For Stephanie Woods of Meiners Oaks, organic gardening was her way of caring for the Earth. She had one problem: the clothes that she would wear while gardening were not eco-friendly nor stylish. So Woods developed an organic clothing line called Can You Dig It?
For Stephanie Woods of Meiners Oaks, organic gardening was her way of caring for the Earth. She had one problem: the clothes that she would wear while gardening were not eco-friendly nor stylish.
So Woods developed an organic clothing line called Can You Dig It?
Since May, the product line of organic clothing bearing gardening puns has been sold at retailers in four states and more than 20 locations as well as on the Internet.
"I remembered looking for gardening T-shirts and being so disappointed," Woods said. "I thought they were just hokey. They were just my grandmother's kind of T-shirts. They were like kittens catching butterflies."
Thanks to a bout of the flu two years ago that gave Woods ample time to think, she came up with the clothes for a modern organic gardener.
Woods replaced the kittens and butterflies with catchy phrases and funky art, hallmarks of the clothing line.
"Visualize World Peas," Linda Allen of Ojai laughingly quotes one of the company's top sellers -- a T-shirt with a pod filled with globes.
What is more important than the design or humor to Allen is that the clothing is organic and made in the United States.
Allen said she buys items like Woods' to support domestic products in an age when "people can't fill up their gas tank and go out to dinner on the same day." That was a concern for Woods, who wanted to keep her conscience clear, she said.
"It has to be sweatshop-free," Woods said. "It has to be ethical. I could make more money, but it's just not right." Most T-shirts the company sells cost $24. There are also hats, tote bags and children's sizes.
Organic clothing is made from cotton that has been grown without the use of chemicals. Woods said that pesticides used in traditional cotton fields can leak into groundwater that people drink.
Organic clothing has been known to be scratchy, but Woods said that it has "really come a long way" and that all of her shirts are very soft.
The organic material is so soft that Can You Dig It? also has a line of baby products fit for any "seedling," as Woods said.
Ojai House on Montgomery Street is one of the stores that sells Can You Dig It? products. The shop specializes in items made in the U.S.
"I've sold mostly 'Visualize World Peas.' That one by far has sold the best," owner Meg Goodwin said.
Goodwin said that she hadn't sold much clothing in the past, but liked that the products where made by someone in the community, so she included them in her store inventory.
Woods has been exposed to organic products since she was a child and her mother "tried to convince me carob was the new chocolate," she said.
She combined her history with organic with her self-described God-given creativity to make shirts and accessories that play to pun-lovers.
Woods plans on developing a line of clothing "aimed at the agriculture feed store crowd" and another line, which will feature Christian messages.
ON THE NET: http://www.canyoudig-it.com
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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
