John Patrick – Designer of ORGANIC
BIO
One day a few years ago, while traveling in Amsterdam, I decided to make a
list of the things I loved and really believed in and the list consisted of
elements found in nature, such as the sky, plants, and the natural earth. This
was very inspiring to me and this was the foundation for my collection.
I have been designing clothes my whole life and I am interested in not only
the final result but the craft itself, as well as the people who make the whole
process happen. It’s a very long chain from seed to shirt.
Materials / Techniques
We specialize in cottons and as a result, we spend a significant amount of
time in Peru. In regards to the styles / fashions, we make fashion that speaks
for itself.
I use both my own organic cotton, which I grow in the jungle in Peru and we
also use Organic cotton fabrics, which I design and then have made. We
also like to use recycled fabrics that no one else in interested in and re-use
and work them into fashion.
We are producing out clothing in ethical work environments and
empowering workers to make a fair wage.
What makes ORGANIC “green”?Vertical integration is when the entire process from spinning yarn or
weaving cloth from the fiber is done by one entity. We have done an
experiment to take this concept further by working with 10 farmers in the
jungle and then having the their cotton moved to the city, where the fiber is
then spun into yarn. We are using the yarn for producing men’s tee shirts,
which we call the “Jungle Tees.”
I think one of my simplest innovations has been to embrace “mistakes” into
the design process. The idea of “perfect” is so imperfect...and creates an
enormous amount of waste in "re-doing" things. As a company, we think and
behave in many unique ways. For instance, we needed white organic
shirting to make the classic button front shirt but I couldn’t find organic
shirting so I used organic bed sheets for the samples and the production.
Now, it has become a fabric we love and use each season.
