Harmony Art Receives GOTS Certification
Receiving the eco-apparel market’s top seal of approval, the Global Organic Textile Standard, is rare. Only 1,500 companies across the globe received it, according to the GOTS International Working Group.
On Feb. 8, organic-fabric designer Harmony Art became the first American fabric designer to be GOTS certified. The company is based in Gualala, a beach town in Mendocino County, Calif.
Harmony Susalla, Harmony Art’s owner/designer, hopes the certification will help the company’s partners go further with their eco-minded efforts. “Now that we’re certified, we have paved the way for our end-product manufacturers to become GOTS certified and complete the supply chain—providing consumers with a field-to-fashion organic product!” Susalla said.
Harmony Art was founded in 1998 by Harmony Susalla and her husband, David Susalla. Their company created designs and products for mass retailers such as Target and specialty retailers such as Nordstrom. In 2005, it became the first textile company to offer only printed organic-cotton fabrics and make them available by the yard for businesses and home sewers.
GOTS certification requires the use of organic fiber while prohibiting the use of child labor and toxic finishing agents, such as formaldehyde.—A.A.
