In my humble opinion, Miguel Adrover may just as well have invented eco clothing.

I think I am going to make my dream come true,” says Adrover, whose maverick but visionary talent has finally been recognized. “I am glad to work for this company not only because of the philosophy and sustainability behind it, but because I can work with a clear conscience.”  The feeling is mutual because Wolf Lüdge, CEO of Hess Natur, picked up on Adrover’s authenticity and commitment from the moment they met last year in the designer’s studio-cum-bar in Palma de Mallorca.

 In an industry that chews through new talent like last season’s trends, Miguel Adrover has shown a rare resiliency. After losing his backers and closing his business a year ago in the wake of two poorly-timed, and poorly-received Egyptian-themed collections, Adrover has resurfaced this season with both his skills and his sensibility apparently intact. This collection again took swipes of inspiration from Middle Eastern aesthetics, but cleverly mixed these with sharply tailored or inspired pieces from Western culture that carry desirably commercial elements alongside a social point of view. (Fashionfile 2003)

But that was in 2003 and Adrover did a dissappearing act again. Miguel Adrover is like a pheonix, he has emerged again with Hess Natur. Nearly four years after the designer’s star fizzled out in Manhattan, he is on the ascent again, this time as creative director of Hess Natur, a $100 million, 30-year-old German mail order business of women’s, men’s and children’s wear rooted in environmentally sound practices.

Hess Natur is a German mail order company, specializing in healthy clothing made from environmentally responsible materials. Their shop in Butzbach, near Frankfurt fits this vision perfectly. The interior is built up around a large clay wall, where the energy and climate control takes place. The surrounding façade, with wooden lamellas and glazing is divided into several differently shaped squares. They appear as stacked boxes, and from the inside out, the façade works like a cabinet. By colouring the glass the façade is given a diverse and changing image, and at the same time these glass panels ward off the sun.

While other companies are recently jumping on the Eco bandwagon, and churning out diet coke versions of green clothing.( Diet green, perhaps?) Hess Natur is way out front, using cotton, wool, silk and leather that are not just “green” as a raw fiber, but throughout all the development processes. While just one “pure” white cotton T-shirt might require treatments with pesticide and fertilizer, the German company bans all polluting and toxic chemicals. From zippers through thread and snap fasteners, the clothes are the real eco deal.

This design from Miguel Adrover’s second collection was described by Cathy Horyn of The New York Times as “a simple but respectable Sunday-going-to-church outfit out of a Willa Cather story.” Its faded, dusty colors and worn surface made Horyn’s reference especially apt. However, the ensemble took on other evocative connotations—either macabre or poignant depending on one’s point of view—when Adrover noted that the fabric was taken from the discarded mattress of the late Quentin Crisp. The designer’s salvaging of this piece of urban detritus, with its forlorn history of wear and rusty stains, and transforming it into a tailored coat was less recycling than poetic reinvention. (MOMA)

During an interview Wednesday in Midtown with the brand’s chief executive officer and managing director Wolf Ludge, Adrover cut to the chase: “Being in a mail order company may seem like a funny marriage. For me, it is something so powerful. By working in mainstream, I can help people realize the clothes they wear affects the environment. (WWD)

We’ll just have to wait and see.

Share/Save