Hartnell is the first green clothing designer in town
DOWNTOWN, SM — In the more than 30 years that Santa Monica resident and business owner Hanna Hartnell has been designing clothes, her creations have found their way through some of the most intriguing places and events, from the White House to the Academy Awards.
But while her designs are fashioned by the likes of Meryl Streep and Christi Turlington at big name award shows, Hartnell’s most prized accomplishment perhaps comes in the form of a circular decal stuck on the window of her Downtown Santa Monica showroom.
The decal symbolizes the conclusion of a nearly year-long effort to “green” the 6,000 square feet home/office/warehouse where the Hartnell label is headquartered off the corner of Fourth Street and Broadway. Since spring of last year, Hartnell had been working to make her business more environmentally sound, changing out 50 lightbulbs and replacing them with low-energy consuming LEDs, replacing harsh-chemical with green cleaning products, and utilizing recycled paper towels, toilet and tissue paper.
It all paid off in the end when Hartnell learned last week that she would receive a Green Business Certification, a distinction for businesses that run environmentally sound operations, awarded by a joint partnership of Sustainable Works, the city of Santa Monica, the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce and the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“There is a sense of pride when you do the right thing,” Hartnell said on Friday from her boutique.
The process began shortly after the Sustainable Quality Awards last spring when Hartnell, who had always been under the impression that only the big businesses had the capabilities to green their operations, decided to make some changes at her warehouse.
In addition to changing out the lightbulbs, cleaning and paper products, Hartnell also received points for making better use of her skylights during the day, enlisting the more than 20 businesses in her complex to utilize a communal recycling bin offered by City Hall, and recycling empty fabric rolls back to the wholesaler.
The dress designer immediately saw the financial benefits of her operational shift — a $65 drop in the energy bill the month after she changed out her lightbulbs.
Hartnell said she believes the green business designation could also mean more clients in the future, noting that people with like-minded interest tend to stick together.
“I think you get the other kind of green when you become more aware of what you need to do,” she said. “Clients want to do business with businesses that are green.”
“It’s sort of like a club,” she joked.
Hartnell founded her label more than 30 years ago, co-owning a boutique in Venice with her friend who designed leather clothing. The Ohio native, who began making clothes at the age of 10, had yet to enter into the evening gown business at the time, focusing her designs on cotton clothes to complement the leather.
In 1984, she moved her business to the Third Street Promenade where she continued designing high-end ready-to-wear clothes until moving to her current home off the corner of Fourth and Broadway in 1994.
But it wasn’t until she expanded her business five years ago to include the retail space on the Fourth Street side that Hartnell began designing evening gowns.
For the past few years, her evening gowns have been worn by the trophy girls at the Academy Awards and was seen on celebrities like Melanie Griffith and Blythe Danner.
Hartnell is a finalist for the 2008 Sustainable Quality Awards that will be held on May 12 at the Sheraton Delfina and is the first clothing boutique to receive the certification in Santa Monica, according to Susy Holyhead, the director of Sustainable Works’ Business Greening Program, which is separate from the certification.
“It’s wonderful to see any business sector can go green,” Holyhead said. “Hanna being a high-end evening dress maker will hopefully lead other designers to follow her steps.”
Jump hedline: Hartnell first green clothing designer in Santa Monica
Suggested pullquote: “I think you get the other kind of green when you become more aware of what you need to do.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 14, 2008. Read the original PDF.