divine green: Sustainable Home, Beauty, & Lifestyle

The children’s book world has a new darling called Bloom, the story of a pig who suffers unrequited love by a flower, only to later find its ideal mate. The book is newly on sale at Amazon.com and Pottery Barn Kids.

Bloom’s creator Maria van Lieshout shares the character’s love of nature. When a child in Holland, van Lieshout was taught to consider the environment every day while recycling and turning off the household lights, so she naturally chose organics when designing Bloom clothes for babies. Her onesie’s and baby Ts are made of 100 percent organic cotton from the U.S. clothing manufacturer American Apparel, which makes its soft-cotton Ts in the United States, thereby reducing the carbon footprint from manufacturing. She also had the Bloom-character clothes printed with water-based dyes, as opposed to non-earth-friendly plastic inks, from a shop in San Francisco, where van Lieshout is based.

“The environment is something I grew up caring about; and if I’m going to have a little impact with the book, I wanted it to be in the clothing,” said van Lieshout.

To be sure, the publishing world could use an overhaul with its printing practices, especially in an age of on-demand printing and availability of recycled papers. But organic goods are a start. van Lieshout’s children’s clothes span the ages of three to 12 months and can be bought at the Bloom site. The site also lets you send Bloom-themed e-cards, an obvious alternative to paper for invitations or notes.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 10:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.