Donna Hinds founded Branché, one of the first-ever environmentally-friendly clothing lines. It proved to be a huge success, selling to more than 800 specialty boutiques, as well as Nordstrom department stores. During her constant travels to support the line, she found that she no longer had the time to style her hair each morning. She remembered her mother's old pillow slip, and created a silk charmeuse pillow cover for her own use. Not only did the sleek cover protect her hair from creasing or breaking, but she discovered that it was great for her skin. She decided to expand her business, and experimented with different types of high-quality silk until she finally found the perfect one to create the Branché Silk Charmeuse Pillow Cover and Branchè Bell de Nuit Eye Masque-both unique because silk naturally contains 18 amino acids and copper to help fight the signs of aging and is a sustainable fabric.
How did your environmentally-friendly clothing line, Branché, come about? What inspired you?
I've been a proponent of organically grown foods and concerned for our environment, since my college days. Wastes and pesticides contaminate our waterways and we just can't keep ignoring these things. In 1994, the year I started my clothing line, there was an article in the LA Times about estrogen-ides used in farming leaking into ground water, the terrible results from it made such an impression on me that I committed to using only organically grown cotton, hemp, natural buttons, recycled materials and used low impact dying methods. When I moved into silk pillowslips, the natural choice was silk, both for its health and beauty benefits and because it's a sustainable resource.
One success has led to another for you, since your frequent travels for your clothing line caused you to discover the benefits of silk sleep products. Tell us why silk especially benefits people with busy lifestyles and frequent travelers. And were you aware of these natural benefits when you made your first silk pillow cover?
I love the smoothness of silk satin and the luminous quality it gives to colors. When I was so busy with my clothing line and remembering my mother's silk pillowcase that she had used to preserve her hairdo when I was a little girl, I started using a silk fragment from one of my holiday collections. I was amazed at the results, finding that I woke up with my hair looking great, taking less time to get ready, and my eyes and skin began to look better, too. It didn't take long before I realized how much easier this made my mornings and I wanted to share with other women with busy schedules of their own.
When traveling, we're usually off our schedules and in a rush for meetings and engagements. Just by bringing along and using this simple pillowcase, you can wake up with your skin and hair fresh, well cared for and ready to go. If I'm away for less than three or four days, I don't even bring hairstyling products...even when meeting with high profile beauty editors, I can rely on my silk pillowcase to keep my hair looking great and be confident when I tell them about Branche's benefits.
Do you have any new products in the works?
Sleep is essential and I have new product ideas to help get the most of it, some incorporating the many benefits of silk and others that complement it.
You're a very successful creative person and executive. What things do you do in the office, on the road, and at home toward reducing your carbon footprint?
At home, I use less water because I don't have to wash my hair every day. All it takes is to add a day between washes, your scalp naturally adjusts the amount of oil it produces. I support grass-fed and organic farming methods, not just because I don't want to ingest something that would make a watermelon explode. Also, I don't want these substances contaminating our ground water or dumped into our rivers and oceans. We use reusable grocery bags and containers for storing food and cloth napkins. I reach for a dish towel rather than a paper one. In the office, I'm getting much better at keeping computer files, diminishing the use of paper. I recycle shipping and packing materials and purchase 100% recycled paper because the extra cost is worth more than the cost of our forests. All of us doing the little things really does add up to making a big difference.
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