Q&A: Linda Loudermilk, With designs on a healthy planet

Judith: How did you get started on this journey?

Linda: I’ve always found myself drawn to nature for healing. I’d been a sculptor, and one day my spirit just told me that clothing design was my destiny. I studied Shakespeare and costume design at Oxford University and fashion design at the Colorado Institute of Art. A few years ago in Paris, I did a runway show with images of bodies, branches, and human hearts: the Corazon series, a ‘transformation of the heart.’ It was well-received but not in the way I was transformed by creating it, not in the way I wanted people to get it. I realized I wanted to go beyond fashion design, to boost people’s spirits as well as egos through a connection with nature.

Judith: How are you able to create the kind of forward fashion favored by celebrities and still make them environmentally friendly?

Linda: I research and travel the world to find fabrics and sometimes help to create them. I use only sustainable, organic, and recycled goods: sasawashi, from a Japanese leaf; bamboo pointelle jersey; organic cotton; reclaimed cloth and European lace; soya, from soybeans; lenpur, from wood pulp; and Eco-Spun, [it’s] hard to believe a textile made from recycled plastic bottles and cotton can be so soft. Many herbal wovens are more than luxurious and eco-friendly; they have naturally insulating, anti-allergenic, antibacterial, and deodorant qualities, and they wick moisture away from the body.

Judith: What is your luxury eco Social Network?

Linda: It’s a meeting of like minds, online and face-to-face. People concerned with their health and that of the planet socialize and debate at salon-style gatherings. It’s a network to share information about sustainability and ecology, and ideas about how to take responsibility and still enjoy the good life.

Judith: How can people foster reliably eco-friendly products?

Linda: By asking questions about the way things are made and making their voices heard with their money. Organizations like LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) and others promote a holistic marketplace. I have a design studio for high-end fashion, and [I] am developing an online boutique and a shop in California. With Global Green, we’re building from the ground up, so it will be environmentally and spiritually healthy. The concept is to connect earth and sky with a floor that looks like soil, a reflecting pool, and an open-sky ceiling.

Judith: Now that you’ve chosen this path, where are you now?

Linda: Believing people want to make eco-conscious choices, and helping with information. For now it’s more expensive in the short term, but in the long life of the planet it is worth it, and in any time frame it is better for our bodies, minds, and spirits. When the market demands it, a greater variety of goods will be developed at reasonable cost. This is my passion, and whether I land on the earth or the moon, at least I jumped.