Top US retailers offer organic wool apparel & home products

09 Nov '05

3 min read

For the first time in the US, leading retailers are offering consumers a range of apparel, baby blankets, home textiles and socks made from organically grown wool. The fashionable and high quality products are available to consumers online, in stores, and from catalogs just in time for the cooler weather and the holiday shopping season.

Sales of organic fiber products grew an average of 22.7 percent, to $85 million, in 2003, according to the Organic Trade Association (OTA), with respondents estimating 15 percent annual growth through 2008. Organic wool is a small part of the overall organic fiber industry which is dominated by organic cotton. However, it is growing quickly as manufacturers seek to diversify their 'sustainable fiber' apparel lines and environmentally conscious consumers purchase products in line with their lifestyle choices.

'These products look good and feel good, and consumers do good by supporting organic agriculture while buying a beautiful and high quality organic wool item,' said Sandra Marquardt, coordinator of the Organic Wool Network (OWN), a collaborative of 11 US-based producers, textile artists, yarn and fabric suppliers, mills, retailers and support organizations.

Organic wool products available from OWN participants include: hand-woven textiles and throws and a handcrafted floor screen by Del Cerro (Cimarron, CO) made with wool from the owners' ranch; a sophisticated knee-length women's coat by the Delano Collection (Brooklyn, NY); high-performance Merino wool hiking socks from Fox River Mills (Osage, IA);

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