Marine Biologist Ventures Into the Fashion World to Become an Online Retailer

Fashion photo provided by Adrian Desbarats.

EMYVALE, Prince Edward Island — On a mission to make your wardrobe both healthier for you to wear and its production more environmentally friendly for people across the world, Fashion & Earth, an online organic clothing retailer has just opened its web doors. 

The family-owned company’s founder and president, Adrian Desbarats, is also a marine biologist. He is currently the senior biologist and director of research and development for a company on Price Edward Island, designing and building systems for the aqua culture industry.

When asked what made a marine biologist decide to also venture into the fashion industry, Mr. Desbarats responded, “I am also an entrepreneur at heart. My wife is also a biologist, so we have always been environmentally focused. We have done all the stuff like recycle, compost, put in the florescent bulbs, put the energy efficient appliances in, etc., but when our first daughter came along, that gave me a whole different perspective on life and the planet.

I really felt that whatever business it was going to be had to be something that was sustainable. It had to be something that was part of the solution and not part of the problem. I started looking and came across the idea of organic and eco-friendly clothing.”

Fashion photo provided by Adrian Desbarats.

Mr. Desbarats described the fashions that he looks for to stock his store as “fairly conservative. A fashion or style that would have longevity in your wardrobe. It also has to be within an affordable price range, and that certainly limits me, but that is the point of my store. It’s to bring all these qualifications into one shopping destination.”

The clothing and accessories in the store are made of the following materials: bamboo, soy, hemp, organic cotton, wild silk, merino wool, alpaca (it looks like a cross between a sheep and a lama), and tencel (made from cellulose in wood pulp, which is harvested from sustainable tree farms).

When asked how do you verify the manufacturing process of the product from your wholesalers, Mr. Desbarats answered, “We choose a globally recognized standard called the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). If you want to be certified (as a wholesaler) as organic and your are certified as GOTS, then you are the real deal.”

The International Working Group on GOTS has published an online 22-page booklet detailing the GOTS principals, manufacturing criteria, minimum social criteria, and quality assurance system. Some of the booklet highlights are as follows:

• Aim of the Standards — To define the requirements to ensure organic status of textiles, from harvesting to raw materials, through environmentally and socially responsible manufacturing up to labeling in order to provide credible assurance to the end consumer.
• Requirements for Material Composition — 95% or more of the fiber content of the products - excluding non-textile accessories - must be certified of organic or from ’in conversion’ meaning fibers that can meet standards equivalent to those that have to be meet by organic fibers, as set by internationally recognized certifiers.
• Prohibited Chemical Substances - Among the most commonly recognizable, though not exclusively, are: aromatic solvents, heavy metals, and quarternary ammonium compounds, formaldehydes, and other short-chain baldheads.
• Environmental Management — Wastewater from all wet processing sites must be treated in an internal or external functional wastewater treatment plant before discharging to surface waters.
• Minimal Social Criteria - Among these criteria are: freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining; working conditions are safe and hygienic; child labor is prohibited; living wages; and working hours are not excessive.
• Quality Assurance Systems - These include onsite annual inspection cycles (including possible unannounced inspections), and residue testing to make sure the products have not been contaminated by outside factors.

More information on the GOTS standards can be found at:

http://www.controlunion.com/certification/program/subprogram/Subprogram.aspx?Subprogram_ID=117&Program_ID=16. Look at the Publications Section and click on the link next to where it says GOTS standards version 2.0.

Among other standards that Fashion & Earth requires its wholesalers to comply with (depending on the products) are: the Soil Association Organic Standard, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, the United States National Organic Program, the European Organic Regulation, and the Japan Organic Standard.