Eco Fashion World

“Fierce Heart” are the two words that welcome us on Linda Loudermilk’s website, and indeed, she must have braced herself with courage when she moved her production from Italy to her Los Angeles home base in 2002 and started working with eco fabrics, to create couture fashion before anyone else! Today, Linda Loudermilk is one of the most recognized names in eco fashion and her clothes regularly turn up on celebrities and grace the red carpet. Which doesn’t stop her from continuing to push the envelope and supporting essential causes such as the “Water is a Human Right” project, for which she designed her now famous faucet necklace and “mission gear”.

Eco Fashion World: We read in your bio on your website, that you studied theatre costume design at Oxford, was your original ambition to design for the stage?

Linda Loudermilk: I design clothing with a story, very similar to artists who tell stories on stage, or the big screen. Each piece has a soul to me, a story to tell. Story-telling through personal expression is my passion.

EFW: You’ve mentioned in other interviews that you had an exact moment after showing your collection in Paris in 2002, when you decided that you needed to start doing something differently in your design. What was your first step after that in terms of starting to make your collection sustainable? Do you remember the first fabric that you found? The first moment when you realized you could make this happen?

LL: In 2002 I could only envision a world where couture garments could be made with earth responsible fibers and sophisticated weaves. My first move was to pack up my production in Italy and move back to the United States where I could look for the support to make this happen. In the beginning most people would look at me with a blank face. So I set foot to contact scientists, fiber creators, and weavers, and talked them into sharing this vision. I started with organic cotton, bamboo and created new and more sophisticated weaves of the two. Following my 2002 Paris runway show at the Trocadero Museum, I revealed in other interviews that I went back to my hotel room in tears, wondering why this great event in my life was not joyous in my soul. “Whenever there’s a breakdown there’s a breakthrough.” Many times our defining moment feels like pain, and it is, the pain of change. Now, what very few people know is that at every runway show I personally strike the gong. To me it is a powerful resonance opening up universal change.

EFW: You created the label “luxury eco”, luxury is a big part of the concept of “eco” for you, could you share your vision of luxury with us?

LL: “luxury” has typically been defined as an indulgence, in other words, something that's not a necessity. It’s also been limited to the few, for too long we've let other people decide what is or is not luxurious. I am challenging people to rebel against old ideas like this one – own who you are, figure out what you love, what you yearn for. Demand luxury in your life; personalize your own idea of what is luxurious. What does it mean to you to indulge yourself? To feel sexy, to feel naked, to live free?  For me, nature is sexy, that's what is luxurious. Decide for yourself and make it happen in your own life, forget about old ideas.

EFW: You do a lot of research on fabrics. How does that influence your design process? Does the artistic idea come first or are you inspired by the fabrics that you find?

LL: I invest a lot of time into my research of fabrics. I find the newest sustainable fabrics on the market which I then use for inspiration in creating new pieces. I let the fabric inspire me. I am committed to showing that a person can make high design out of the unpredictable. There is a wealth of natural materials available to us. It’s our responsibility to couple research
with a determination to promote change.

EFW: Many “eco” fabrics have their detractors. Bamboo is said to often be hard to trace and very polluting in its process. Soy and corn are shunned by some because they are a threat to biodiversity and often come from GMO crops, even organic cotton is sometimes criticized for still using too much water. So far we haven’t heard criticisms of hemp, but if we looked hard enough… How do you set criteria for what’s sustainable and what isn’t for your collection?

LL: There is the analysis of the affect on our planet, strong consideration for fair labor, and I always use fabrics that treat our skin well. My job is to encourage people to find NEW ways of creating fabric. I don’t like to settle for “no, that won’t work”. Milk cashmere is one of my latest, also sashawashi and kapok. We must diversify what is used, not be scared of a little research and development to make fibers work for us. We must certainly research and ask the hard questions, we owe that much to our planet.

EFW: How did you get involved with the “Water is a human rights project”? There are so many environmental issues to choose from, what attracted you to water in particular?

LL: I created the phrase “Water is a human right” because it puts the issue in your face. We set out to market this idea and expose the issue in a way it had not been seen before. “Contaminated water kills.” H20 is our dearest survival tool. Poor water quality is responsible for many diseases that our society spends billions to cure. People in this country don’t have clean water. It is a human right, as much as breath. Enough people don’t know about this problem.

EFW: Your designs have quite the celebrity following! Jane Fonda wore a Loudermik on David Letterman, Robert Downey Jr. is the inspiration behind your men’s line…do you get customers coming in as a direct result of seeing your clothes on a celebrity? Do you think celebrity endorsements of the green cause can have deep impacts on people’s consciousness?

LL: I am extremely grateful to the celebrities who have stood firm and constantly supported this new platform. Their voices, when sincere and consistent, can be of influence. I have needed support of the ideology and the style of the clothes. I have never paid a celebrity to wear something of mine or speak for me. They are putting their time and their image behind this. Therefore I owe them a debt of gratitude. I consider them friends for life.

EFW: When you started doing luxury eco fashion, it was a truly rebellious and innovative move. With everyone hopping onto the eco bandwagon these days (and all the green washing taking place), how can we keep pushing the envelope, how do we make sure that people keep asking questions? How do we inspire people to keep pushing the limits of their sustainable comfort zone?

LL: Just push it! Continue to design – in all aspects. Tell compelling stories. I create from the inside out. Raw exposure! When I design I am accessing a new place in myself, uncharted territory – the best kind. The world around me, its many gifts, inspire me. When I am inspired I want to inspire others.

EFW: Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the Fall 09 Collection?

LL: I write a poem to express the inspiration behind every collection. Here it is:

Shedding old ideas
Open up to the raw and fresh
As we look into the blinding light of hope
For the exciting days to come
We simultaneously shed our old ideas
Old skin, layers that no longer serve us
On our journey to the new
And enlightened power
The removal process is sexy
Raw
Strip tease our lives
Let it all hang out

EFW: What’s next for Linda Loudermilk?

LL: I am grateful for the experiences I have had, I continue to pursue new avenues to spread the message, the language. On the media side of things, I’ve been working on a book, and I have had some exciting television opportunities brought to me. I’m very excited about the launch of our incubator marketing company – LOUDERMISSION. We’ll be bringing for-profit and non-profits together, in the same edgy, off-beat way we’ve hit the runways, I want to start impacting change closer to home.
Our stamp of approval has been getting a lot of attention lately, and it's important for us to maintain integrity and honesty. We want to not only promote sustainability; we want to help ensure it. We will really be focusing on this as a worldwide call for accountability. And it's all about cherry trees for us this fall - we're planting hundreds along route 9. Look for more info on this soon. We've coupled up with some distinguished friends for this initiative, we are asking powerhouses of the fashion industry - we might be aware of what you are you doing to inspire clothing, but what are you doing to inspire change? We'll be planting trees, we will be planting breath.

EFW: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

LL: Get your hands dirty, experiment, research yourself, know that you are capable. Own who you are, let it all hang out.

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