Talking about race and cotton has always had some uncomfortable realities in the U.S. with the history of slavery. But some black cotton farmers are changing the look of the cotton industry and of the fabric for some members of the community. I am here for it!

I’ve written about some before, but thought with black history month and a recent big story on ABC News, I really had to put something here on the site.

Julius Tillery aka Black Cotton U.S.

For years, I’ve known Julius Tillery — you may remember this article about Black Cotton U.S. from back in the day.

ABC News ran a great piece on Julius recently and the interview includes some of the pieces about the recognition that there is some healing to do in the black community because of the deep pain associated with cotton in the past.

Not only is Julius clearly, and outwardly acknowledging that history, but he is also sharing his entrepreneurial journey to success which includes his family’s small farm. He has found the connections to history also empowering at times. And having seen other family members speak to the business, I know there are generations proud of Julius.

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Bridgeforth Cotton

There is a farm in northern Alabama that has been owned and operated by the Bridgeforth family since the 1800s! Having had a chance to talk with Bill Bridgeforth and some of the other members of the family, it’s clear that black cotton farmers have no doubt faced more challenges than their white neighbors.

The Bridgeforths knew and worked alongside names that stand out in history including working at Tuskegee Institute with Booker T Washington and George Washington Carver! You really should read some of their family history & accomplishments.

But you also should see what they are doing now cause they have done some cool things like provide cotton for the black history month shirts at Target and the like! Now they even have a direct farm brand of t-shirts, etc.

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Shun Binford aka Bearded Farmer

Going to confess, I hadn’t met Shun til a few years ago. Caught a video of him somewhere and had to track his channels down. He’s further south in Alabama, but does a good job of showing people the ins and out of the work he does.

And he usually puts it in the terms of #socksanddraws.

@beardedfarmer_5minmil #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp #socksndraws #cotton #fyp ♬ original sound – Bearded Farmer

Like a lot of farmers, Shun likes equipment and does a LOT OF WORK cleaning, maintaining and when needed, fixing equipment. He’s always got something to talk about.

The post Reducing the Stigma of Cotton for the Black Community appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Gotta love how really soft t-shirts can make it easy to represent your interests in total comfort! Recently, I wanted to buy a couple of new shirts specifically to show my pride in living in St. Louis to wear as I went to SXSW (some tips I wrote for SXSW attendees).

I did a lot of searches for local companies and found some great designs and immediately went to see what styles of shirts they could put it on. There were shirts that proclaimed a love of St. Louis foods (so many great ones!) and our pride in diversity.

As I looked through the details though, it looked like all the shirts were a cotton-polyester blend. This has become more common than I want to acknowledge since I am a huge fan of the breathability of cotton and prefer natural fibers.

It was the same on some other big websites recently.

Somewhere along the line, marketing and positioning of certain blends have been taken to be the softest t-shirts. I get that in the store on day one it may feel softer than some cotton t-shirts but I take the broader look.

Quality cotton t-shirts only get softer and comfier as they get worn whereas blends can tend to pilling showing the wear. And ring-spun cotton has such an amazing feel just because of the type of machine that makes the fabric!

I decided to reach out to the small business knowing they print shirts to order. They said they would check the possibilities. I never got options from that company, but I did find some soft t-shirts sharing my love of cotton & St. Louis that I am going to enjoy for the long term.

And I will keep asking for 100 percent cotton options… and sharing the love of soft t-shirts old and new!

The post In Search of Really Soft T-Shirts appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Vintage fashion is definitely sustainable, but with the popularity of those two things companies want the branding too like J. Crew Always. J. Crew announced their new approach to vintage as part of the company’s sustainability effort & I am so in.

And I’m not going to lie, there were some prized J. Crew clothing in the 90s that will forever reside in my heart.

J. Crew has long been a brand that dives deep into cotton and other natural fibers. Based on the quality of the garments and how much customers are loyal to the brand, it’s easy to bet people have held onto some of their favorite clothing from years past even if they don’t fit!

And while some of those choice outfits come back as teens go retro and search parents closets, others search these items out in resale shops from Goodwill to PoshMark and beyond. Some doesn’t have as clear a path.

And let’s face it, fashion from the 90s is hot enough to be lighting up Instagram!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Now J. Crew wants a piece of it — via J. Crew Always — financially and from the customer experience viewpoint. And the halo back to the brand.

Under the company’s new “J. Crew Always” banner, pre-owned styles will be listed through its website and through ThredUp (TDUP.O), an online consignment platform which partners with the clothing retailer on resale services.

Reuters

My guess is 90s fashion will be popular whether it comes from a closet in the house, a resale shop that sales a range of brands or the new J. Crew Always banner. But J. Crew is making a clear indication they want that relationship with customers old and new, much as REI has done with it’s Re-supply effort.

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I absolutely wish I was in the Mississippi Delta Monday. There have been various times when I’ve missed the Delta since I left there well over a decade ago, but only a few of the occasions have had specific times and places to be.

All weekend I thought about ways I may be able to make it work while also knowing it was just not going to happen. That emotional pull to drive south is brought on by the loss of a dear friend, mentor, incredible innovator and humble leader – Kenneth Hood. I wanted to be in Duncan, MS to celebrate his life, mourn his loss and just be around others who realize this wasn’t a typical Monday.

When I got word of his passing, it was a bit disorienting.

Kenneth has been such a constant in the cotton business throughout my lifetime that I have trouble picturing the industry without him. But that sounds like he was some larger than life person, and he absolutely was, but when I moved to the Delta, he was also a neighbor. Granted, his place was 45 minutes away, but when you drive 30 minutes to go to the grocery store, the neighborhood is larger than most urban neighborhoods.

That neighbor status change let me have so many interactions with Kenneth, his wife Betty and various people on the farm (including the office manager and Kenneth’s brother). The access of being local and all, meant we had a lot of opportunities to find common ground.

Kenneth and I both enjoyed hosting people from around the world and helping them get to know our little part of the planet. We became such a regular combination on the agendas of various groups that we joked that we should do each other’s presentation to make it interesting!

But I seriously cannot imagine where we would be without Kenneth.

He was the first farmer who saw such incredible potential in digital technology that he was working with NASA years on how to apply satellite imagery & digital maps to his cotton fields before any of us had Google maps!

Whether a person was from a nearby town or from the other side of the planet, hospitality was always extended. He listened to others intently to understand their experiences and humbly offered his perspective as well.

Kenneth was the only farmer who came to mind when I’d get a call from a reporter who clearly had an agenda about herbicides but who I knew we needed to try with anyway. We knew Kenneth would steadily talk through his experience, doing everything a human could do to help the reporter understand how much weeds rob plants of water, nutrients, etc and that not controlling them would mean higher prices for his customers and a lot more headaches for him too. And he’d sit in awe of how calmly others did the same thing taking notes for the future.

He was the one who would tell you about a problem with something before spreading the word through the grapevine. He wanted to test new products and help find those things that would perform better for cotton farmers across the Belt. His insight on what was working and what wasn’t became critical to knowing a product had been thoroughly tested.

And when you had had a long day, spending too much time in the sun and dust, Kenneth would magically pull a cold drink out and sit down and start talking to you about the wonder of a five-lock cotton boll. You could see the stress of the day melting away and that sense of joy in being part of something so wholesome and natural as producing fiber that will clothe neighbors and people far away seems as miraculous to you as it should be.

I moved away from the Delta more than a decade ago, but I keep a lot of it with me and seeing Kenneth Hood and others immediately bring that back to the surface. I miss knowing that smile is out there, knowing at any time I could go around a corner at a meeting and see my dear friend and neighbor. And my heart breaks for Betty and the rest of the family.

Sending virtual hugs along with people in every corner of the cotton world. Kenneth was one of a kind and he will be forever missed.

The post We Will Long Miss Kenneth Hood appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Have you ever heard of the Cotton Belt? It’s one of those phrases you can catch in the news, a region mentioned that may make sense to some but not all.

The US Cotton Belt goes from coast-to-coast and includes a lot more states than you may realize. A lot of times people think of the deep south and don’t realize cotton farms extend further north and west. In fact, cotton is currently being grown in 17 states!

Each state in the region has conditions — weather, soils, etc — that make growing cotton possible. That means each state has areas with longer, warmer summers.

There are cotton gins in each of the states that help process the crop by separating the fiber from the cotton seed. Many of those gins are cooperatives that help move the crop to the warehouses and merchants for sale.

And it’s a major crop in 14 of those states, according to the National Cotton Council.

The post What is the Cotton Belt? appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Cotton pickers are some of the coolest machines out there. I mean, memes keep coming back that compare the lights and action of cotton harvest with a mainstage concert!

I love watching cotton getting picked! And getting a ride along is always a fun way to go…. sometimes farmers have even trusted me behind the wheel, but I’m really best suited for the buddy seat.

Basic Functions of Cotton Pickers

The basic premise of a cotton picker is to pull cotton off of plants leaving as much of the plant matter in the field as possible to reduce the possibility of contaminants making it to the gin or the textile mill. But the way they do it is an amazingly complex system of actions.

Here’s a drawing I made to show some of the primary elements of the machine.

Spindles Pull Cotton From the Plant

Cotton pickers have spindles that rotate on cylinders that rotate as well. The roughened metal of the spindle pulls the cotton from the plant. There are cotton pickers and then there are cotton strippers… they both harvest cotton, but cotton pickers are a bit different in that they can harvest cleaner fiber because of the spindles whereas strippers strip everything off the mainstem.

You can see in this photo how the spindles are lined up between the two gray guides.

Rows of spindles around the cylinder, keep lots of movement, trying to leave the branches of the plant and even the bracts in tact. The bracts are the parts of the plant that keep the fiber attached until picked.

Compacting Cotton for Transport to the Gin

There are a few ways this is done now:

• Cotton is still collected in trailers without compacting in some countries but this is rare in the U.S.
• Separate machinery from the picker that is used at the field’s edge. This was common in the recent past but has become much less common in the U.S. You can see this in an old post about how moduling comes after cotton harvest.
• On-board moduling / bales that happens as the cotton picker continues to pick more fiber. I shared a photo essay on the John Deere picker that creates modules in the field back in 2010.

And this tweet and the image in it…. that’s what got me to blog today! Love seeing a diagram of what happens in the basket with the on-board moduling system!

Funciona de uma colheitadeira de algodão pic.twitter.com/DwtJUwYIsn

— Agricultura (@agricultura4you) July 9, 2022

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This is the building that housed Delta and Pine Land Company for decades. It went from a farm-based headquarters that included the store for tenant farmers, to the headquarters of a cotton seed company that would totally change cotton farming. (Wanna see historical photos? This one in the NY Public Library collection includes one of the first building that had been torn down before I got there.)

I moved into an office just above the post office in 1996 when I moved from White Plains, NY to a place that couldn’t have been more different.

At the time, D&PL was in growth mode but still in a town of hundreds by day, fewer by night. We were packed tightly. There were some employees in trailers and a new building was getting built. I had to share an office for a while and I think they couldn’t have put people with more diverse needs in an office together. I talked to people on the phone and would sit pondering how to write things while Donna would be knocking out data on that keyboard.

The D&PL building had a lot of character and housed lots of characters, many I am lucky enough to call friends.

Sure, the building was not well-suited to the use by the 1990s. We all made jokes about how new employees were tested by whether they could work their way through the maze to find their office or the office of someone they were supposed to meet with. (I remember the test of finding the board room.)

There were exterior doors in weird places because work flows had changed and other buildings put up. Employees hired. And many of us moved away over the years.

Since moving to St. Louis, I haven’t been back much and don’t have a lot of time when I have gone. Not sure whether I took this photo when I went back several years ago to visit Miss Dot just a short while before she passed. We all knew it was imminent so it definitely made the visit through the Delta more somber.

How I Want to Picture that D&PL Building

I’d like to think it was, because the sun and this brilliant blue sky was needed…. I don’t think I could have handled a gray winter day then and I’d prefer to remember the sunnier days.

Make it a sunny spring or early summer day. A day warm enough so that the couple of folks fishing Deer Creek wouldn’t need to sit on the 5 gallon buckets to stay warm…. the ground was already warm enough on its own which means cotton was being planted or maybe it was already up so you could see the rows.

A day when the parking lot was filled and cars would stop in the fire zone long enough to get mail for a house since there was no home delivery.

A day when maybe some out of town visitor found themselves on the backroads and turned in when they saw the sign for lunch at the Scott Store. Friends and I coming together from the old building, the new one, the print shop, QA & even from across the creek….. All of having that meat and three in the store and hearing the laughter from stories told as Charles wrote down the latest amount that would be added to my tab on the index card and put in an old box.

I may not get there much, but Scott, MS is the kind of place that sticks with you once you have called it home for a little while. The building spurred the walk down memory lane today, but the images are forever tattooed on my memory. And I still have my more frequent visits to Scott virtually a lot more often by hopping on the phone or visiting with friends who I met there.

I am forever changed by having called Scott, MS home.

The post Remembering Scott, Mississippi & that Old D&PL Headquarter Building appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

October 7, 2021 is World Cotton Day and it seemed like the better excuse to finally get myself back to writing something for this neglected website. I routinely think I should write something about…. And then I get pulled back into my day job or something I was already in the midst of. But today, World Cotton Day stopped me in my tracks and made me open the browser.

World Cotton Day Theme

The proliferation of days to acknowledge one topic, industry, group gets a bit overwhelming at times. Yet, the reality is, there are so many things happening that simply tagging a specific day to consider a topic that few give thought to can make a difference. And for those who are involved in the topic at much greater depth, this year the theme the UN set was “Cotton for Good.”

If you read much on this site, you know there are a range of factors that can get connected to something that many of us don’t give a thought to as something that starts as a plant and ends up as fabric. But cotton is amazingly good in so many ways!

One of the things that this theme does is really show some differences among countries about the role cotton plays. For some countries, cotton is a primary economic driver where as in others it may be a fashion piece more than economics. Cotton really does do it all as this silly meme I created shows.

Cotton and the Environment

As someone who worked at a cotton seed company for years, I’m used to thinking about the origins of cotton. How farmers in the US and the more temperate and tropical countries grow it, tending the soil and stewarding water and more but the product itself has such inherently good qualities too!

A few things I’ll point you to:

• Water Use in Cotton — Sometimes I hear about the amount of water cotton uses, appreciate having good resources on it.
• Does cotton have an after life? — The natural fiber is definitely a boost when you think about how to discard of it. Cotton can break down naturally in the soil AND it can be used to insulate homes too!

Creating Jobs & More

The economic engine of cotton has had some challenges in the US with cheaper, unskilled labor in several countries luring textile jobs from the US, but that could be changing.

We are seeing small niche companies like Red Land Cotton producing heirloom quality sheets and sharing their full supply chain. And major brands like Wrangler have product lines that move through the US cotton industry from farms to textile mills. And we can see the contributions of even small town cotton gins! And farmers who are taking the creative spin to do home decor too!

And it created this little website in my mind and now maybe I can get it back in my weeks!

The post Celebrating World Cotton Day with Extra Goodness This Year appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

I’ve been meaning to write something here for a while… I have missed my cotton time. I need to visit a cotton field or two. Maybe ten.

And as Facebook memories showed me how I spent a Friday night years ago on a drive for Memphis, I had to share as I think I am well overdue for stopping in random cotton fields as I travel too. Reminded I need to just get going again so here I post.

I have no idea whether the 2021 crop looks this good in Missouri and am realizing I need to spend some time figuring it out. This video was taken in 2017 and that was a really good year for a lot of U.S. cotton farmers although Hurricane Harvey took a bite of Texas. Somehow a lot of people got rains when they needed it and hot sunny days when they needed those. Having been at home a lot more than previous years, I need to catch up.

Sure, I know 2021 has presented challenges, but it is a bit harder to keep a handle on them when you aren’t in the middle of it on a regular basis. And this is the time of year, farmers are beginning to really see what may make it to harvest (if a hurricane, hail or some other storm doesn’t hit).

Have you had a chance to check out a cotton field recently? Have you ever seen one?

If you get this because you subscribe to my emails, don’t forget you can reply and tell me what’s happening in your part of the world too!

I’m ready to see a cotton plant loaded up with cotton bolls and blooming out the top! Bet I make it to a cotton field soon!

The post A Cotton Field in Late July, Taking a Look at Growth appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Working professionally for more years than I’d like to admit, I’ve seen a lot of challenges thrown my way. I mean, heck, I did issues management at what was probably one of the world’s most hated and misunderstood companies in that timeline. Even with that as my reality, one of the toughest pieces of working in the agency and corporate world was finding good professional clothing for women.

It sometimes felt like I was looking for unicorns.

There are links in this post that may result in a commission for any sales generated from this site.

Since I mentioned I am looking for unicorns, you may not be able to picture the elusive wardrobe. I’ve gotten pieces over the years. Great pieces in fact. But putting together a wardrobe that meets goals of looking and feeling professional, confident and comfortable can be excruciating.

But for the various brands out there, I feel this time of office workers working at home can really provide us a chance to make this elusive item as common as hand-sewn face masks are rapidly becoming.

Current State of Professional Clothes for Women

With so many professional women working from home for weeks if not month now, we are reminded how comfortable clothes can be. Sure, a lot of us are wearing sweats, yoga pants, etc but it’s rarely women who are having no pants days as they zoom into meetings or do the newscast from home (seriously, what was that about?).

This is dramatically different from what most wear to the office. And while we have frequently chosen between professional and comfortable or stylish and comfortable or anything else and comfortable…. it seems we have been short-changed on comfort with the other pieces. And while women don’t have a single work wardrobe (unlike the blue buttondown and khakis that were so constant with my last employer’s men that it was joked about by everyone), there are a few pieces of professional clothing for women we need in our wardrobe.

Here’s my take on what we have and how it can be improved.

The Most Common Pieces in a Professional Woman’s Wardrobe

Having the right clothes for the job you have is really my idea of professional clothing for women and men. Most of my career I have been an office employee. I didn’t need gear that would help protect me from the elements. Rather, I need to show that I care about my appearance.

So the options?

Dresses / Skirts

Not gonna lie, for a long time the fact I had to wear dresses to school for two years while the siblings were in shorts, jeans, etc colored my view of dresses in a cloud of ick. I did grow up and I have found some good year-round dresses. And they really fuel my wardrobe lots of days (except winter). And I have some friends who love all the dresses and skirts. My favorite brand is Svaha (affiliate link) cause they are smart, fun and have pockets! Cotton dresses with pockets for the win!

But so many women’s dresses are made out of synthetic or blended fabric that doesn’t breathe well or look good over time unless it is dry cleaned so I’d love other options? Maybe coordinates for suits that don’t take years of search to find.

Slacks

Men seem to have a great slate of slacks to wear. They are cut to fit nicely. But so often women’s slacks…. I don’t know why I can never find a brand that fit me well. In the past when I did, I would buy them in every color like I did my favorite t-shirts! And yes, I have khakis but they were the bane of my existence. How many women enjoy the look of khaki pants? Those were first to go when I began to work from home. So more often than not, I wear black jeans. I just keep some new enough they don’t show wear too much.

Jackets/Blazers

The other day I posted photos from some of the training I was doing and immediately got compliments on my power jacket. Not gonna lie, I know it will get comments, it is a killer color.

And unlike so many blazers on the market, this one is made with natural fibers… Yes. It is mostly cotton. I originally bought the blazer in black, wore it a couple times and went back to get it in another color because it looks sharp and for the most part feels good. But I’m not going to lie, the polyester lining… what’s that about? It can really mess a girl up, especially when doing a public speaking gig under lights on a stage cause it gets hot.

With all of that in mind, I find myself grabbing a denim jacket more often than I like. But based on that I have a few colors — the traditional blue, black and white. I also have a really weathered blue I wear more casually. I have both hundred percent cotton and some with a bit of stretch in them. I refuse to buy a blend that’s higher than 10 percent synthetic because it will get hot & sweaty.

Shirts / Blouses

Going to say this is one where I have found more brands providing options. But it’s still a lot harder to find cotton shirts for women than it is for men. The long-sleeved blouses that fit our shapes are appreciated. We’d like some short sleeved ones that aren’t polo-style. I buy a lot of shells / tank tops to wear under those blazers I mentioned. And I wear quite a few nice t-shirts and sweaters. We appreciate more in all categories.

Other Things Brands May Want to Know

Just in case there is a brand out there listening…. We do look for more in professional clothing for women. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Colors & Patterns

I tend to go for classic colors and keeping prints simple when possible for work. If I can’t do simple prints, I’d go for prints that connected to my work in food, farming and science. That is what led me to wearing a watermelon skirt and a dress covered in DNA (not the CSI kind, but it has the double helix as the design. There are lots of niche companies who are doing really well in this space and when I look around and ask friends where they found things, I am frequently pointed to small businesses that cater to us online.

Online Shopping

I already mentioned how many small businesses cater to us online. Some of the bigger brands do too. One thing that I’ve seen more of on good sites is the option to search by fiber. You let me pick natural fibers like cotton, linen, wool and I will be there more frequently because I know it will be easier to find clothes I like just like searching by size.

Beyond Tired of Cheap

I have bought what brands supplied me long enough. I know there are lots of companies who sell near disposable clothing and count on people buying new versions every season every year. Stop expecting us to go along with that. Lots of us want better quality and greater durability which frequently means getting away from the weird fiber blends you come up with.

I have found there are so many great alternatives out there with costs being higher (sometimes significantly) but they fit and wear well for longer because they are better made. Lots of us are fine with having smaller wardrobes if it is both professional and comfortable. I have been using some of this quarantine time to Marie Kondo those closets and I don’t intend to just refill them.

What else would we like in professional clothes for women?

The post Can we improve professional clothing for women? A Plea for Fashion Brands appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.