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"  In 2007, friends Debra Kellner and Marie-H\u00E9l\u00E8ne Gautier did some serious fieldwork to start their own line of organic, sustainable, and fair-trade cotton clothing. The Paris-based freelance photo journalist and fashion editor traveled just south of Nagpur, in the heart of India, often referred to as the cotton belt\u2014an area Kellner visited frequently on assignment for National Geographic\u2014to connect with farmers who would realize their dream. &amp;quot;We were standing in the cotton fields, visiting prospective ginneries. The organic gins smelled lovely, the rest smelled of toxic chemicals,&amp;quot; Kellner says. While traveling through crowds of pickers wearing citrus- and sky-color saris and around mountains of frothy cotton blossoms drying in the sun, the pair found a co-op of nearly 10,000 certified organic farmers from which to source their crop, and offered fair-trade wages\u2014around 40 percent higher than average. &amp;quot;We knew that in order to create a grassroots change in the fields, we had to do our line on a large scale, not made-to-order, which also enables us to charge less. Organic clothing needs to be affordable,&amp;quot; Kellner says. The collection aims to perfect urban basics such as jersey dhoti pants, menswear-inspired vests, and oversize button-downs, sold at fashion-insider shops Le Bon March\u00E9 in Paris, Flying A in NYC, and Liberty in London. &amp;quot;We really wanted to avoid the granola outdoor look that you always see with ecoclothes. There&amp;#039;s a whole new generation of fashionable people who want to wear sustainable clothing, but it has to be cool,&amp;quot; she says. True to their creed, the pair are as unhippieish as one can get, working out of an old candy factory in Montreuil, looking to Parisian hipsters and artists for inspiration, and casting model du jour Dree Hemingway (daughter of eco-advocate Mariel) for their spring lookbook. &amp;quot;After we cast Dree, we fell in love with her,&amp;quot; Kellner says. &amp;quot;And she was raised on organic food! We thought, Perfect!&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/a9948/fashion-spotlight-leaf-319187/>