Natural Cotton Colours, Inc

Naturally colored cottons have always existed in nature. Native peoples have used their short fibers for hand spinning and weaving. Modern plant breeders have used them as a source of desirable plant characteristics such as disease and pest resistance. The fiber itself has never been improved and has not been spinnable with modern textile machinery.

Sally Fox, founder and president of Natural Cotton Colours, Inc., is the originator of machine spinnable naturally colored cottons. An extensive research and development program started in 1982 and using traditional plant breeding techniques has developed several unique varieties which have been granted Plant Variety Protection status. The textile industry has demonstrated the utility of these fibers and is now using them in many products.

Sally Fox first became aware of naturally colored cottons while working with a plant breeder. There were several wild colored cottons being used as sources of beneficial traits other than color. The colors were beautiful, but the fiber was short and very weak.

Starting in 1982 with seeds from wild plants, a program was initiated to breed for colored cotton with improved fiber and agronomic characteristics that could be grown organically. Using only traditional plant breeding techniques and organic farming practices, the first FoxFibre® was sold in 1989 and Natural Cotton Colours, Inc. was formed. The company is based in Arizona and California and is privately held.

The plant breeding program is the back bone of NCCI and holds many promises for the future. In the near term, much improved fiber qualities (some equivalent to the best commercial white varieties) and yields will be available. Longer term, more of natures colors will be available in the FoxFibre® line.

In conjunction with the breeding work, Natural Cotton Colours has financed extensive textile research to develop appropriate and aesthetic uses of FoxFibre®.

Due to relatively low yields per acre and the research and development, the cost of current FoxFibre® varieties are higher than traditional white cotton. This does not mean however, that the finished textile product is expensive.

The costs of dyeing cotton, both economically and environmentally, can be very high especially in countries with strict pollution standards. In the US, it costs approximately $2.00 a pound to dye a dark brown yarn. This includes the actual cost of the dyestuff , energy, water, and toxic dye waste disposal. This expense is completely eliminated when using FoxFibre® and even with higher initial cost of the fibre, the price of producing yarns is competitive. It is evident that using currently available FoxFibre® varieties for brown yarns is both ecological and economical. The cost advantage will only improve in the future when new and improved varieties of FoxFibre®, with higher yields and superior fiber qualities are available.