Hand sewn bags, personally designed apparel and home accessories are just some of what customers can buy when shopping online. But, this isn’t your usual online checkout bag for Niemen Marcus. It’s an eco-friendly bag made with natural resources, packed with an organic T-shirt, whose sale benefits a non-profit organization. Welcome to Daughter Earth.
Daughter Earth is a small, young company dedicated to using fashion to help animals, better the environment and promote “going green.”
With these goals in mind, it’s no wonder this company was one of 200 exhibitors at the fifth annual GreenFest Philly this past Sunday.
This year’s theme: Fashion. Vendors like Daughter Earth displayed how they incorporate eco-friendly materials into a green lifestyle.
“We came four years ago and sold a lot of shirts,” said co-owner of Daughter Earth Katy Tanis. “We were supposed to do a fashion show but the weather wasn’t permitting.”
Fashion Show or Not, Tanis stepped away from their usual online base and set shop on Sunday. Though it was filled with T-Shirts of all colors, sizes and designs, there was one commonality-organic fabric.
All shirts from Daughter Earth are made with recyclable organic cotton or with sustainable materials.
“I’ve gotten I think every organic blank T-shirt there is,” said Tanis as she felt the texture of one of her originally designed T-Shirts.
Other than fabrics, every aspect of Daughter Earth is eco-friendly, and the printing of designs is no exception.
“We use water based printing or digital printing … digital printing is great because it uses less waste, there aren’t any screens to print or ink to waste,” said Tanis.
In addition to going green, Daughter Earth’s main objective is to raise awareness about endangered animals. Each T-shirt, hat and bag that Tanis creates involves some sort of animal design.
“I try to choose animals that are not as well known,” said Tanis. “I think it’s always great to teach people about animals they might not know about.”
Learning about unfamiliar or endangered animals is something Tanis is no stranger to. Over four years ago, her and her sister Laura Tanis also co-owner of Daughter Earth, volunteered in Southeast Asia at an orangutan conservation.
Noting the need for endangered animal awareness, the Tanis sisters decided to make a difference and created Daughter Earth in 2006.
“We wanted to ignite customers to learn and find out about an animal they perhaps have never heard of,” said Tanis.
Now, they make sure to put informational tags in all of their clothing, educate consumers on their website and donate 10% of their sales to non-profit organizations that work with conservations.
“Hopefully we’ll teach them something they don’t know … in a way that is exciting for them,” said Tanis. “They’ll say ‘Oh, this is really pretty or cute’, but there’s actually something more to it … we try and spread awareness.”
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