Down-to-Earth
Merchandise Organically Grown
August 23, 2005 — By Audrey Reed, Ventura County Star
For Stephanie Woods of Meiners Oaks,
organic gardening was her way of caring for the Earth. She had one
problem: the clothes that she would wear while gardening were not
eco-friendly nor stylish.
So Woods developed an organic clothing line called Can You Dig It?
Since May, the product line of organic clothing bearing gardening puns
has been sold at retailers in four states and more than 20 locations as
well as on the Internet.
"I remembered looking for gardening T-shirts and being so disappointed,"
Woods said. "I thought they were just hokey. They were just my
grandmother's kind of T-shirts. They were like kittens catching
butterflies."
Thanks to a bout of the flu two years ago that gave Woods ample time to
think, she came up with the clothes for a modern organic gardener.
Woods replaced the kittens and butterflies with catchy phrases and funky
art, hallmarks of the clothing line.
"Visualize World Peas," Linda Allen of Ojai laughingly quotes one of the
company's top sellers -- a T-shirt with a pod filled with globes.
What is more important than the design or humor to Allen is that the
clothing is organic and made in the United States.
Allen said she buys items like Woods' to support domestic products in an
age when "people can't fill up their gas tank and go out to dinner on
the same day." That was a concern for Woods, who wanted to keep her
conscience clear, she said.
"It has to be sweatshop-free," Woods said. "It has to be ethical. I
could make more money, but it's just not right." Most T-shirts the
company sells cost $24. There are also hats, tote bags and children's
sizes.
Organic clothing is made from cotton that has been grown without the use
of chemicals. Woods said that pesticides used in traditional cotton
fields can leak into groundwater that people drink.
Organic clothing has been known to be scratchy, but Woods said that it
has "really come a long way" and that all of her shirts are very soft.
The organic material is so soft that Can You Dig It? also has a line of
baby products fit for any "seedling," as Woods said.
Ojai House on Montgomery Street is one of the stores that sells Can You
Dig It? products. The shop specializes in items made in the U.S.
"I've sold mostly 'Visualize World Peas.' That one by far has sold the
best," owner Meg Goodwin said.
Goodwin said that she hadn't sold much clothing in the past, but liked
that the products where made by someone in the community, so she
included them in her store inventory.
Woods has been exposed to organic products since she was a child and her
mother "tried to convince me carob was the new chocolate," she said.
She combined her history with organic with her self-described God-given
creativity to make shirts and accessories that play to pun-lovers.
Woods plans on developing a line of clothing "aimed at the agriculture
feed store crowd" and another line, which will feature Christian
messages.
ON THE NET:
http://www.canyoudig-it.com
To see more of the Ventura County Star, or to subscribe to the
newspaper, go to
http://www.venturacountystar.com .
Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News |