Vocab Class: ECOfashion

n. ec•o fash·ion | ˈekoʊ faʃ(ə)n |

1 the fusion of ecology (a branch of science concerned with the interrelationship of organisms and their environments) and fashion (popular trends, especially in styles of dress)

Our founder, Marci Zaroff, coined and trademarked the term "ECOfashion" in 1995 when she began to connect the dots between organic food, beauty, and fashion. Here's her story:

"When I was in high school, I got Best Dressed; I always loved fashion. It was just one of my passions. After getting a business degree, I created a school in New York City that was one of the first places that people could go to learn about health and wellness, Gulliver’s Living and Learning Center. 

One day one of my clients said to me, “You’ve turned us on to organic and natural food and beauty products. What about fashion?” There was definitely a missing link in the wellness equation. I decided to do some research and learned that 60% of a cotton plant actually goes into the food stream. I was dumbfounded by the many impacts of conventional cotton, like being the most heavily-sprayed agricultural crop. I wondered why I couldn’t find any organic fashion that I wanted to wear. Everything was crunchy, frumpy, boxy, beige, and boring. As a fashion lover, I had an epiphany of, “How do I marry these two worlds?” It was an ultimate white space opportunity and led me to launch my first apparel brand, Under the Canopy."

To learn more about Marci's journey, read our previous post "The Mother of ECOfashion."