Popular fabric designer Harmony Art, based in Gualala, CA, and online fabric retailer Organic Cotton Plus, based in Ridgefield, CT, have become certified to the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS).

Organic Cotton Plus is the oldest organic fabric business in the U.S., opening in 1991. In 2010, it was acquired by Fox-Rich Textiles, Harmony Art’s fabric supplier. In 2005, Harmony Art changed its focus to designing only for organically grown cotton, adding colour and design to what had been mostly white and natural colour fabrics. Harmony Art is the U.S.’s first solely organic fabric designer to get certified to GOTS. 

The companies are two of the first to get certified to the voluntary standard in North America (by independent certifier OneCert). By doing so, they have dramatically increased the strength of the GOTS supply chain in the region. When manufacturers of finished products using the fabrics get certified, the chain will be complete, and consumers will be able to view reference to GOTS on promotional materials.

The two are also some of the first U.S. companies to get certified to GOTS since the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in May, 2011, announced new textile labeling guidelines addressing which textiles may be considered “organic,”— similar to those that are in place for organic food. Finished products must be certified either to GOTS or the USDA standard to be able to carry the claim they are “organic”. As the USDA regulations focus primarily on agricultural production and inputs and do not include processing or manufacturing standards for most textile products, GOTS-certified products may be sold as “organic” in the U.S.