Becky Striepe
We love organic clothing around here, and we dig it even more when companies focus on fair labor practices! Ideologie accomplishes both with their fresh, earthy organic apparel and accessories.
Any time a clothing company touts its eco-friendliness, I have to admit that I get a little wary. It’s hip to be green these days, and greenwashing runs rampant. Luckily, the folks at Ideologie were willing to chat with me about their products and their values.
FGS: Can you talk a bit about what makes Ideologie eco-friendly? What sorts of fabrics and dyes do you use?
Ideologie: Throughout the entire collection, Ideologie stays true to complete sustainability with pieces made from 100% certified organic cotton, as well as low impact dyes. In line with the Ideologie business model, all products create environmental, social and philanthropic value. All textiles used are USDA and TDA certified organic, created under the highest guidelines of social responsibility. This includes fair trade, fair pay, and adequate working conditions, all of which Ideologie firmly believes are active catalysts of integrated prosperity.
FGS: Can you tell me a bit about what inspired you to launch an eco clothing line?
Ideologie Our movement is called Ideologie. We are a fully organic clothing company founded on the beliefs of love, hope, awareness, education and art. We think that self-expression is a great route to self-empowerment, and a building block of positive communication. Our mission is to embrace the power of self expression, promote awareness of self and our impact on the environment it is to relish on the powerful effects of art, and manifest the importance of education around the world. Our ultimate goal is to inspire you to take an active role and become a catalyst of change in the right direction! Hopefully we can grow Ideologie to the point where we can inspire others to join in this common endeavor of social entrepreneurship, keep learning, growing, and sharing…. it goes full circle.
FGS: Does Ideologie do any sort of social outreach?
Ideologie On occasion we collaborate with other organizations and either donate products or give them away. We work directly with the Acumen Fund, to whom we donate 2% of all sales. We also have our own NGO in Mexico called Entiende mas Logra Mas through witch we help educate students in impoverished areas of rural Mexico in which education is limited or under served.
Two of the three founders of Ideologie grew up in Mexico and so have had very intense first-hand experience with poverty, a lack of educational structure and economies in transition. That doesn’t mean that we only focus on working with third-world economies, last year for example we setup a sustainable DJ set at Coachella music festival in California, with our friends from Pirate Stereo (dj’s) and were giving away organic t-shirts with Coachella/Ideologie/pirate stereo prints to whomever jumped on a stationary bike to help power the energy for the event. Ideologie is a social movement and our products are often found in faraway countries like Japan or Scandinavia, the final point is that when customers (familie members) wear Ideologie they are indeed changing the world, and the cool thing is that they are using clothing and accessories as a fully organic medium of communication that transcends geographical/social/racial/religious segmentation.
I really appreciated their transparency and hearing about how they’re doing more than just making beautiful clothing and accessories: they’re giving back to the community. You’ll soon be able to find their organic clothing and accessories on the Ideologie Organic website. In the meantime, they’ve got some of their products listed at Nimli
