Small Friends: Unabashed Apparel

I'm introducing a new column on small measure today: small friends. Popping up periodically in the future, "small friends" are folks I know whose work I find particularly inspiring. While their vocations will differ (chocolatiers to clothing designers, jewelers to bread bakers), what unites these friends is a commitment to environmental stewardship. In their chosen professions, my friends have discovered small, gentle ways of treading lightly on the planet whilst pursuing their passions, which is the overall goal of this blog, and of my life as a whole.

I'm beginning today with Sarahbeth Lattimore, proprietress and queen bee of Unabashed Apparel, a clothing line that focuses on sustainable practices. Sarahbeth honed her chops during a childhood surrounded by a family of skilled seamstresses, later pairing that skill set as an adult with a commitment to the environment. From using vintage and organic fabrics, to hand-dying with low-impact fiber reactive dyes to donating 1% of all profits to the non-profit Clean Water for NC, Unabashed Apparel aims, as its website details, "to change the world, one dress at a time."

Recently, Sarabeth sent me an e-mail, in which she recognized our affinity for making conscientious choices for living in harmony with our planet while enjoying the fun that fashion imbues life with. In her own words: I know you're a gal that can get behind the idea that homestead, responsible, and conscious living does not mean that we all have to have knarly hair, wear burlap feed bags and Birkenstocks. I'm an environmentalist and a fashion designer. I think at the end of the day I believe clothing should do a couple of things: charm, feel good, and do the least amount of harm to the world around us that it can. A woman after my own heart, indeed.

Sarahbeth will soon be launching a children's clothing line, to be titled "Bashful." If her line of garments for wee ones is anything like her women's items, then we're in store for some truly splendid, and sustainable, fashions. Thanks for all you do, Sarahbeth!

*Images property of Sarahbeth Lattimore.