New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco – there are oodles of places to go in big cities to shop for sustainable fashion … but what about middle America? The truly cutting-edge brands and passion-inspired designers are often found in unlikely places, including smaller metropolis … like Chicago!

Established in 1998, Mountains of the Moon (MOTM) began as a line with only a few pieces worn by an avid following. Now, a decade later, MOTM has numerous dresses, skirts, shirts, and pants in versatile colors and everyday shapes.

A proud advocate of small, indie creative folks, I am elated to bring you a fantastic interview with Mountains of the Moon’s founder and designer, Melissa Baswell.

Read about Melissa’s childhood fashion curiosities, Chicago’s growing sustainable community, what its like modeling her own designs, exciting milestones, what sets MOTM apart from other eco-fashion brands … AND MORE!

This is truly one of my most engrossing interviews yet, so grab a cup of tea and immerse yourself in the vivid personality that is Melissa Baswell of Mountains of the Moon. Also, make sure to feast your eyes on the images of her limited edition Spring 2009 Eco-Luxury line (modeled by Melissa herself); seen first right here on Victoria-E.com!

Victoria Everman: When did you first become interested in the world of fashion?

Melissa Baswell: Basically from birth!  My mom used to sew dresses for me as a little girl and I was fascinated.  I learned how to hand-sew clothing for my stuffed animals from my mother’s left-over fabric scraps and a needle and thread before I learned to read. Growing up, I was also intrigued by “alternative” fashion.

I loved a good fashion mag, but it was playing around with thrift store clothing and re-making existing garments that really created a passion inside of me to become a designer. I remember a friend of a friend in high school saying, “Melissa’s style is so unique.  I love that she dresses for herself.”  At the time I wasn’t sure how to take that, but looking back, I couldn’t ask for a better compliment.

How did you decide to start a clothing brand? Was Mountains of the Moon started with the idea of being eco-friendly from the beginning?

I went to college for theater (acting).  I sewed clothing for friends (mainly up-cycled thrift store pieces that I recreated) all through my college years, but it was a required costume design class that created that spark and prompted me to start my own line.  I got the acting degree, but I knew well before graduation that I’d follow the fashion path instead.

Mountains of the Moon was definitely started with the idea of being an eco-friendly line.  I started the line (albeit on a much different level than it is now) in the late 90s, well before eco-fashion was an everyday word, but the idea of using recycled and hemp fabrics seemed natural to me.  I was raised on organic foods, and from childhood, my mother instilled in me a profound interest in combining creativity with environmentalism. I was the president of my high school’s Ecology Preservation Club, and in college, I divided my free time between interning with WISPIRG’s Environmental Education Department and recycling thrift store clothing into “renewed” garments on my hand-me-down sewing machine.

I started sewing one-of-a-kind pieces for profit immediately after college, so really, it all just came together when I started the line; there wasn’t really any thought put into it.  It just happened, and it worked.  Thankfully there are a lot more eco-friendly fabrics available today.  Ten years ago, it was much more difficult, but it forced me to be creative, which enables me to do really unique things with the materials that are available in the present.  I sort of decided when I started this line that my goal would be to bring hemp to the world of high fashion.  Now there is so much more out there than just hemp.  It’s so exciting to see so many new sustainable fabrics popping up each season.

What are some of the great, unique features of Chicago’s sustainable community?

I have lived all over the country, everywhere from small towns in Oregon and Colorado to cities in Florida and Indiana.  I’m from Chicago, and a couple of years ago decided to move back on a whim.  It is amazing to see how much this city has changed in regards to sustainability.  SustainLane named us the fourth Greenest City in the U.S. this year, and it’s easy to see why, with Mayor Daly’s incredibly progressive green efforts.  The thing about Chicago is that it’s a major metropolis, but it’s so unpretentious.  Working as a community is second nature here, and there are so many eco-themed events that both the city and different organizations put on, and they always draw a crowd.

The fashion community in Chicago is really amazing too.  There are so many emerging designers who start out here but then relocate to New York, so for those of us who choose to base our lines here, we’re really taken care of.  The Apparel Industries Board (AIBI) have given me so many incredible opportunities that I would most likely not receive in NYC because of the sheer volume of designers there, and the fashion community here is really open to the idea of sustainable fashion.

Along with designing, making, and promoting MOTM, you both model the brand’s clothing on your website. What is it like to be “the face” of a fashion company?

It’s funny because Rachel [MOTM's Head of Business Development and PR Director] and I both modeled part time as teens, so when we decided to model the line, it ended up being so much fun, like we were reliving the old days!  Really, though, we felt that rather than contacting a big agency for models who maybe didn’t wear sustainable clothing in the real world, that it made sense for us – real people who have a passion for both the environment and fashion – to represent the line and what it stands for in a real way.

We wear these clothes on a daily basis, and we connect with them on a pretty profound level, from concept to finished product.  Customers can look at the photographs of our collections and see more than just the clothing.  They can also see the faces behind the clothing, and that is important to us.

You both recently attended the San Francisco Green Festival (the largest of all the Green Festivals) – what was it like? Tell us all the pros and cons.

This was the first time we traveled to the San Francisco Green Festival (this year will be our third time exhibiting at the Chicago one), and it was really a wonderful experience for us.  We met other designers who we really only knew from the phone and internet, were approached by several publications about featuring our line, met some of our west coast stores in person for the first time, and were able to meet customers face to face who have been wearing our clothing for years.  The only downside was the obvious – the economy.

We like to keep it local, but we also like to travel with our collections. Even with every effort made to cut down on costs and our carbon footprint, it was not a cheap trip for an independent fashion designer and a small business development director; let’s just put it that way.  Sales were down from past festivals too (again, the economy), but thankfully our prices are very reasonable (another aspect of our company that is very important to us – chic eco-fashion should be available to everyone) and customers really appreciated that.

For the past year, you have gotten a lot of great press in major media outlets and popular eco-friendly blogs. What has been the most exciting part of the MOTM experience so far?

2008 was a major year for us.  With all of the new eco-fashion lines popping up recently, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle.  There only used to be a few of us out there, but there wasn’t much media attention on the sustainable clothing industry either.  In ’08, not only did we receive some really fabulous write-ups from the press, but we were also given opportunities that never would have existed for eco-designers a few years ago.

I was the headlining speaker at Green Apple Festival in April where I spoke to a crowd of 20,000 on the benefits of wearing sustainable fashion, which was amazing.  The most exciting experience for me personally was probably having a recycled candy wrapper dress that I made displayed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in October.  Being the only fashion line in the top ten nominees for Co-op America’s Green Business of the Year was pretty cool too!

How is Mountains of the Moon different from other eco-conscious clothing companies?

From our inception, I have always really made an effort to stick by my goal of creating stylish clothing that is not only eco-friendly, but also affordable.  My background is in art and I love high fashion, but I also have a strong belief that a dress doesn’t need to cost $500 to be really chic, eco-friendly or otherwise.  So we’ve structured this business model where a large portion of the design/production process is spent on costing.  I sit down and I look at my expenses (and choosing local, USA-based labor, sustainable materials, and low impact dying is not cheap), and I think “okay, how can I price this design so that our company doesn’t go under, but so that the everyday person can still afford to wear it and look stylish?”

It is definitely a process!  We’re sort of our own entity in that way.  Our collections are contemporary – they aren’t outdoor wear or t-shirts or like the more mass-produced eco-friendly pieces that you can buy for $30.  Really, I design clothing that is similar in style to what you find in high-end designer boutiques, but at a lower price point.  It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.  I never thought there would be so much math involved with fashion design, I can tell you that!  It’s all a learning process.

What do you say to the folks that still believe global warming is just a myth?

A relative recently tried to convince me that global warming exists, but is not the result of human abuse, and is simply part of the natural cycle.  Despite my internal emotional response, which fluctuated between anger and disbelief (and a little laughter at his absurdity), I was able to calmly explain the facts.  Surprisingly, he was impressed and promised to do more research.  I think one of the most important things that we as environmentalists can do is to educate without being judgmental or condescending, and without bombarding people with too much information at once in conversation.

A gentle push toward the truth is my strategy.  Instead of rolling my eyes or starting a debate, I offer to point the non-believers (for lack of a better word ) to the facts .  There is easily accessible research all over the internet, in magazines and beyond with proof to global warming’s existence.

If there isn’t time or the conversation doesn’t allow me to go in depth on the subject, I simply ask them if they want to live.  It sounds dramatic, but it is a realistic possibility.  Not everyone is going to care about the fate of the earth, but most everyone cares about whether they live or die.  Global warming isn’t just killing the earth, it’s killing humans as well.  The world’s population depends on a very interconnected infrastructure that will not survive in the end if we continue to wreak havoc on the environment.

Do you have any other nifty, secret projects in the works that you could hint at?

Yes!  I actually have two projects in the works.

One is a new line for spring ’09 that we’ll be doing on a small level, called Melissa Baswell Eco-Luxury, that focuses on designer pieces.  They are being produced in smaller quantities than our Mountains of the Moon collections, with very upscale, classic cuts and really luxurious fabrics and trims.

The other involves an epiphany of sorts that I had on a trip to Jamaica in December for a festival that my boyfriend’s band puts on.   2008 was such a challenging year for independent designers. I’d been searching for ways to connect with my passion for being creative again, instead of worrying so much about the business end of being a designer, and how to survive in the current economy in an industry that markets products that are often considered luxury rather than necessity.

When I got my start, I was very involved in the music industry and did a lot of styling and design work for bands and events.  Over the years, even though my focus changed, I still stayed connected to this industry and continued to do occasional styling work.  In Jamaica, I was completely immersed back into the music industry, and completely separated from my work as a designer in the fashion industry, and something about it (along with the sunshine and my beautiful surroundings) felt so fresh and inspiring.  I decided that 2009 would be a year of changes: new president, new sense of hope, and new career path.

That said, in ’09 we’ll be taking Mountains of the Moon down to a smaller scale in terms of existing just as a clothing line, and branching out to focus more of our time and efforts as an apparel and merchandise designer for bands and music industry events.  Our experience in the fashion field is exactly what is needed in an industry where merchandise is usually limited to screen-printed t-shirts.  We’re also specializing in eco-friendly design, which a lot of bands are curious about, but don’t have the knowledge to be able to accomplish on their own.

This will be a major project, but in the few weeks since we’ve launched the idea to a small handful of people, we’ve gotten an incredible response (and three jobs lined up!).  I love the idea of finally finding a way to combine my three greatest loves:  fashion, music and the environment.

[Images courtesy of Mountains of the Moon]

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