ML Marsh Collection: The Creator

Created around a core palette of specially-chosen colors and fabrics, NearSea Naturals' exclusive ML Marsh Collection: Organic Designer Fabrics will rejuvenate autumn and winter sewing options.

Marylou Marsh is the genius behind the collection; her work can also be seen at MLMarsh.com and in the designs at Spiritex.net. Among the first designers to work with organic cotton fabrics more than two decades ago, she remains on the cutting edge of the eco-fashion industry. Looking at her creations it's easy to see why she has such staying power! Marylou studied fashion illustration and pattern making at Pratt Institute and the Fashion Institute of Technology and received the prestigious Tommy Award in 1985. Her designs have graced the covers and pages of leading fashion publications including Women's Wear Daily, DNR, Esquire, Elle, and Glamour.

Explaining her commitment to sustainable design, Marylou explains: "I became involved in eco-fashion when I designed contemporary women's clothing in New York City. I introduced organic design, something unheard of at the time, using organic fabric and creating clothing here in the U.S." As a successful designer, Marylou's works were sold at high-end specialty stores, and she also did private-label design for companies including Ralph Lauren, Nike, Coldwater Creek, and others. Yet she soon realized that just making money wasn't enough, explaining that "living organically was a priority. I figured why not apply that to what we put on our bodies as well as what we put in our bodies. From a need for organic clothing, organic fashion was born."

The ML Marsh Collection: Organic Designer Fabrics for Winter 2011, and each seasonal collection thereafter, meets the fabric needs of sustainable small businesses, designers and home sewists; it is also perfect for people who, like us, want to revive the eco-friendly domestic textile industry.

Significantly, Marylou believes that sustainable design is about more than simply using organic fabric; she explains that "It's about creating clothing here in the U.S., in a fair workplace which provides jobs, a low carbon footprint, embodying self-reliance, and knowing that the clothing itself endures." She invites you to join the movement!