While the fashion industry has a reputation of being one of the biggest pollutants, there are many in the industry who are rectifying it by looking at slow fashion options. In Bengaluru, many
designers are now exploring hemp-based fabrics.
Creases like linen but feels like cotton, that’s how designers describe hemp fabric. Designers like Pooja Monga, who runs a label called Saltpetre, says hemp’s nativity factors make it more sustainable too. “Linen and hemp are essentially the same kind of fabric, that is flax fabric, which means the base is grass.
The process to derive the fabric is also the same. The difference is hemp grows naturally in India, that makes it sustainable to source. This is huge, especially after industrial hemp cultivation is legalised,” says Monga, whose latest collection has a wide range of apparels made of hemp fabric.
Linen has always been considered as a rich man’s fabric, and Chirag Tekchandaney, co-founder and CEO, Bombay Hemp Company (BOHECO), feels there’s a lot of unlearning involved when it comes to the stigma attached to hemp.
When his partner and he started the brand in 2013, they knew it would take work to convince people. “We knew there has to be an unlearning from consumer mindspace about what they know about cannabis in the country. When we started making apparels, we wanted to make sophisticated pieces that people could wear to work and after hours too,” says Tekchandaney, adding that the price of a basic shirt starts from Rs 2,500.
Arati Monappa, who recently curated a fabric dyeing workshop in the city, says the fabric works wonders when it comes to dyeing. “It dyes beautifully on the hemp fabric,” explains Monappa, who tried dyeing three of them. While Monappa is quite impressed with the fabric, she still believes one of the factors why people don’t opt for it is the pricing. “Hemp fabric is still very niche with apparels being priced quite high. It will probably take some time for prices to normalise and for people to go for it,” she explains.
What makes hemp fabric an essential for slow fashion?
Breaking it down...A hemp shirt is a combination of two fibres, making it crisp yet soft. From a durability perspective, it has got 10 times more tensile strength than cotton.