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"In order to be irreplaceable, one
must always be different" ~ Coco Chanel
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At the age of five, designer Melissa Baswell started creating
clothing for her dolls using a needle, thread, and reused fabrics.
In high school, she was the president of her school’s Ecology
Preservation Club, and wore her own handmade
clothing created from natural fabrics.
While a student at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Baswell divided
her free time between interning with WISPIRG’s Environmental
Education Department and recycling thrift store clothing into
“renewed” garments on a hand-me-down sewing machine.
Well before the green movement
became popular, she was using organic cotton and
hemp fabrics and dying with low-impact dyes in an
effort to create fashion-forward clothing that would
break the stereotype of eco-fashion being defined
as bland, crunchy and boring. |
A few years later, after much success selling her designs at local
shops and
events, Melissa decided to to form the Mountains of the Moon
Eco-Fashion line.
Now based in Chicago, Mountains
of the Moon Eco.Fashion is a sustainable design and apparel
organization aimed at creating chic, high-quality clothing that helps, not hurts, the earth
and its inhabitants. We see
ourselves as collaborators with our customers in an effort to take a
stand in making environmentally and socially responsible decisions
through our wardrobes. Our goal for our company and our customers
is to work together to express ourselves through fashion and art
while making a profound collective difference in the state of our
world.
Mountains of the Moon has been featured in
online and print publications worldwide, has
been shown in prominent fashion shows through the U.S., and was chosen
as one of 10 businesses worldwide nominated for Green America's
Green Business of the Year the last three years in a row. In 2008,
Melissa was the headlining speaker at the
Green Apple Music and Arts
Festival
in Chicago, where she spoke to a crowd of 20,000 on the
benefits of wearing sustainable fashion. In October 2008, a
couture dress designed by Melissa from recycled candy wrappers was
exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in
Chicago. The Mountains of the
Moon collections are available at over 100 boutiques and select
retail stores, from California to New York to Australia to Japan.
Mountains of the Moon represents more than just a
clothing line. We represent the blending of fine art, style, ethics,
environmental and social responsibility and awareness.
To read more about how Mountains of the Moon is
green, visit our
Sustainability Page.
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