Two years ago when Jada-lee Watson began designing eco-friendly clothing, she had trouble finding gentle-on-the-planet fabrics. Now, she told the Georgia Straight, they’re everywhere. Organic cotton, bamboo, well-made hemp, soy, and organic linen are readily available, thanks to companies such as Syka Textiles. But the future of environmental fashion in Vancouver has one more major hurdle—the drought of professional sewers in the city. Without them, the green dream of local manufacturing with zero international shipping disappears.

“I was really lucky to find a small, family-run group of three women who will sew for me,” Watson said in an interview from Salt Spring Island, where her company Nixxi is based. “They’re all really socially aware in the way they run their business, and I’m supporting that for sure.”

At this weekend’s Green Living Show (February 29 to March 2 at B.C. Place Stadium), 13 green designers will be exhibiting and participating in two fashion shows. They include Surrey’s Bamboo Clothes and Vancouver’s Shirtseed Clothing. Watson said shoppers are looking for sustainable alternatives in their clothing, and that bigger companies are also jumping on the green train. But like so many local designers featured in this column have indicated, the key to cutting the carbon footprint of clothing lies in local manufacturing—and that means sewing.

Clara Jang, the woman behind Clara Couture dressmaking and tailoring (2324 Burrard Street), said most of her sewers are over 40. “The young people who are graduating from fashion-design schools love doing design, but they don’t want to sew,” she told the Straight. “A lot of my sewers who have 30 or more years of experience, they always have a lot of jobs to do. They’re too busy because there’s just so much work out there for them. This is a hard industry to get people into, because you have to be very patient—sewing takes time.”

Jang is a third-generation tailor, but she thinks her profession is dying on the West Coast. In another 20 years, she believes, it will be even harder to find local seamstresses; young people just don’t have the patience for it.

They do, however, have the desire to wear green garments, and Watson’s are extraordinary. Nixxi’s spring 2008 line includes wrap shirts made from soft organics, a casual wrap dress, and a cap-sleeved hoodie capri suit. A soy/organic cotton/spandex camisole sells for $45, and a hemp/soy/organic cotton/spandex wrap hoodie is $96. Her super-wide-cut organic linen pants with pin-tuck detailing near the cuffs are $120. Last season, her collection included screened imagery from nature—an aesthetic she said she’s moving away from in order to focus on the simplicity of the designs, and to show off the person wearing them.

Watson—who grew up on a boat that sailed between B.C. and the Caribbean, where her father’s family is from—said her early experiences shaped her sense of responsibility, and now so do her three children, aged 3, 7, and 9. The word nixxi, she explained, is an Old English term for water sprites. The meaning: guidance and protection. To Watson, protecting the planet is part of her role as a designer.

“It’s exciting to be a part of something that’s growing like this,” Watson said. “For me, my eco-consciousness started with food, and it grew to clothing. There’s just so much awareness out there now.”