Karen Stewart, co-owner Stewart + Brown

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by Laurel House

In 2002, before couture houses found beauty in bamboo, Karen Stewart, and her partner in life and work Howard Brown, brought two babies to life – their daughter Hazel Stewart Brown and one of the first eco chic clothing brands, which they named Stewart + Brown.

Fashion has always been Stewart’s forte, a design talent that took her from Urban Outfitters to Anthropology to JCrew and finally to Patagonia, where a new passion was nurtured – sustainability. Together, she and Brown – a graphic artist by trade – oversaw all aspects of their quickly developing clothing brand, while always maintaining their mission: to attain the highest standards of quality and functional style while extracting the bare minimum from Earth’s precious capital.

Do you consider yourselves organic pioneers? We are organic pioneers in that we helped bring organic to the fashion world. But it wasn’t easy. We were met with such resistance from the typical fashion community. At first we were just a small cottage company, so we took a suitcase filled with our designs around the streets of Santa Barbara. Some of the well-known stores really got it. They knew that the future was sustainable. Surprisingly, many of the other smaller stores didn’t. They wanted to put us back into that outdoor market and told us to go to the backpack stores. When we went to our buyers market where stores go out to discover new lines, we had very large orders from the Japanese, who are great indicators of forward-thinking fashion. Then the media started driving it. Now it’s taken off. There are lots of brands going green.

What types of sustainable fabrics do you use? We use a large array of fabric, including organic cotton, hemp jersey, merino in the fall, cashmere. It has to be sustainable in the way it is grown and processed. It has to be viable. Being part of the solution not the problem motivates me. I am not into designing clothing for the sake of design. We want it to be attainable to everyone.

What makes Stewart + Brown appeal to more than just the “granola” consumer? When women put it on, I think they realize it looks stylish and it’s versatile.

What green thing did you do today? I nursed my baby. We went walking in the hills. I ate organic breakfast, drank organic coffee. I think it is impossible to consider yourself a purist. I do go out of my way to be more green, but I do live a pretty conventional lifestyle. I feel like I can spread out and reach a bigger audience if I am not living in the hills off the grid.

What is your ultimate goal when it comes to the environment? What’s been very interesting about Stewart + Brown is that it really gives me a voice and it gives me a platform to talk to the media about sustainability. I want to get more involved with passing on the green living message by talking to children, by making sure that the cafeterias in school are green. Creating an awareness in children is really the best way to ensure a green future.

For more information on Stewart + Brown visit www.stewartbrown.com

November/December 2008

Healing Lifestyles & Spas Team

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