Source4Style; The Sustainable Designer’s Google for Textiles

Source4Style - The Sustainable Designer’s Google for Textiles

As someone who has spent countless hours sourcing fabrics that are friendly to the environment, I cannot express how excited I was to hear about Source4Style.com, a website devoted to connecting the world’s designers with the fabrics they want, need, and love.   According the the company’s website, the S4S team has made it their mission to “[create] the world’s first online marketplace for designers to search and source the world’s leading sustainable textiles”.

The site is currently in BETA but will be accessible to the public this fall.  And, in my opinion,  based on what was shared at the feast and a focus group last Wednesday, there is a lot of potential here.

This site will act as a  link between eco-manufacturers and sustainable fashion designers around the world.  It will focus on not only organic fabrics but also recycled and repurposed, two categories that also come under the umbrella of eco-friendly fabrics.  Benefits like group buying, a mill price negotiating tool, trends & analytics, seminars and workshops were all  discussed at the recent focus group gathering.  Sounds pretty good, right? Yeah, I think so too.

So come September, after the hectic craze of sampling season, you will have a new and extremely useful tool for sourcing your Fall 2011 sustainable textiles.

Nicole Giordano

Nicole is the founder of StartUp FASHION, an online resource and community supporting for independent designers around the world with building their businesses. A deep love for the craft of fashion paired with an adamant belief that success is defined by the individual, led her to found StartUp FASHION, where she helps independent designers and makers screw the traditional fashion business rules, create their own paths, and build businesses they truly love. More than anything else, she’s in the business of encouragement and works every day to remind makers and designers that they have something special to offer the world and that they can, in fact, do this thing!