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The Eco-Conscious Goddess
You’re the Eco-Conscious Goddess!When it comes to your postpartum luxury persona, sustainability and ethical production are of the utmost importance to you.Perhaps you can identify with what my friend Caroline says. She can’t help but walk into a Target and think, “All this will be in a landfill someday...” Depressing, I know. But when discussing the impacts of something like waste or the 2.5 trillion dollar plus fashion industry on our planet, you don’t want to sugarcoat anything. And frankly, I don’t blame you.There’s got to be a better way.So you cloth diaper and conserve and reuse and skip the unnecessary plastic, lights flashing and beeping baby toys as much as you possibly can... You contribute to causes that align with your values. You go zero-waste wherever you can. You are thoughtful about the purchases you make, and know that a shift in how we spend can add up to shift the whole global economy. But did you know there are also ways to reduce and reuse and conserve when it comes to your own postpartum luxury wardrobe?Introducing The WorkhorseTM Dress, made with sustainability as a top priorityMaternity and postpartum fashion is rife with awkward belly bands, outfits you’ll never wear again, and clingy, cheap material. It’s the sort of stuff you’ll throw away 5 years from now when you Marie Kondo your closet and think to yourself, “What a waste of money.”This is where I sell you on the idea of buying the WorkhorseTM dress, which, in my humble opinion, is the best dang dress on the market. Carefully and thoughtfully designed, handmade by expert dressmakers paid 3x a living wage, and crafted with the principles of good design in the forefront: sustainability, ethical production, functionality, and aesthetic beauty. Now here’s where the sustainable part comes in, you gorgeous Eco-Conscious Goddess, you.Our fabrics come from three sources: 1) local, family-owned fabric stores in Lititz, PA, 2) the Spoonflower HQ in Durham, NC where material is both knitted and printed in America, and 3) vintage sources. Buying fabrics made and/or distributed from America keeps shipping and transportation costs low. The vintage fabrics use material that already exists. Spoonflower specifically only prints what is ordered, knits and prints our fabrics in the USA, using only a *thimble* of water (unlike the 100 2-Liter gallons most factories use to produce the same amount of material). The Spoonflower pigment inks meet the Oeko-Tex 100 requirements to be free of restricted chemicals and are mixed from 4-8 basic colors as your fabric is printed, so unlike screen printing, there’s no mixing of colors in advance. We also only ship within the USA. That’s intentional. This is how we reduce our carbon footprint and contribute to a more sustainable world. Now, is all our fabric made of natural sources, like linen or hemp?No.Is all our fabric made using natural dyes?No.However, because of our superb, functional design, these dresses are going to be something that you actually wear and love, not only during pregnancy and postpartum, but for YEARS after. Natural fabrics like linen or hemp, or even Tencel, don’t have the functionality that I’m looking for.It needs to be able to be machine washed cold, hung to dry, with no ironing. It needs to have stretch. It needs to be resistant to stain and things like dog hair. I can’t find all that with natural fibers. Not yet, anyway.So we line our dresses with 100% organic cotton knitted and printed in the USA. The torso area, the area that touches the body the most, is lined. But the outer portion of the garment still has all the qualities I mention above, and is therefore more functional, and therefore you will love wearing it, wear it more often, and actually … ... become so addicted to how good it makes you feel you’ll begin to resent all your other poorly designed clothing. Trust me. By the way, we never send unused scraps of fabric to the landfill. It’s collected and sent to programs such as the RARE Bear sew-in, a grassroots outreach initiative for kids with rare diseases, inpartnership with Spoonflower. Fabric that doesn’t meet the Spoonflower high standards never makes it to the landfill in the U.S. either, as is shredded for industrial applications like car upholstery and furniture stuffing, bedding and flooring.Good design is the ultimate in sustainability. Whether it’s more time, more money, more energy, or more personal power in your life, pregnancy and postpartum is a great time to elevate all of these areas of luxury and ease. Designing a luxurious postpartum experienceHello there! This is Nancy, the founder of NANCY DEMARIA. We make sustainable, easy-to-wear luxury for pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond, as you’ve just learned above.I started this company when I absolutely could not take one more minute wasted in disappointment, shopping for what I was looking for.There’s always something wrong with it. No sleeves.Sleeves aren’t long enough.Too long.Too short.Not stretchy.No pockets.Needs a slip.Needs spanx.Has a skirt lining that is always out of alignment with the rest of the dress whenever I sit down.Buttons all the way down the front that open slightly when I sit, exposing little holes that people can look through and see my hairy, non-shaven legs.Not actually nursing-friendly.Or “nursing-friendly” just means it’s a v-neck you can pull down over a boobie.Made of fibers that attract every piece of lint and dog hair known to man.The list goes on and on and on.I figured there must be women out there who agree with me, who are as picky as me, who just can’t seem to find exactly what they want.And is it too much to ask?I think not.Oh! And not to mention the ever-present question of… where was this made? And who made it? Under what conditions?Looking at the label and seeing Made in China never made me feel good.All those shipping and transportation costs to get me a $32.99 dress made Gods knows where, under God knows what conditions.No offense to China, there are sweatshops all over the world, including in the USA.So what I also needed is to know exactly who was making it, and that they were being paid a fair wage.That’s why I pay my dressmakers 3x a living wage.A living wage is great, but it’s not enough for the level of quality and craftsmanship of our products. And it’s not enough for the Lifetime Guarantee we provide. Or complimentary repairs. That's why an ethical 3x a living wage is of the utmost importance: we truly value the work our dressmakers do.If you ever have any issue with your garment, return it to us at not cost to you to be repaired or replaced. Period.Maximizing wear is a major feature of sustainability.It’s about way more than what the dress is made of.We’re creating something timeless and classic here that literally could be worn by your daughters when they have their own children someday. That’s not a fantasy, that’s not just a dream - that’s 100% possible because of the care and attention we give to design and sustainability, and because of your willingness to pass these values on to the next generation.I’ve heard the saying, “Don’t criticize the old, build the new.”And that’s what I want to do with this dress. Will you join me? OnwardSo, you Eco-Conscious Goddess, you, are you ready to elevate your pregnancy and postpartum game in a major way? The WorkhorseTM dress is calling your name.Because we both know that eco-conscious is the antithesis of ugly, cheaply made products produced using foreign labor, shipped halfway around the world. Eco-conscious is functional, beautiful, and luxurious. Eco-conscious means we don’t sacrifice style and values for greed. Eco-consicious is good design.Put your money where your values are, and feel absolutely amazing every time you wear it. Only don’t blame us when you hate the rest of your wardrobe. Click here to pre-order the WorkhorseTM dress in black or daisy.*Bonus*You're still reading?Yay!We made a Spotify playlist just for you, you Eco-Conscious Goddess, you. Someday, everyone will see the importance of the issues you hold dear. Until then, get inspired by these tunes and keep doing your part in the fight for our environment and our world. Click here to listen.
