Update your closet with eco textiles
This issue: eco textiles become luxurious, 'winterizing' your home plus new clearance items and additional markdowns in our sale section.

Hemp, corn, bamboo, even recycled plastic bags—they’re all currently being converted into eco-friendly fibers for apparel, towels, bedding and furnishings. They’re green because they come from sources that do not deplete our natural resources and tread lightly on the planet.

What makes a fiber eco?
At VivaTerra we pay attention to environmental impact and we look closely at a few other things as well—including the manufacturing process. Organic cotton, grown without pesticides or polluting herbicides, is a sensible option, but only if the agents used to whiten and soften the finished fabric contain no environmentally harmful chemicals, as they often do. (We make sure that ours don’t.)

We’ve discovered through trial and error that certain animals, like alpaca, are a great eco-fiber source. They go to the barber, leave their hair or wool on the cutting room floor, and emerge unharmed—and maybe a pound or two lighter.

What’s left behind are natural fibers whose soft hand, thermal properties and pure comfort are pretty much unmatched by synthetics in my experience. That’s one reason VivaTerra has been featuring items like our Ruffled Alpaca Duster, Alpaca Vest, and Alpaca Cardigan since our earliest days.

Earth friendly and people friendly
A camelid, the alpaca’s hollow hairs are fleece, not wool. They’re wonderfully lightweight but surprisingly warm, like merino wool, and they were born to drape.

But there’s another benefit for us in carrying these items. The alpaca apparel, as one example, helps support rural Peruvian women, who’ve formed textile cooperatives to handcraft these items. The money they receive enables them to remain in their communities, rather than move miles from home to find employment in factories. They’re also able to pay to educate their children—and if there’s one hope we hear repeated around the world, from Nepal to Kenya to Peru and beyond, it’s that the young generation, the kids sitting at the feet of these women as they work, will be able to go to school and better their lives as a result.

We’re proud to be able to play a small part in helping the women and their children to realize that dream. Which is why their alpaca garments make us all warm inside, too.

--Bonnie Trust Dahan, Founding Partner

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A 'Green' Linen Closet

Add eco luxury to your linen closet with our bamboo, organic cotton and silk bedding and towels.

100% Bamboo Sheet Sets
Hand-loomed Organic Cotton Towels
Wash & Dry Habotai Silk Sheet Sets
Silk Filled Pillow
Organic Cotton Spa Towels
Silk Comforter

These pesticide-free textiles are not only healthier for the earth - they feel better too. Compare the soft 'hand' and silky texture of any of these natural fabrics to conventionally grown cotton and the difference is unmistakeable.

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Ready for colder weather?

Now's the time to 'winterize' your home while the weather is still warm - you'll save energy & money.

1. Check your furnace's air filter monthly and change it at least every 3 months.
2. If you have radiators place a heat resistant reflector between them and the walls. For floor vents, clear furniture that inhibits the flow of heat.
3. Do a thorough audit of your home for air leaks. Caulk and place weather stripping around windows and door frames that leak.
4. Install a programmable thermostat. You can save up to $150 a year just by doing this.
5. More tips on saving energy for every room in your home.