Kowtow
Kowtow is a fair trade organic clothing label based in Wellington New Zealand, producing a sensitive, intelligent collection of easy wear women’s dresses and separates.
Jonano
Scandinavian, American eco fashion label, Jonano, designed by Bonnie Siefers was founded in 2006. The company’s mission is to create cohesive collections that appeal to those devoted to style and fashion, as well as the environmentally conscious. An advocate of slow fashion, Siefers believes that style and quality are essential to sustainable design, never compromising on design or qualify of fabrics, and coining the term EcoCouture to describe the collection. The brands philosophy is shaped by the designer’s passion for the environment, as well as her commitment to sustainability and social responsibility, her interest in world affairs and sociology.
With a broad base of appeal across lifestyles and age, Jonano has developed into a strong international eco fashion brand. With the recent addition of two secondary categories, Jonano now produce a trans-seasonal collection called Core, and a lingerie and loungewear line, called Essence. Fabrics are carefully selected for their luxury, quality and sustainability, and include bamboo, linen, cotton, hemp, waste corn and peace silk.
The collection features wrap dresses in beautiful water-color prints, intriguingly wrapped and twisted dresses and tops, and simple, clean, easy wear jersey, loungewear pieces. The website and blog features a ‘best of’, including the eco friendly hotels, other eco fashion designers work, including some made from food, new technology, and ecological finds, as well as featuring video clips from her own catwalk shows.
Based in Chicago, the company was planned from the bottom up, to be both environmentally friendly as well as socially responsible. Working with the Planet Access Company (PAC), they offer paid work opportunities to people with developmental disabilities. The have a paperless inventory system and order fulfillment operation with energy efficient machinery, lighting and recycled packaging. “We are attempting to lead by example by choosing a fulfillment center that is among the ‘greenest’ and most ethically responsible in the country”, explains Bonnie Siefers.
Jonano’s production and design team travel extensively throughout the US, central and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia, searching out the best farms, mills and factories to create their collections. Insisting on ISO standards with all their manufacturers, they make regular factory visits to ensure compliance. They produce an ecoKashmere knitwear collection of bamboo knits in the US, Turkey and Asia, in strict accordance to fair labor practices. Their fabrics are dyed using low impact dyes, and all their mailings, hangtags and promotional materials are printed on recycled paper. Jonano is also actively involved with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, producing a limited edition silk, linen scarf, with 10% of all sales going towards the cause.
Jonano has received broad based press coverage in a range of magazines, including Surface Magazine, WWD and the Wall Street Journal, and also received the Natural Collection Award for their use of trademarked textiles.
Jonano operated from 2005 until 2012
