Our goal at A Thousand Fibers is to develop, promote and sell organic bamboo and cotton clothing that is both stylish and comfortable. We live in a time of amazing change and opportunity. Along with these opportunities we face what many believe to be a worldwide ecological crisis. We believe that ecologically responsible choices in business may be one of the keys to solving some of the major issues of the 21st century.
Many of the processes used to make textiles contribute to pollution in the environment. For example, conventional cotton farming uses approximately a pound of toxic chemicals to produce enough fabric for one cotton tee shirt. Often these chemicals are not properly disposed of and end up in water supplies throughout the world. Ultimately this affects all of us.
Catherine Forester founded A Thousand Fibers in 2007. Over a long career in the costume and fashion business, including nine years managing the costume shop at a major Hollywood studio, Catherine Forester became aware many of the processes used to make textiles were actually polluting the environment. After considerable research and a lengthy search for suppliers, Catherine developed a workable solution to environmentally responsible fashion: organic bamboo and organic cotton fibers that could be designed into comfortable, stylish clothing. Since bamboo grows either wild or cultivated without the use of pesticides, it seemed a logical choice. Thanks to growing awareness and demand, there are now also suppliers for organic cotton products.
Catherine Forester, CEO of A Thousand Fibers, spent her own childhood on four different continents. This helped give her a global perspective, and becoming a mother led her to think seriously about the world her daughter would grow up in and inherit. As a female business owner in the past, starting with her first floral shop in Santa Barbara, California, she saw firsthand the value of empowering women, and the fiber and textile trade extended that possibility throughout the world. All of these influences culminated in the founding of A Thousand Fibers, an online company dedicated to the marriage of fashion with environmental responsibility, which utilizes organic bamboo fiber and organic cotton.
