Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Two months ago, Jill Uhryniak opened Mooi, a store that sells organic clothing, toys and bedding for babies and toddlers.

By Marylynne Pitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

During a three-month stint working in the Netherlands for Medrad, a local medical device company, Jill Uhryniak found organic clothing for her sons, Cal and Owen, then 3 and 1.

The young mother was surprised and amused when strangers stopped her or her nanny to ask where they had bought the boys' whimsical winter scarves that have a dragon's head at one end and a tail at the other. The scarves, which also come in the form of a goose, are made of organic cotton by Lana, a German company.

When Mrs. Uhryniak returned to Pittsburgh at the end of 2005, however, she could not find stores here that sold organic clothing for infants and toddlers.

So, two months ago the 31-year-old Fox Chapel resident opened Mooi, a children's organic clothing store on the upper level of the Eastside Mall in East Liberty. "Mooi," pronounced "moy," means "beautiful" in the Dutch language.

In the past six years, consumers' awareness of organic clothing has more than doubled, according to Marshall Cohen, chief analyst at NPD Group in Port Washington, N.Y. The trend has caught on here, too; at least four stores offer clothing and bedding made of organic cotton, bamboo, soy, or a combination of soy and bamboo.

In 2000, Mr. Cohen said, NPD Group surveyed 75,000 consumers and found that 5 percent of them knew about or had purchased organic clothing or accessories. Last year, the percentage of consumers who fit that description rose to 16 percent.

"That's a huge increase," Mr. Cohen said, adding that 40 percent of organic goods are made in the United States while 60 percent are made in Hong Kong, India or China.

Certified organic cotton clothing is becoming popular because it is developed using sustainable farming methods that use no pesticides, herbicides or chemicals. When the crops are processed, no chemical scouring, bleaching or disinfectant is used, which can weaken the fibers. No fire retardants or toxic dyes are used to treat or dye the fabric.

Mr. Cohen finds that while organic food and clothing may cost a bit more, many consumers, especially lifestyle-centric Californians who are cause-oriented, are willing to spend more money "and do something right for the world."

Mrs. Uhryniak also credits the organic clothing with easing one of her son's skin problems. Cal, now 5 1/2, has suffered from eczema, a skin disorder characterized by itching, scaling and thickening of the skin. But since he's started wearing organic clothing, the condition has improved.

She worries over a baby's exposure to the chemicals used to process most clothing. "A baby's skin is one-sixth the thickness of an adult's skin," she said. She also has a daughter, Sarah Jane, who is almost 10 months old.

Mooi, at 5932 Penn Circle South, sells organic clothing, toys, stuffed animals and bedding for infants and toddlers up to the age of 4. At the store, light pours through tall banks of windows onto bamboo floors; the tops of display cases are made of recycled cardboard and the checkout counter is recycled green glass.

David Molder, co-owner of The E House Company, 1511 E. Carson St., South Side, was in the vanguard of the organic clothing and recycled accessories trend when he opened his store in 1994 with his partner, David Shiller. He's definitely seen increased interest locally in organic products.

The store also sells shoes, body products and accessories made from recycled materials. The E House Company carries a line of clothing called Jonano designed by Bonnie Siefers of Franklin Park.

Ms. Siefers' clothing is made of bamboo and organic cotton. A knit fabric she created, called ecoKashmere, is quite soft to the touch and already has been trademarked.

Ms. Siefers enjoyed success with ecoKashmere when the fabric attracted the attention of Material ConneXions, a New York-based, Fortune 100 company with offices in Italy, Thailand and Germany. The company tested ecoKashmere and included it in its library of natural fabrics.

While demand for organic clothing may be higher in Europe, Ms. Siefers believes Western Pennsylvania consumers "are very educated and aware of the ramifications of where their purchasing dollars go and they do take that into consideration." The expansion of organic food sections in local groceries, she said, fuels interest in buying organic, sustainable products.

Next month, the Jonano line will begin selling medical scrubs made of bamboo and organic cotton.

Ms. Siefers was 19 when her mother, Marilyn, who was a nurse, died of breast cancer more than a decade ago. "The reason I got into designing a good-looking scrub was that I wanted to give back to the nurses who took care of my mother at the end of her life. I started with the idea of making these scrubs look better,'' she said.

Bamboo also is a natural antimicrobial fabric, which is ideal for the medical environment because it does not trap odor or bacteria as quickly as other fabrics, she said.

Equita, another store that sells organic clothing for infants and adults, opened in November at 100 43rd St., Lawrenceville. Located in the Ice House Studios, Equita offers products from 40 different countries, as well as organic cotton jeans made by a California company called Del Forte.

It's the exclusive seller of Muumuu Heaven, a line of organic cotton infant clothing adorned with appliqued designs taken from recycled Hawaiian shirts and muumuus.

Sara Parks, co-founder of Equita, which means fairness in Italian, explained her business philosophy.

"We want to do fair trade, but we want to carry the most well-designed, functional products under the fair trade criteria."