WHAT OUR CLOTHES ARE MADE OF?

Hemp is a bast fibre, meaning it comes from the stalk of the hemp plant. The process of removing the fibre from the stalk is called 'retting'. It is a completely natural and biodegradable fibre making it one of the most sustainable and strongest fibres we know.

Some of the earliest examples of Hemp were found in Mesopotamia, Iraq and Pakistan. The word 'canvas' comes from the Arabic word for Hemp.

King Henry VIII, compelled farmer by law to put aside one acre of everybody's land for Hemp production. It was so important that places were named after it, Hampshire is reportedly derived of the word Hemp.

Hemp is closely linked with it's sibling plant, cannabis, which means it is often tarred with the same brush. The cannabis plant was made illegal through propaganda campaigns, thus people steered away from Hemp.

A version called 'cottonised' Hemp was developed, a softer variety that looks far more like cotton.

Hemp has many redeeming properties, it grows extremely fast, it can grow as much as tall as four meters in 3 months, resulting in the highest yield of any fibre per acre. The plant can be grown in cooler climates and acts as a great crop rotation plant, due to its fast-growing capacity and the fact that it has deep roots that are said 'add' to the quality of the soil rather than taking away from it.

It is very strong and has natural antibacterial, antimicrobial, breathability, and thermal protection properties. When growing hemp the plant requires very little maintenance, it requires no irrigation, pesticides, or fertilisers due to its naturally high resistance to disease.

HEMP

8000 BC

16th Century

1928

1980's

Well the simple truth is that over the years it close links to its sibling, the cannabis plant, tarnishing Hemp with the same idea. People assume that it is the same plant. However, although they look the same you cannot get 'high' from a hemp plant.

The hemp plant is the male variety and the cannabis plant the female variety and they are quite different. When cannabis was made illegal in 1928, people steered away from the use of Hemp. At this time, the cotton industry was flourishing due to the cotton gin in the UK.

Because of this connection, when cannabis was made illegal in 1928 propaganda campaigns really put a stop to the use of Hemp as people steered away from it.

Sounds great right? You might be asking why isn't hemp used for everything!

Key Facts

In the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in Ukraine in 1986, industrial hemp was planted to clean up the radioactive isotopes that had leaked into the soil and ground waters. The natural abilities of the plant roots literally making the soil usable again.
On an annual basis, one acre of hemp will produce as much fibre as 2-3 acres of cotton and as much paper material as 2-4 acres of trees.

At the same time the cotton industry was flourishing due to the invention of the cotton gin in the UK in and the ability to have a cheap supply of the cotton fibre through the exploitation to over slaves that were used to grow and harvest the cotton crops on the other side of the world. This gave 'false low price to cotton which reigned. Over the years as money was invested into cotton manufacturing technology, the machines required to manufacture the hemp fibre became more and more outdated and hemp ceased to be a fabric of choice.

It is only more recently that the industry has started to become interested in hemp again. With a rising interest i sustainability and an understanding of how water intensive cotton production is.in the 1980's a version called cottonised help was developed, this a much softer variety that looks far more like cotton. Most recently in September 2020 pakistan legalized the use of Help and it is expected that this industrious nation will encourage a full comeback of this fine crop.

FURTHER RESOURCES:

Hemp history and challenges going forward for the denim industry. Hosted by Mohsin Sajid, Creative Director of ENDRIME® and Founder of educational denim platform, Denim History.

Denim production often involves the use of chemicals.

To begin with, insecticide and pesticides are commonly used in cotton agriculture. In fact, cotton, which makes up 2.4% of the world’s crop land, accounts for a staggering 24% and 11% of global sales of insecticide and pesticides, respectively. In addition, irresponsible use and disposal of dyes or chemicals used in the production process can have devastating environmental consequences. Chemicals that have not been properly treated before disposal can lead to serious pollution problems. For example, the East River in Xintang, China, whose factories produce 300 million denim articles per year, has turned blue due to wastewater from dyeing being dumped directly into the river.

Resources -

WWF Panda

China Dialogue

CHEMICALS

Further Sources

http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_freshwater/freshwater_problems/thirsty_crops/cotton/

https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/6283-The-denim-capital-of-the-world-so-polluted-you-can-t-give-the-houses-away

COTTON

Despite being a natural product and naturally biodegradable, it is also linked to modern sustainability issues. Cotton is a very thirsty crop demanding a lot of water. There are many different articles online about how much water it takes to grow cotton, many of these facts come from old 'data' that has since been disproved, but it cannot be denied that cotton does require a lot of water to grow and at a time when water is seen as such a precious commodity this does remain an issue.

Since the invention of pesticides (after WW2) the cotton industry has been linked to a reliance on chemicals to produce crops. The cotton seed itself has been genetically modified over the years to produce stronger crops, but this has also gone hand in hand with needing more chemicals to grow. There is a growing desire to see a return back to more natural growing practices. Organic cotton for example is grown under very strict conditions that deny the use of any chemicals to grow the crop or treat the soil. As attractive as this sounds:

less than 0.5% of all cotton grown in the world is said to be classed as fully organic.

Becoming an organic cotton farmer is not an easy process. If a farmer decides to farm organic cotton, it will take them a full three years before they can pass the requirements of the organic cotton standards certification, this is how long it takes to completely rid the soil of any chemicals from previous crops. During this time of transition, the farmer is at a financial disadvantage. Organic cotton also demands more land surface to grow on that genetically modified cotton.

- Cotton makes up approximately 26% of all fibre used in the fashion and textiles industry, It estimated that 0.68 kg of cotton is required to make one pair of jeans.

- Up until the 1960’s almost all jeans were made from 100% cotton.

Other certifications to look out for are BCI cotton, ‘Better cotton initiative’, Fairtrade Cotton and Oeko-tex Cotton all these certifications are offered as a guide to good practise.

Cotton is one of the oldest fibres that we know of. It is derived from the Arabic word "Kutan". Traced back to early 5000 - 6000 BC in early civilisations of India, South America and North Africa.

Cotton also drove the expansion of the slave trade in the UK, with cotton plantation owners accumulating extreme wealth by exploiting enslaved people [Delve deeper]. In short, cotton history, is tightly wounded with history of capitalism, colonialism, exploitation and industrialism that continues to drive the fashion industry today.

1760's - 1830's

800 AD

Industrial Revolution

Today the majority of cotton is grown in the US, China, India, and Pakistan, in addition to other countries such as Uzbekistan, Turkey, Israel, Argentina and Australia. India alone produces  25% of the world’s cotton, sustaining the livelihoods of 5.8 million  farmers, the majority of whom are small-scale farmers cultivating land less than 2 hectares in size.

It was believed to be introduced into Europe and then became widely used across the world by the 1500's.

During the industrial revolution, the cotton gin (a machine used for separating cotton fibre) was invented, and Britain quickly became the biggest producer of cotton textiles. Cotton trade played a significant part in the British Empire with the East India Company importing cotton fabrics from India to Britain and across Europe.

5000 - 6000 BC

1400's - 1800's

TODAY

The cotton fibre is a soft, fluffy staple ‘seed’ fibre, which means that it is composed of lots of different fibres that vary in length. The cotton plant is actually called as a tree The term “cotton” refers to the part that grows in a boll, that serves as a protective case, around the seeds. When harvested, it is spun into yarn that is then woven to create a soft, durable fabric. It is therefore a completely natural fabric, like silk and wool; commodities that are found naturally on our planet, without being scientifically invented.

It is an extremely important fibre and can found in so many products, in actuality we are rarely very far from something made of or containing cotton. It is in our clothing, furniture , mattresses; cotton is always around us. The production of cotton is a complicated and very interesting industry, steeped in history.

FURTHER RESOURCES:

Denim Dudes: Denim and Slavery: Are you uncomfortable yet?

Denim Dudes: Post Civil War Slavery and the Supply Chain

Fashion Revolution and Fairtrade India: Challenges facing the farmers who grow our cotton

Fashion Revolution: Lessons from the Cotton Diaries

Poly-1,4-cyclohexylene terephthalate (PCDT). PET is the stronger of the two and most often used in the apparel industry.

PCDT

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), this is the same ingredient that is that a clear plastic bottle is made from.

PET

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF POLYESTER:

POLYESTER

Accounting for more than half of the global fibre output, polyester is by far the world’s most dominant fibre now. It is important to understand that polyester is a plastic. It is made by refining crude oil or natural gas. These fossil fuels are broken down into chemicals, creating a polymer that is then made into a filament and finally spun into fibres. These fossil fuels are a non-renewable and finite resource that has greenhouse gas emitting properties and contributes to the climate crisis.

Polyester was only developed in the 1940’s but in a short amount of time has become dominant to the market. In 1956, the production rights were bought by the American company, DuPont. Since then, it became very popular with a list of good qualities, making it seem like a miracle fabric.

quick and easy production, Good quality for clothing, washes well, doesn’t hold creases easily, doesn’t shrink, colours are chemically absorbed - remaining colourfast, requires less water.

It is fair to say that the ease and speed of making it has been a significant contributor to the rise of the fast fashion industry that we see today, with over 60% of garments being made from polyester. It is only in the last couple decades that people have begun to see the negative side to polyester. As our understanding of fossil fuels being connected to the climate crisis becomes more transparent, we can see it has a direct link to greenhouse gas emissions, both in the extraction of the original fossil fuels but then also in the process of making this into a fibre.

One thing that wasn't considered was that these plastics would start to break down. In fact every time a polyester or other synthetic material is washed away tiny ‘mirco fibres’ break away from the main polymer and are released into our waterways. These minute micro fibres are then eaten by our natural world, from the smallest plankton all the way up the food chain to the food we eat and the water we drink.

A study carried out by Patagonia found that on average, a synthetic fleece jacket can shed up to 250,000 fibres per wash. Unless systems are in place to capture these microfibres it will mean that these fibres end up in our oceans.

This is also true of the plastics that we find all around us, from car tyres to plastic food containers. It is hard to imagine but all the dust, soil, water and even air is contaminated with these tiny micro fibres, and we take these into our bodies without knowing. Micro plastics have been found in breast milk, in a baby’s placentas and in our blood stream, and in places as remote as the Antarctic and the waters around the Galapagos islands.

Polyester is a huge problem within the fashion industry, the ease and speed of production has only served to help fuel the speed and availability of fast fashion, the two are intertwined.

Key facts

It is said that scientists have discovered that at any one point a human being may have the equivalent of a credit card size amount of plastic in our bodies at any one point. This is clearly a huge problem.

Hey fashion report, Eileen Fisher Foundation X Pentatonic: Fashions waste crisis and how to solve it. Pg 25

Wardrobe Crisis with Clare Press: What's the story with recycled polyester? Ep 151

Cyndi Rhoades from Worn again Technologies explains all

Wardrobe Crisis with Clare Press: What's in my clothes? Ep 112

Fashion Revolution’s Carry Somers

Phys Org: Do you consume a credit card's worth of plastic every week?

Plastic Soup Foundation: a wonderful ‘Not for profit’ organisation based in the Netherlands looking at plastic and the negative effects that is has in our world

Changing Markets Foundation: Fossil Fashion

FURTHER RESOURCES

INDIGO

When you think of denim you think of blue, and the dye that creates this wonderful blue colour is called indigo. Dyes and textiles have historically played a major role in international trade and economics and one of the most vital dyes was the colour indigo. Once referred to as ‘Blue Gold’, it is among the oldest dyes and was considered a commodity.

Indigo was originally a natural dye made using plants produced from the Indigofera Tinctoria plant in India and China. At the same time a plant with similar characteristics called Woad was being used in Europe. The blue indigo from India was the most prized. This was because the Indigofera tinctoria plant, which yields a large amount of dye and produces a higher quality blue compared to indigo plants (Woad) indigenous to Europe. Throughout the Middle Ages, indigo dye from India was one of the most expensive and valuable imports to the continent.

Key facts

In India , indigo was closely associated with ‘’the capricious god Krishna’
Even though you may know Indigo as a rich blue colour, Indigo dye is first green and gradually turns blue when it meets air. Once the Indigo brew turns a bright jade green, artisans know it is ready for dyeing. The transformation is the result of the harmony between the air, temperature, humidity, and the plant itself. Each time, the colour is unique.

In 1896 just one year before the discovery of the industrial method for synthesising indigo, 1,683,328 hectares in India alone were given over to the cultivation of Indigofera plantations; 60 years later, in 1956, only 4,289 remained. In 1897, Germany imported annually 1,408,400kg of natural indigo; in 1904, it was exporting 8,730,000 kg of synthetic indigo.

6,000 YEARS AGO

Indigo was used con-currently in ancient China, India, Africa and South America. Recent studies suggest that humans in Latin America were dying cotton with indigo over 6,000 years ago (before the pyramids!)

1789

Indigo was so coveted that European countries established indigo plantations throughout the world to increase production, in India, South America, Haiti and Jamaica. By the time of the French Revolution, colonial powers entertained some 3,150 indigo slave plantations.

1850's

Blue jeans were developed with Indigo dye due to the way it reacts with denim cotton fabrics. Indigo binds only to external parts of cotton. When the cotton is washed and worn, a little bit of the cotton’s fibres get stripped away along with the dye. This meant that as they were washed and worn, they became softer to wear.

1865

German chemist, Adolf von Baeyer begun working on the synthesis of natural indigo. He succeeded in this by 1883 for mass production of synthetic indigo in 1897. Significantly cheaper to produce, synthetic indigo was more reliable with a longer lasting colour offering permanence and durability.

1897

German firm, BASF, created s synthetic blue colour to be used in mass production, a breakthrough in the dye industry. This achievement lead to a downfall of natural indigo dye within a decade.

TODAY

Only a handful of businesses in India, Japan and the USA cultivate natural indigo plants.