Sally Fox has been called a “cotton pioneer” for her efforts regarding organic, colored cotton. In the 1980’s she was the first one to develop the systems to grow and promote organic cotton in the USA which started the conversation about organic textiles. At American Blossom Linens we use her fiber to make beautiful fabric that is naturally colored and does not need to be dyed. The reddish-brown fibers are combined with white cotton to produce a fabric and looks like linen fabric but has the feel of crisp percale hotel bedding.
Sally Fox, born in 1955 in Woodside California, is the sixth of seven siblings. She became interested in cotton at about the age of 12 after she purchased her first spindle with money, she earned babysitting. After studying biology and entomology at California State Polytechnic University in 1973-79 she joined the Peace Corps and travelled to West Africa to learn about the effects of the environment on the local farming. It was there that she was first made aware of the dangers of pesticides such as DDT. Her experience in the Peace Corps motivated her to pursue a master’s degree in Pest management at the University of California. With her degree in hand in the early 1980’s, Sally began working with a cotton breeder to help him breed pest resistant cotton and discovered natural brown cotton growing in the greenhouse. It was the first time she had seen colored cotton.
The naturally colored cottons that Sally works with have existed for centuries and are traced back at least 4300 years and originated in the Central and South America. Heirloom cotton was once abundant and grew in a rainbow of shades including yellow, blue, brown, and green. She fell in love with the rich color and wanted to start to breed it to improve the spinnability of the fiber but maintain its inherent pest resistance. Season after season, Sally carefully bred and selected colored cotton in shades ranging from camel to tobacco to dusky green and test hand spun the fiber herself. Cross breeding it over many years with long stable and Pima cotton improved the strength, fineness, length of the fibers and richness of the colors so that it could be organically and biodynamically grown and spun by commercial textile mills with advanced technology spinning machines.
Sally Fox has been called a “cotton pioneer” for her efforts regarding organic, colored cotton. In the 1980’s she was the first one to develop the systems to grow and promote organic cotton in the USA which started the conversation about organic textiles. At American Blossom Linens we use her fiber to make beautiful fabric that is naturally colored and does not need to be dyed. The reddish-brown fibers are combined with white cotton to produce a fabric and looks like linen fabric but has the feel of crisp percale hotel bedding.
Sally Fox, born in 1955 in Woodside California, is the sixth of seven siblings. She became interested in cotton at about the age of 12 after she purchased her first spindle with money, she earned babysitting. After studying biology and entomology at California State Polytechnic University in 1973-79 she joined the Peace Corps and travelled to West Africa to learn about the effects of the environment on the local farming. It was there that she was first made aware of the dangers of pesticides such as DDT. Her experience in the Peace Corps motivated her to pursue a master’s degree in Pest management at the University of California. With her degree in hand in the early 1980’s, Sally began working with a cotton breeder to help him breed pest resistant cotton and discovered natural brown cotton growing in the greenhouse. It was the first time she had seen colored cotton.
The naturally colored cottons that Sally works with have existed for centuries and are traced back at least 4300 years and originated in the Central and South America. Heirloom cotton was once abundant and grew in a rainbow of shades including yellow, blue, brown, and green. She fell in love with the rich color and wanted to start to breed it to improve the spinnability of the fiber but maintain its inherent pest resistance. Season after season, Sally carefully bred and selected colored cotton in shades ranging from camel to tobacco to dusky green and test hand spun the fiber herself. Cross breeding it over many years with long stable and Pima cotton improved the strength, fineness, length of the fibers and richness of the colors so that it could be organically and biodynamically grown and spun by commercial textile mills with advanced technology spinning machines.
In the late 1980’s she sold her cotton to several Japanese textile mills and founded Natural Cotton Colors Inc. After receiving Plant Variety Protection Certificates (plant patents) she developed her Foxfibre® brand. FoxFibre® is the patented name of Fox's various breeds of naturally colored, organically grown cotton. Different colors available include Redwood, Coyote, New Green, and Buffalo.
The company grew as she planted more cotton and sold to customers such as LL Bean, Lands’ End, Levi’s and Fieldcrest Cannon Mills. Brown cotton denim pants and the New World Cotton sheet set were some of the first products made with Foxfibre® cotton.
Sally and her cotton have won several awards including United Nations Programmed Award, Edison Award for Environmental Achievement by the American Manufacturing Association, Green Award from Green Housekeeping Magazine and IFOAM- Organics International Organic Cotton Recognition Award. She has been featured on CBS and ABC news and recently there has been a documentary made about Sally Fox.
In the late 1980’s she sold her cotton to several Japanese textile mills and founded Natural Cotton Colors Inc. After receiving Plant Variety Protection Certificates (plant patents) she developed her Foxfibre® brand. FoxFibre® is the patented name of Fox's various breeds of naturally colored, organically grown cotton. Different colors available include Redwood, Coyote, New Green, and Buffalo.
The company grew as she planted more cotton and sold to customers such as LL Bean, Lands’ End, Levi’s and Fieldcrest Cannon Mills. Brown cotton denim pants and the New World Cotton sheet set were some of the first products made with Foxfibre® cotton.
Sally and her cotton have won several awards including United Nations Programmed Award, Edison Award for Environmental Achievement by the American Manufacturing Association, Green Award from Green Housekeeping Magazine and IFOAM- Organics International Organic Cotton Recognition Award. She has been featured on CBS and ABC news and recently there has been a documentary made about Sally Fox.
The benefits of naturally colored heirloom organic cotton include that it is more vigorous, drought tolerant, pest and disease resistant and requires less water. A properly stored bale of Foxfibre® can last up to 100 years! Most commercial non-organic varieties of cotton use GMO seeds and have been bred for homogeneous characteristics like white color. They require tremendous amounts of water and are highly dependent on the use of herbicides and insecticides. There is no need to dye natural colored cotton because the color is part of the fiber. They are also innately more fire resistant than other types of cotton.
Sally Fox’s cotton plants and production ideas needed to overcome many obstacles over the following years in order to and continue and increase production. Southern California cotton growers, feared the colored crop would contaminate their cotton and pushed for re-enforcement of early 20th- century laws that placed restrictions on Fox's growing process. In 1993, she relocated to Arizona but in 1999 Arizona cotton growers pushed for similar laws on Fox's fields, causing her to relocate production to New Mexico and her research farm to Northern California. Starting in 1990 the textile and clothing industry began to move production to developing countries such as China and India, in search of lower production costs from cheaper labor and less environmental and work force regulations. Over a million jobs were lost. US based textile companies that fully complied with stringent US textile regulations were decimated by products that came from countries where regulations on textile safety were nonexistent. Companies that had been in business for more than 100 years were forced to close. The market for Foxfibre® cotton collapsed.
The benefits of naturally colored heirloom organic cotton include that it is more vigorous, drought tolerant, pest and disease resistant and requires less water. A properly stored bale of Foxfibre® can last up to 100 years! Most commercial non-organic varieties of cotton use GMO seeds and have been bred for homogeneous characteristics like white color. They require tremendous amounts of water and are highly dependent on the use of herbicides and insecticides. There is no need to dye natural colored cotton because the color is part of the fiber. They are also innately more fire resistant than other types of cotton.
Sally Fox’s cotton plants and production ideas needed to overcome many obstacles over the following years in order to and continue and increase production. Southern California cotton growers, feared the colored crop would contaminate their cotton and pushed for re-enforcement of early 20th- century laws that placed restrictions on Fox's growing process. In 1993, she relocated to Arizona but in 1999 Arizona cotton growers pushed for similar laws on Fox's fields, causing her to relocate production to New Mexico and her research farm to Northern California. Starting in 1990 the textile and clothing industry began to move production to developing countries such as China and India, in search of lower production costs from cheaper labor and less environmental and work force regulations. Over a million jobs were lost. US based textile companies that fully complied with stringent US textile regulations were decimated by products that came from countries where regulations on textile safety were nonexistent. Companies that had been in business for more than 100 years were forced to close. The market for Foxfibre® cotton collapsed.
During college Sally was teaching hand spinning and met a woman whose daughter had suffered irreparable brain damage due to exposure to synthetic dyes. The daughter never wore gloves or did enough to protect herself from chemicals and apparently absorbed too much of these harsh chemicals through her skin. Sally, who was studying entomology, (insects) found that companies that made pesticides began by manufacturing chemical dyes. These two different products had many component chemicals in common. From that moment, she understood the potential danger in commercial dye chemicals. She decided she wanted nothing to do with commercial dyes and started seeking out natural colors for all fibers.
When Foxfibre®cotton is used there is no need to dye fabric to obtain a rich color. This saves the environment from water wastage and chemical exposure from the dyeing process. Toxic chemicals dyes are used in processing cloth in developing regions with little environmental regulations or worker safety protections.
During college Sally was teaching hand spinning and met a woman whose daughter had suffered irreparable brain damage due to exposure to synthetic dyes. The daughter never wore gloves or did enough to protect herself from chemicals and apparently absorbed too much of these harsh chemicals through her skin. Sally, who was studying entomology, (insects) found that companies that made pesticides began by manufacturing chemical dyes. These two different products had many component chemicals in common. From that moment, she understood the potential danger in commercial dye chemicals. She decided she wanted nothing to do with commercial dyes and started seeking out natural colors for all fibers.
When Foxfibre®cotton is used there is no need to dye fabric to obtain a rich color. This saves the environment from water wastage and chemical exposure from the dyeing process. Toxic chemicals dyes are used in processing cloth in developing regions with little environmental regulations or worker safety protections.
I have met Sally several times and the best way to describe her is kind, very friendly, principled, hard working, dedicated and completely passionate about her plants. She did not invent naturally colored cotton, but she was the first to breed a species of this cotton that could be spun into colored cotton yarn on commercial spinning machines. Through all the turmoil caused by the globalization of the textile industry, Sally Fox has kept her seeds and continues to develop her cotton from her organic farm in California. With a recent rebirth of US based manufacturing and a growing understanding of the need for sustainable and ethical products, Foxfibre® is making a comeback. Today there are several products being made with Sally’s cotton including socks, t shirts and of course our American Blossom Linens bed sheets. Sally also sells yarn, fabric, and her own grown heirloom wheat on her website. She is known for her Linkedin and Instagram posts where she is telling the stories that document the now four decade long journey.
Sally says it best when she says, “I believe that it's the suppleness. The smallest amount added in with the white cotton gives it a softness that no white cotton that I have found has. You lay down on those sheets and you feel it. Not only that, but these fabrics also last a long time, much longer than white cotton.”
I have met Sally several times and the best way to describe her is kind, very friendly, principled, hard working, dedicated and completely passionate about her plants. She did not invent naturally colored cotton, but she was the first to breed a species of this cotton that could be spun into colored cotton yarn on commercial spinning machines. Through all the turmoil caused by the globalization of the textile industry, Sally Fox has kept her seeds and continues to develop her cotton from her organic farm in California. With a recent rebirth of US based manufacturing and a growing understanding of the need for sustainable and ethical products, Foxfibre® is making a comeback. Today there are several products being made with Sally’s cotton including socks, t shirts and of course our American Blossom Linens bed sheets. Sally also sells yarn, fabric, and her own grown heirloom wheat on her website. She is known for her Linkedin and Instagram posts where she is telling the stories that document the now four decade long journey.
Sally says it best when she says, “I believe that it's the suppleness. The smallest amount added in with the white cotton gives it a softness that no white cotton that I have found has. You lay down on those sheets and you feel it. Not only that, but these fabrics also last a long time, much longer than white cotton.”
