CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Jennifer Miller is an animal behaviorist who has, among other things, studied orangutans in the wild and in captivity.

She's published a paper on the postural communication of the male western lowland gorilla, and worked to rescue animals after natural disasters in Indonesia.

So how does that background add up to her latest endeavor -- launching an eco-friendly fashion company in Charleston?

Well, there's a lot of money in the fashion industry, the 30-year-old Charleston native explained. She created Mission Savvy (www.missionsavvy.com) to use the power of fashion to educate the public about protecting both the environment and animals.

"I have done the research. There is a growing demand for ecologically safe fashion," Miller said.

She has already had several showings this spring of her collection. Other upcoming Charleston shows include:

• "Shop, Trade and Refresh," noon to 5 p.m. May 15, The Folded Leaf, Bridge Road Shops
• Sustainability Fair, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 22
• FestivALL fashion show, June 20, Loft, 1116 Smith St.

In between, she will take her clothing line to Manhattan, Los Angeles, Cape Cod and elsewhere.

She sells her collection at the shows, online and in private consultations. Five percent of each sale goes to a different animal protection group.

But you won't see Miller protesting at a circus or wearing a T-shirt with a message. "Animal welfare needs to become mainstream in an acceptable way," she said.

She hopes to educate people doing what they like: shopping.

Miller is a 1997 graduate of George Washington High School. Her father, Lloyd Miller, is an architect; her mother, Sally Miller, owns Eats of Eden, a raw-foods consulting firm.

She attended Hiram College in Ohio because it had a psychology program for animal behaviorists who didn't want to study animals in laboratory settings.

"I wanted to study animals in the wild," she said.

During her senior year, she worked at the Cleveland Zoo studying gorilla behavior. Her assignment was to see if aggressive male gorillas could coexist because there are too many gorillas in captivity.

Miller did an internship with the Wildlife Conservation Society on a private island in Georgia where exotic animals such as zebras, cranes, lemurs and macaques roam free. Her mission was to watch the mating behavior of the endangered African Kori bustard and to try find where they hid their eggs from predators.

"I had to search the entire island," she said. "In six months, I found three eggs."

During that internship, Miller said her interest began to shift to birds, especially parrots.

"They are so intelligent. They constantly need enrichment. I had to keep coming up with games for them."

Miller rescues parrots and now cares for two in her Kanawha City house.

She made another decision while working for the Atlanta Zoo, caring for a newborn orangutan that had been abandoned by its mother, a research animal. It was up to Miller to figure out what Bernas needed to survive and to be taken in by other orangutans.

She realized, she said, "The captive environment is not where I wanted to be. There shouldn't be breeding of animals in captivity."

Instead, she said, zoos could be taking the many exotic animals that are in private ownership. She pointed out that there are more tigers in captivity now than in the wild.

In 2002, Miller had the chance to study wild orangutans in Indonesia. While there, she fell in love. Married six years now, her husband, Indra Riswanto, has a vegetarian/organic catering business and was recently employed by Bluegrass Kitchen.

For a while after returning to the U.S., Miller worked for the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Massachusetts and as an emergency relief responder.

"I kept a bag packed for animal rescue. I was trained in large-animal, swift-water, high-angle rope rescue. I was deployed into poor countries, where I worked with really wonderful people."

The problem, she learned, is that there wasn't the community support, money or veterinary care for the animals. She was working with many small grass-roots groups that were on the front line of animal issues that didn't have staff and were constantly fundraising.

So she started Mission Savvy with five missions. Her clothing collection is named for each mission: "Dream" -- to rescue and retire entertainment animals; "Voice" -- to rescue and protect animals in the farm factories; "Instinct" -- to protect wildlife in its natural habitat; "Compassion" -- to support the front lines of animal abuse and neglect; and "Freedom" -- to support science that uses alternatives to animals in medical research.

Miller went to the fall and spring fashion weeks in New York City to seek out eco-friendly fashion designers and manufacturers. The clothes -- all made in the U.S. -- are made from sustainable fiber or reclaimed fabrics. The dyes are water- or soy-based.

"There is no use of cotton. Cotton is the most toxic crop in the world," she said. "The clothing we sell will have no impact on the environment."

Reach Rosalie Earle at ea...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5115.