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Ivan Greene on the French Connection in the Gunks. Photo by Tim Kemple

MZ: What's the line like?

IG: We get inspiration from everywhere, everyday and from all sorts of people. Like, one day I took a friend climbing at my gym and out for sushi that night she turns to me and says, "Dude, climbing rocks!" And I thought, yeah, climbing rocks…climbing rocks…so, I made a t-shirt. Ha ha. Or, when I left a modern dance company I was in the woman who lead it asked why I was leaving. I said "I really, really like dance, but I love climbing." So, there came the shirt I "heart" climbing. "Power through peace," came while I was listening to the news, hearing about all the insanity that plagues our world today. It means both inner peace and social-global peace. This is where our true power is. So, we made a shirt.

We fit things to be comfortable. Right now it's all about comfort and style, clothes that you can wear everyday, feel good in it and look good in it. Most of our fits are more athletic than a lot of other designers. I mean most climbers are built like gymnasts or dancers and look good in form fitting clothes. We want climbers to be proud of how they look. For now, we are staying away from super-tech fabrics. We want it to feel natural, so we are using mostly cottons and doing vintage washes so the pieces feel broken-in from the moment you put them on.

MZ: Khadejha is described as a "company as one with a conscience." Can you tell me more about how the social aspects of the company work?

IG: Both Jason and I are very excited about having a way to be helpful in our world. When we come across, or create, opportunities to use Khadejha as a way to raise money or awareness for areas that we feel could use the help, we just love it. And I think that people buying Khadejha love it too. Why not look good and do something good with that purchase? When we did the Tsunami fundraiser it felt great to make this piece of art that people could wear and raise money for people who need it, that simple. Then, when we worked with the Boarding for Breast Cancer, an event where pro-athletes and artists get together to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research, it felt like we could help bring that up, too.

Climbers are some of the most socially conscience athletes/people I've met and I'm looking forward to doing more fundraisers within the climbing community. One of our next projects is to get involved with an organization that helps educate youth about AIDS and create support groups for young people living with AIDS.

Learn more about Khadejha, Ivan and Jason Horvath at www.khadejha.com.