Ecopreneurist

We have a number of loyal readers of this blog in the green apparel industry and its rapid growth is yielding rewards for ecopreneurs targeting the variety of consumers that I mentioned in my post, The 4 Green Fashion Consumers – Which One For You?

The Living Green consumer, who has embraced the whole concept of the environmental lifestyle

The Core Fashionista, “who is looking to build up the green in her fashion portfolio,”.

The Walking Green consumers, “driven by wanting to belong to a greater community. These are trend followers.”

The Spending Green profile, the shopper who buys green clothes because “that sense of exclusivity and entitlement are important to her.

The green fashion industry is exploding. More and more companies are entering the field every day and still, the consumers’ voracious appetitive for eco fashion seems to be not even close to be satiated.

• » Read more on Business

So when I spent some time talking with Paul Weinstein this week about his company, Truly Organic, I was surprised to hear him challenge the notion of eco fashion.

Paul and his sister Leah started their young company when Leah, a designer and artist was searching for organic dyed fabric to use in her craft. After attempting the onerous work of hand dying with various natural plants and herbs the trail led to India where she discovered commercially available organically dyed cloth produced on a mass scale.

Paul and Leah identified this underserved niche and are producing several lines of fashion using organic dyes. I think they are on to something. Though consumers are flocking to organic clothing, often they forget to ask about the process used to create the natural tones found on garments of all kinds.

Truly Organic uses traditional herbs and spices to dye their men’s and women’s clothing and bolts of commercially available fabric. Paul with his marketing background has taken this unique selling point and exploited in clever ways to “create a need’ in the marketplace.

Truly Organic is a good example of a company exploiting the next phase of green. I did a quick review of some of my favorite organic clothing site and noticed that everyone has the requisite green credentials in place – Triple Bottom Line approach; Fair Trade manufacturing; charitable partnership; sustainable materials and certifications.

So what is the differentiating point? In the fashion industry this usually falls to target market and design. And that’s where it starts to get tough. Consumers are notoriously fickle when it comes to design and the industry is littered with companies driven under by rapidly changing fashion.

Truly Organic has worked around that pitfall by focusing on an attribute not tied to design and one not easily replicated. How well will it work? So far; so good.

You might also like:

6 Cool Green Holiday Card Options

Microenterprise Leaders Working to Help Small Businesses Affected by US Financial Crisis

Copia Files for Chapter 11 Banckruptcy

BP to Help Commercialize Clean Energy in China