The Natural Products Expo held annually in Anaheim is a 'who's who' of the Natural/Organic product and service world. Food, supplements, health & beauty products, apparel, packaging and even pets are covered in this massive convention. 1,800 booths in all showcasing their wares and I'd imagine that they came close to reaching 50,000 attendees this year. Not surprisingly, there is good and bad news in all of this. The good news is that this industry is growing and made up of very passionate and enthusiastic folks many of whom aim to put much more intelligent, well conceived (and less toxic) products into the marketplace. On the downside, opportunism and false claims are clearly present and a side effect of the rapid growth. The LA Times wrote a piece about some sketchy claims by some of the companies in attendance here.
One of the events that I attended at the Expo was the "Think Vitality Fashion Show", a fund-raiser for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (although they never mentioned how much was raised, which always gives me pause). As a creator/producer of fashion events such as EcoNouveau, I am always game to see what others are doing. Overall, the show was decent, although I felt like the designers were secondary to self-promotion of Think Vitality. I actually saw TV's founder Lizanne Falsetto being escorted by a slew of bodyguards to the afterparty. 'Nuff said...
High points for me were the energy of the room, a celebration of breast cancer survivors who paraded down the runway, and collections by Under the Canopy and Linda Loudermilk. It's nice to see UTC taking more chances and Linda's line's always have some daring pieces. I was also pleased to see the more casual lines of Livity and Indigenous Designs showing great progress merging sustainable textiles and a much improved eye for style. Koi Swimwear had some great suits although as was the case with every piece in the entire show, there was nary a mention of what any of the garments were made out of.
Overall, I still think 'eco-fashion' has a way to go to really penetrate a very cynical fashion marketplace and more importantly, get designers and their customers to understand why it's important to care about. Continued improvements in design, style and to me the weakest offering, presentation (venue, models, message, branding etc.) really must accelerate for trendsetters and culture makers to take it seriously enough to wear and promote the apparel. Otherwise, it stays fringe and in my book, that is a tragedy of epic proportions. I didn't see much press coverage beyond the usual 'green' suspects and for as much money that was spent on the event, that's also problematic.
So, what to make of NPE? It's exciting that there is so much interest in a more ethical marketplace. I suspect many of these companies are gearing themselves to be bought by the Hain/Heinz, Colgate-Palmolives and other consumer giants looking to capitalize on the growth of the the natural/organic products world (although I think many of them need much better brand positioning and distribution strategies). Competition appears stiff as long as we are playing the capitalist game comprised of ROI and exit strategies...
One strong piece of advise for New Hope, the company that runs NPE--please recycle! It was truly disconcerting that a convention that claims a more 'earth friendly' way of operating allows for the level of waste that I saw amidst the sampling/giveaways that almost every booth offered. I ended up bringing all of the water and energy drink giveaways that I drank during the course of the day to my bin at home because there were no recycling containers provided by the host. Come on people!
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