography, the make-up lines used on these shoots, and on the runway. The devil is in the details. It’s all coming together. Are there groups in New York starting to act as green fashion associations? Is this a role Designers&Agents is taking on? 
 
If you are truly sustainable, you must consider all details and aspects of running a fashion company.  You can’t compartmentalize and just decide to use a bit of eco-fabric in your collection and then call yourself a sustainable company.  It’s about fabric waste, plastic hangers, polybags, hang tags, look books, and so much more.  To my knowledge there are no green fashion assc., however yes, D&A is taking a very positive and proactive step with their concept of greening tradeshows and educating buyers.
 
How can young designers at school or just starting out find sustainable textiles so they can develop sample lines? That seems to be a major concern, the availability of sustainable fabric in walk-in stores. I don’t know of any in the garment district yet. There’s Q Collection for interior designers, but no place to go for fashion designers. Am I out of the loop?
 
Currently there is no one stop walk in shop for eco-textiles, however there is an incredible website called www.nearseasnaturals.com where you can buy a variety of fabrics by the yard.