FASHION : Climate May Be Right for a Revival of Hemp : Ecological concerns are making the tough old weed more attractive. Designers are using blends to create unique clothing.
What plant produces fiber more durable than silk, stronger than linen, softer and more environment-friendly than cotton, and can’t be grown in the United States?
Hemp.
In the late 1930s, the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa , was banned under its street name, marijuana, in the United States and all over the world. Today, a few countries, notably China and Hungary, have begun growing the plant for its long-lasting fabric.
The fashion world is beginning to discover hemp--which grows without pesticides--and, from all accounts, wearing it will soon be more politically correct than Save the Whale T-shirts.
The fabric is not what you’d call new. For most of civilized time, it was the leading agricultural crop on the planet. Marco Polo traded it. The canvas sails that carried ships around the world were made from it. It supplied paper for much of the world’s printing and was used for a draft of the Declaration of Independence.
Hemp was the people’s fabric of choice for clothing until Eli Whitney’s cotton gin made cotton processing cheap. Hemp, whose fiber comes unwillingly from its stalk, diminished in use during the Industrial Revolution.
For the last six decades, the federal government has declared all varieties of hemp to be dangerous, never mind that industrial hemp wouldn’t get a mouse high. But until this decade, wearing hemp would have been as quaint as dressing up like Ben Franklin, who was said to have worn the fabric.
Enter ecology. Trees have become too precious for paper; cotton depletes the land and takes too many chemicals to produce. So people began looking at hemp for alternatives. Some of them, you might say, from behind a sort of haze.
The first hemp clothing made here from imported fabric sold mostly to marijuana fans. It came in headbands, hats and backpacks with labels such as Stoned Wear, often with a marijuana leaf emblazoned on the front.
The market share wasn’t huge, but it was hot. A lot of people wanted to wear the clothes to make a statement, and didn’t care if it was pricey--which it definitely is. Chinese and Eastern European growers control the market, and worldwide demand is big.
But something else is happening. Designers in Europe are using blends of hemp with silk or flax and coming up with some unusual clothing. Not just underground people are buying it. And, maybe, the climate might be ripe for it in America.
One designer who thinks so is Lisa Sauvageau.
At Studio Sauvageau in Ojai, a workshop, showroom and retail store, the owner is working on a wardrobe in a hemp-cotton blend that she will introduce in New York next month. Soon after, the collection will be available at the studio and in shops such as Georgia Boutell’s in Ventura.
No hippie would wear these clothes. They are styled for those who might be called “the discriminating.”
The most elegant piece is a full-length coat of undyed fabric, with richly colored tapestry lapels and cuffs--a garment for day or night. There are also short jackets, hats and bags.
Sauvageau, who currently designs mostly in tapestry and velvet, finds hemp exciting.
“I am not going to use hemp just because it’s hemp,” she said. “I chose it because of the texture. It’s right for what I do. It has a very linen-like finish, and the speckles are very beautiful. “
She expects the styles to endure.
“I am not a fashion designer; I am just a designer,” she said. “I try to create things that are not seasonally driven.”
That hemp is linked to an illegal substance is not a drawback, the designer said. Because of its attractiveness and environmental correctness, it will overcome these associations, she said.
The high price of fabric is not a big factor in Sauvageau’s collection. Her market is near high-end, so she can absorb the cost.
And possibly, increased competition will bring the price down to put hemp on the mass market. England and Canada are beginning to grow hemp, and plan to expand their crops. Kentucky is taking a look at hemp. A California company was growing hemp under a federal permit earlier this year, but the state ripped out the crop.
Maybe a plant that became popular for the wrong reasons can yet redeem itself. It may not, as some claim, save the planet. (Wasn’t seaweed going to do that too?) But it could do a bit for the American economy, spare a few trees and help cut down pesticides on the farm.
All said, it’s not too bad a record for a weed.
